Stardate 20011107.0638 (On Screen): In the wake of the September 11 bombing, Americans all over the country (and people all over the world) opened their wallets for the benefits of the victims of that terrible event. But aware of the potential for such largesse to be siphoned off by unscrupulous "charities", the majority have chosen the Red Cross to be the conduit by which their money would be funneled to those victims.
Except that the Red Cross itself is doing a lot of siphoning, too. It claims that it never intended for the majority of that money to go to the victims; it's already finding all sorts of other things to spend it on. Upwards of half a billion dollars was collected and less than a quarter of it has actually found its way to the victims and their families. Those who have applied for help have found a bureaucratic barrier a mile high.
A few years ago the United Way was seen to be the best and most trustworthy place to make charitable giving. Then there were scandals where it turned out that the top managers of that institution had been spending funds lavishly on themselves, and giving to United Way dropped precipitously. Americans are charitable people but don't like to be stolen from, and credibility is difficult to build but easily lost. The American Red Cross gets one chance to handle this right: that money was given by people not for the Red Cross to use as it saw fit, but to be used specifically for the benefit of the victims in NYC. If the Red Cross treats this as a windfall, and even if with the best of intentions routes much of that money into other worthy directions, then its ass is grass and it will be permanently soiled. It doesn't matter what else they think the money could be used for; they should use it for what the people who gave it thought it should be used for. The American Red Cross has spent a hundred years building its credibility; it can squander it in a week by being greedy and stupid. (discussion in progress)
