When Tom made his point about watching out for Homeland Security, etc., he might have had a point. Things are slowly ramping up here, with the Clinton Library set to open in less than a month. We, we being the employees of Acxiom and the building we occupy, are right across the interstate from the Library. As such, we are going to be subject to some security measures. Among other things, I have heard (unconfirmed) that there will be no going out onto the balconies, loitering in the parking garage, mumbling in odd fashion to one’s self, etc. I am guessing basketball on the top of the parking garage is going to be a firm ‘no’ as well.
Next to the Clinton Library will be a complex I am very interested seeing develop. The Heifer Foundation is based in Little Rock, and new headquarters are under construction. If you don’t know about this organization and what it does, please take a look. It is one of the few organizations that I am seriously considering supporting, contingent on me getting to a point where I am supporting myself and not various credit card companies.
Personally, this opening sentence from the “About Us” section of their web page would probably be enough to scare me off:
Having said that, to read further it does sound like they adopt a strategy of “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime” of whatever the hell that saying is. In other words, they seem to teach the people that need their help how to support themselves, which is a good thing.
But back to the god stuff. I’m so paranoid of organizations like this right now (largely because of the Bush Administration but for other reasons as well). I’m cynical because it seems like they probably want to convert all these people to Christianity or push their religious agendas on them just as much as they want to help them for benevolent unselfish reasons.
On a grander scale, if you read between the lines with a lot of the Bush initiatives to help fight AIDS in places like Africa, it quickly becomes clear that the right-wingers are for this kind of thing because they see it as a way to spread Christianity to places like Africa. They come out looking good and like they’re actually doing something that is kind to others and mike make sense until you consider the ulterior motive. Just my two cents, and I’ll be the first to admit I’m going over the edge about stuff like this these days, but I can only take so much of our current President and his agenda.
Well, I won’t deny or even knock the God factor to the Heifer foundation. If the HF folks are motivated by religous faith, if faith is the vehicle, I accept that. I am one of the first to say that I am very leery of religous foundations, hell, any foundation. Nothing is done without an agenda. Most foundations, and people for that matter, will obfuscate that agenda, if not flat out saying the exact opposite of what they mean.
I like HF because they are, to my knowledge, so sane, and what they do is just so freaking rational. They help people get stable, then have those people help the people around them.
In a funny aside to the “give a man a fish” adage, I occasionaly see somebody’s email sig has the Terry Pratchett quote “Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”
I am all for sanity and rational thought. If that organization uses those things, then knock yourself out. We need more sanity and rational thought in the world. I firmly believe that. That quote about the fire is funny as hell too.