Staten Island Borough President: Don’t Give Money to the Red Cross
Hey, you know who should be on the front lines fighting and helping the people? The people!
I know it’s easy to Monday morning quarterback something like this, but this hurricane didn’t drop down on them without warning. See this? Hundred and fifty bucks. It will hold a weeks worth of food, water filter, flashlights, batteries, clothes, toiletries, camp stove and fuel, radio, medical supplies and every other item a person would need to keep them going for about a week…and still have some room left to spare. (Or, you might wanna get two.) Waterproof, airtight, rugged, durable and all but hurricane-proof. You don’t even have to screw with it….just load it up, rotate the contents once a year, and tuck it away somewhere you can get to it so it’s there when you need it. When the winds and rain stop and you’re standing in what used to be your house you can unpack it and be in a position to be a ‘self-rescuer’…which is nanny-state talk for ‘someone who can take care of themselves’. And once you can take care of yourself you’re in a much better position to take care of others.
Imagine five or six guys, or two or three families, who were all on the same wavelength. Each one having a box like that for each member of the group or family. Now you have a team of people who aren’t worried abut how they’re going to eat, wash their hair, or take a crap. While everyone else is whining about ‘wheres the .gov?’ they can actually, you know, get stuff done….dig out their rigs, set up a radio network, help their neighbors, whatever.
I should go surf the LDS websites and see how the Mormons are faring out there. I don’t know if the heavy-urban ones are as prepared and organized as our western-rural ones but if they are, boy, there’s a crowd who you aren’t going to see on the ‘victim’ side of a Red Cross food line.
I recall saying that Katrina was going to be the benchmark for modern American disaster planning and armchair-quarterbacking for the next decade or so. I’m waiting for the comparisons to begin. I know its only a matter of time before the usual suspects start saying that because of the ‘flavor’ of NYC, they got a better response than ‘chocolate’ New Orleans.
No the urban ones tend to only have a three month supply.
I clicked the article link, and it took me a second to realize that the site wasn’t called “potlicker.com”.
I agree: NYC should have been prepared for this. Of all cities in the US! It is clear that NYC has done a piss poor job of getting its population emergency ready and they had 11 years to do it. For example, in the article, they’re talking about people not knowing where their family is…why not? Having an emergency plan and an emergency contact plan is step one at ready.gov and it costs zero dollars to make one and be ready. Even if you can’t communicate with each other because cell towers are down or whatever, every family member should have a pretty good idea where the others probably went.
Just basic stuff like that shows a severe lack of planning and preparation. For all the taxpayer money that has gone into FEMA, ready.gov and all the rest, and given the history of NYC emergencies, such negligence is unacceptable. The people shouldn’t be complaining about food and water, they should be standing in the streets with shovels and rakes running their politicians out of office for letting them down.
Very good points made sir, the quoted individual sounds like that person shown at New Orleans Super Dome saying ‘LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO US!’ Plenty of warning on this hurricane, stocking up should have been a given. I guess some folks just need to depend on others to watch over them.
I’m betting the Mormons there are far better prepared in taking care of their families, yet more evidence for the masses that Uncle Sugar cannot be depended on to solve your problems – EVERYBODY NEEDS A BACKUP PLAN!
“Uncle Sugar cannot be depended on to solve your problems ”
Uncle Sugar constantly tells people that they’re going to be on their own for at least the first 72 hours.
The Red Cross rant fits with what Bella Medical Ministries discovered in Haiti after the quake. I remember hearing that the Red Cross collected over $130 million and Bella couldn’t find any evidence beyond an unattended tent of it on the ground. Brandon (the head guy) talked about this during an interview on The Survival Podcast.
http://bellaministries.com/
Now that I think of it, I remember hearing talk similar to this from someone who was a cop during the rioting back in the ’60′s in Detroit. If I’m remembering it right RC wanted to charge for the coffee etc (that I think sucked too) that was delivered what passed for the front lines. In comparison the Salvation Army was just giving stuff away.
Steelheart
This one got under your skin. I can tell because you didn’t proofread your post which are normally immaculate.
You need fur therapy. Go play with Nuke.
My posts are a lot of things, but immaculate certainly isn’t one of them.
If one relies on the overly optimistic estimates of help arriving 72 hours after a disaster these folks are still in the “on your own” time frame. Add in the issue of organizing logistics and not putting relief supplies in the way of danger and the issue of help not being there Monday night as the storm was still going through falls under the category of “DUH!”
I had a friend lose everything but what was in her bug out bag during Katrina and the same happened to a friend in this storm. In both cases self-rescue is the order of the day instead of waiting around for .gov.
+1!
A few points, scatter-gun fashion:
1) The Red Cross has lived off the deeds of Clara Barton for 150 years, and for at least the last 30, the Help doesn’t equal the Hype.
2) ARC is not the .gov. They are in fact a non-governmental agency (NGO), with a Congressional imprimatur to do certain things like disaster relief. The government contributes exactly $0 towards this.
3) The Red Cross collects bushels of money. They also assign a self-decided amount of aid they will dedicate to a given disaster. E.g. Hurricane Sandy may be a $100M response. Meaning anything contributed over that amount goes to the ARC General Fund. Sometimes this is shitty fraud, as when they pimp contributions for a disaster knowning full well they made their required amount, and yet still show the WTC,e.g., or some half-naked kid in New Orleans in order to jerk your heart strings and loosen your wallets.
And sometimes it’s simple commonsense, because far more is given to relieve the suffering of homeless millionaires in Malibu after a brushfire than ARC will ever need to disburse; so they use that surplus the next time 10 families’ apt. burns down in South Oakland, and no one donates jack squat, but 10 moms with kids need a motel for a few days, and a set of clothes, until the family gets an insurance check.
4) The Red Cross is run by staff, poorly paid by a non-profit, and hence they’re frequently the kind of people who couldn’t get a job in the private sector because they simply don’t measure up.
5) The Red Cross is driven by volunteers, completely unpaid, overwhelmingly vastly more competent that paid staff, because they’re exactly the types of people who can hold down a job, raise a family, and still find time to volunteer when TSHTF. The volunteers, for the most part, come from *within* the communities they serve.
Observations:
If Borough Commandant Bossypants says the Red Cross isn’t there, he may be right. So maybe next time, instead of writing a check, Bossypants might think about working with them to RECRUITSOMEFLIPPINVOLUNTEERS, instead of waiting 2 days after a major disaster to note that there aren’t any.
The Red Cross runs shelters after a disaster. They depend on the United Way and private contributions for funds.
The Salvation Army runs shelters 24/7/365 in Godknows how many countries. They depend on God and Christians for support.
No points for guessing who runs a better shelter, nor for guessing how years and major disasters I worked as a Red Cross volunteer.
-Aesop
I don’t give to the Red Cross and the major reason is there is no mandated accounting of where there funds go. Their section managers earn six figure incomes and many of them skim the donations…many have been caught. Many more not. During both 911 and Katrina enought money was estimated to have been collected to have given each victim a minimum 10K and still have millions left over. I recall during 911 that a Red Cross spokesperson stated they had collected so much money that they had enough for future disasters. So give to the Red Cross at your own risk…or just burn the money. As to the over all moral of the story, being prepared even a little can save your life and prevent you from being a burden to first responders. If you have enough to help others so much the better. Helping and sharing during these types of short term disasters is the right thing to do. It will become harder, most likely impossible to help others and risk your families health and safety in a long term disaster such as a 10.0 West Coast Earthquake, major solar flare and so on. That will be when your neighbor becomes your enemy and harsh decissions must be made. True preppers, people that plan ahead never advertise their “hobby”. And they NEVER appear on television. Low key and in the shadows equals survival.
On the other hand, I’ve heard only good things about the Salvation Army.
The Red Cross spends a lot of their millions on teaching people what they need to have in case of a disaster. Maybe the Staten Island Borough President should have shown up for one of The Red Cross’s classes on 72 hour kits.
You can tell a Democrat is in the White House, cause otherwise it would be their fault. But, can’t make the great O look bad, so I guess Red Cross it is.
You can’t rely on the RC, and you can’t rely on the .gov. You can only rely on yourself.
Helping others is great. Maybe when those folks in staten island gave generously to the red cross, they should have given a little less (just a little) and bought a few extra canned goods and such.
Just a thought
It starts at home, man.
How ironic and humorous…
Copied this from the Salt Lake City newspaper:
“The Red Cross is prepared to call on the underlying LDS infrastructure where needed…the (LDS) Church has created a strong culture of preparedness among its members that I believe can be a model for others throughout the country,” wrote Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, in an summer op-ed for the Deseret News.
Here is one LDS lady’s comment about what they are doing in the aftermath of Sandy. She has a link towards the bottom to another site.
http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/2012/11/mormon-missionaries-lend-helping-hand.html
Well, since she wasn’t buttering up “community organizers”, but rather the LDS, I think it’s safe to say that’s one less vote for Barry O.
-Aesop
You will rarely hear a comparison made to Katrina, at least not in any deep fashion while the current president still holds office. Those who report the news “for him” or in a light favorable to him, would never want to position him anywhere near former prez Bush. And even if they do, it will only be from a position of gloating.
at least President Bush had the sense to stay out of the way and not go in just for the photo op. Barry hugged some folks while the real work of digging out gets held up to maintain security. He deservses security don’ t get me wrong but that is why he should stay away.
And the promises of cutting red tape (lol) lets see how statisfied they are come election morning and things are still just as bad as today. I think they’ll be pissed
Picked this off lds.org as a sample:
“The Church began preparing for the hurricane long before Sandy reached the U.S. East Coast. Church representatives have been in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross, and other relief agencies to coordinate response efforts. Forty-two member volunteers were supporting Red Cross shelter operations in New Jersey and neighboring areas.
A Church statement noted: “The Church stands ready to assist affected communities. Emergency response resources have been pre-positioned in bishops’ storehouses in the area. These resources include items such as food, water, blankets, hygiene supplies, tarps, cleaning supplies, chain saws, and shovels.”
New Jersey
Power was out throughout the stake, so many people were making do with generators. He said in addition to the power outage, there is no gasoline. The stations that had gas still had no power, and the stations with power had no gas. However, he said many of the members filled up on gas before the storm. ”
“The Jones family has a generator and has opened their house to the new families and young couples with children who did not have such a luxury. At any given time there were anywhere from 2 to 20 people at his home, showering, charging appliances, or getting some rest. Families also flocked to his home to put their food in one of the Jones family’s three freezers, each having their food labeled so they could tell what food belonged to what family. “
On the subject of those rifle plates. I ordered mine about 10 days ago and as of this morning the order is still “processing”. About Monday I will inquire about this.
Cool. Lemme know, man.
On the plates they say 4 to 5 weeks to process. Which is what mine took.
Good to know. Thanks for the heads-up. I’m just impatient…I’m spoiled by Amazon getting stuff to me five minutes before I even order it.
There are so many canned foods that one can stock up on for emergencies, Tuna, Spam,Corn, etc, etc. There really is no reason why people don’t do it. I never have been in a food shortage crisis, but I’ll bet those would taste pretty good to people who didn’t have any.
I happily give to the Salvation Army. I don’t ever intend to give to the Red Cross.
My folks still live in MO. After the tornado in Springfield, my dad, who at 81 still owned a bar, asked his regulars to round up any unsued sleeping bags, tents, lights. He then called the RC and told them he had lots of new and almost new gear that the homeless in Springfield could have. They flat out told him they didn’t want it, only MONEY. Furious, he had grandson P. load it up, along with a ginormous grill, lots of propane and 600 lbs of beef and the necessary plates and utensils. P and some buddies drove it all down, set up the grill and began cooking. People showed up, ate like wolves and were thoroughly grateful to be given a warm bags and a tent for their family. Nothing was left over and from the report they gave, no one seems to be “on the take”, all were needy. You can’t eat money and the RC wasn’t exactly turning $ into food fast enough.
P.’s professional grade stainless steel grill is now a beautiful blue with red and gold highlights from the use it got that day. He’s a very young man, who states this is his best award ever.
More than one vet has told me that the RC will get you home if there is an emergency, but it’s a loan, not a gift. I wish more people knew this.
Of course, I don’t have any sympathy for those still waiting for unclesugardaddy to come to their rescue after a well publicized hurricane bore down on them. Even the poorest of the poor have TV in this country, paid for by unclesugardaddy’s servants, the taxpayers.