Society's Ill's

                     

When, in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve turned from being God centered to being self centered, it set the pattern for all the sins and problems of the world to this day (Romans 5:12). In Jeremiah 17:9, God said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can fathom it?" The sins in the heart of every person have produced the problems we face today. I do not take the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve story literally, but I firmly believe our self centered nature is the cause of society's problems.

Every generation ask the same question what has gone wrong with our society today, what has caused these problems, and what can be done to correct them?  Daily, we hear of school shootings, drug busts, rapes, robberies, people being threatened, murders, beatings, child abuse, sexual abuse, harassment, bullying, etc.  it is no wonder people questioning the ills of society.

Generation after generation we have been treating the symptoms and the effects rather than the causes. We have been putting a Band-Aid on the problems.  We look for more and more ways to protect ourselves from harm rather than really trying to solve the problem that is causing the harm.  We add police, metal-detectors, armed security in schools and we blame race, religion, politics, ethnicity, television, computer games, movies, etc. and never really address the core problems.

There was a time when a community was a family, not so today.  Many do not know their next door neighbor even when living in a condo or apartment complex. There was a time when you watched out for me and my family and I watched out for you and your family.  The schools had the right to discipline the children in school.  No one spent 16 hours a day worrying about ‘political correctness’.  If I saw your child misbehaving I would correct them or take them to you.  Today our institutions are more corrupt than ever, therefore, where do we learn morality.  It is not being taught in a lot of homes because homes today are mostly absentee parents. The home today is where one eats and sleeps, then each go their own way.  Each generation has become more and more a generation concerned about me rather than us.

We've all heard the complaints. Today's children are more disrespectful, undisciplined, and have a greater sense of entitlement than ever before. A lot of parents today can’t or won’t set limits for their children. Instead of disciplining them, they coddle and dote and bend over backward to shield them from frustration and protect their self-esteem.  In sport competition’s everyone gets a trophy so no one feels left out. The result is that we’re raising a generation of undisciplined narcissists (SELF-CENTERED CHILDREN) who expect everything to go their way, and it won’t be pretty -- for them or for our society -- when their sense of entitlement finally crashes into the unforgiving real world.  Is this really the children’s fault?

Children especially teenagers take a bad rap today! They are NOT all bad! We cannot categorize them all in one bunch. That's not fair, nor right. Of course teens today in general have problems. They always have. Today's seem to be more complex and severe than ever. As a result, many are troubled by things we adults never had to relate to. The solution doesn't seem easy to come by. Understanding the world they grow up in will help us to see where they are coming from.

Bill O’Reilly spends time nearly daily on the Factor telling us that lack of strict parenting and two parents in the home is destroying our children.  Now we find out that Bill O’Reilly and FOX have been settling claims for his sexual harassment cases for years in order to keep them quite and not upset ad revenue and Bill O’Reilly is divorced and there are not two parents in his children’s home. Bill O’Reilly may be somewhat right, but it shows that many like him or not practicing what they preach and society in general is not really taking the problem as serious as we should.  Maybe Mr. O'Reilly thinks there are two sets of rules for raising children one for rich and one for others.

Mr. O’Reilly, let us all start setting better examples for societies children.  That will do more good than condemning – you pompous hypocrite. EVERYONE IS A PRODUCT OF THEIR INFLUENCES including teens. An old proverb says, "You will be the person you are today, a year from now, except for the people you meet and the books you read." Mr. O’Reilly even you influence our children, because you influence many adults and they influence children.

We will never address society’s problems until we address the problems of our youth for they are the next leaders and voters.  We will never address youth problems until we address America’s problems – poverty, national pride, drug/alcohol abuse, violence, materialism, education disparity, shifting economy, etc.  The solution is complex and involves many issues not just parenting.

Faith in leadership, the foundation for a strong country and a more moral society has been destroyed. Young people have not had the privilege of having heroes. Military men and women are depicted as murderers who can't be trusted. Some sports stars are known to be alcoholics, cocaine users and sexual predators. Some religious leaders are involved in sex scandals and  financial scandals. Politicians are best known for their ability to tell lies.  These are facts!  Who can teens have for heroes today? How about Motley Crue, Prince, LL Cool J. Kardashian’s, etc.?

Many parents are working long hours to have more material things and when they are home they are fixing up the yard, partying, boating, camping, watching TV all the Important things without the teenagers?   Then we hear parents of troubled teens say, "I don't understand it, I gave him or her everything he or she ever wanted!" That is right you did everything but, YOURSELF!

Humanism is the greatest religion in the world today. Its churches are in session Monday through Sunday each week. Humanism in a nutshell is the "me, myself and I" religion. No God, no authority to submit to, just me, myself and I. 

How can we expect anything more of our society today?  It will be the downfall of America unless we stop talking and complaining and start doing something.  I do not look forward to being the next Spain, Greece, Rome, France, England and go from leader to follower.  

Uncle Bill O'Reilly is wrong!

Barney and Uncle Bill were talking on Fox about Hispanics waving the Mexican flag in California at a political protest. Uncle Bill said that it is now acceptable and is no longer offensive to most Americans.  That may be true in the U.S.A., but not the rest of the world. I live in the Philippines if I put a U.S. flag out on my balcony the neighbors would raise all kind of H???.  In fact it would be against the law in the Philippines and I would be deported if I participated in a political rally or waved an American flag. A lot of Americans and a lot of our politicians no longer have U.S. pride. Yet, we allowed Reid to use Manny the famous Filipino boxer to influence the election in Nevada and no American politician or American media or American citizen said a word that I know about.

It appears to me we just have lost all our patriotism, religious values and morals and we are about to lose our country to foreigners. I may not like a lot of things in the Philippines, but I adapt and that is what minorities should do when moving to the U.S.

+++ At the Republican Convention a middle age woman was arrested for trying to burn the U.S. Flag so some people must still care Uncle Bill! Her husband was burned in the incident KARMA!

Wounded Warrior Project - SCAM OR NOT?

News reported this week by CBS News and the New York Times claims the Wounded Warrior Project is spending large amounts of money on advertising, lavish parties, and executive salaries, but it is not spending much money to help veterans.

The scandal was supposedly uncovered by an investigation conducted by Charity Navigator, the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. Charity Navigator gathers its information from the Federal Tax Reports filed by the charities. According to Charity Navigator, the Wounded Warrior Project spends less than 60 percent of its total expenses on the programs and services it delivers to veterans.  I think it is important to note that Charity Navigator does not INVESTIGATE any charity organization. It only makes reports from the tax forms that the charity organizations submit to the Federal Government.

Thomas Mangan of the Rochester Independent Examiner claims Donald Trump skipped the last Republican Debate on Fox to attend a Wounded Warrior fund raising project. That is not true so it makes me question if the reports on the Wounded Warrior project are all true. Wounded Warrior did not receive any funds from the Trump veteran fund raisers. He claimed it was a “Wounded Warrior Fund Raising Project” that is not true. It was a Donald Trump veteran’s fund raiser. He claims Trump knew about the scandal and went ahead and supported the Wounded Warrior fund raiser, again untrue. Trump refused to share the money with Wounded Warrior because of the scandal. Trump stated before and after the fund raiser he would not be donating any funds to Wounded Warrior until the scandal was cleared up.

Army Staff Sgt. Erick Millette worked with the Wounded Warrior Project for two years before he quit because of his disillusionment with the way the Wounded Warrior Project spends the money that people donated to the charity. Millette told CBS News, “Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn’t see is how they spend their money.” Millette said that the Wounded Warrior Project is little more than a scam to bring in money to spend on extravagant and luxurious parties, as well as other non-veteran-related expenses such as the salaries for the charities employees” – (organizations need employees and employees need to be paid) . Millette told CBS, “Donors don’t want you to have a $2,500 bar tab. Donors don’t want you to fly every staff member once a year to some five-star resort and whoop it up and call it team building.” If what Millette says is true he is correct donors, including me, do not want donated funds wasted. But, Millette would not be the first disgruntled employee that exaggerated truths or lied about a previous employee.

Wounded Warrior was criticized for spending money to sue other charity organizations for using their name in fund raisers and advertising. I cannot fault them for that. If I was on the board of any charity organization I would want to protect the name of the charity I was involved with. I would not want the public donating money to another charity thinking they were donating to the organization I represented. Dishonest charities often play off the names of well-known organizations in order to confuse donors.

Kids Wish Network, Children's Wish Foundation International and Wishing Well Foundation all of the names sound like the original, Make-A-Wish Foundation, which does not hire professional telemarketers. Make-a-Wish officials say they spend many, many hour’s yearly fielding complaints from people who were solicited by sound-alike charities.

If Wounded Warrior has gone bad since 2009 they unfortunately would not be the first. CBS and Times claim Wounded Warrior only spent 60% of the funds collected on direct aid. Take a look at other charities that most of us at some time or another have contributed to and there are many more worse than these:

Kids Wish Network – collected $137.9 - spent on direct aid $115.9 million - 2.5%

Cancer Fund of America - $86.8 million - $75.4 million - 1.0%

Children's Wish Foundation International - $92.7 million - $61.2 million - 10.6%

Firefighters Charitable Foundation - $62.8 million - $53.8 million - 7.4%

Intl. Union of Police Association, AFL-CIO - $66.6 million - $50.4 million - 0.5%

Breast Cancer Relief Foundation - $63.9 million - $44.8 million - 2.2%

American Association of State Troopers - $48.1 million - $38.6 million - 8.9%

National Veterans Service Fund - $70.2 million - $36.9 million - 7.8%

Children's Cancer Fund of America - $43.7 million - $34.4 million - 4.6%

Committee for Missing Children - $26.6 million - $23.5 million - 0.8%

Association for Firefighters and Paramedics - $24.0 million - $21.4 million - 3.1%  

United States Deputy Sheriffs' Association - $25.6 million - $17.9 million - 0.8%   

National Cancer Coalition - $42.1 million - $16.4 million - 1.3%

American Foundation For Disabled Children - $15.8 million - $13.4 million - 0.6%

Heart Support of America -$31.4 million - $12.9 million - 3.1%

Police Protective Fund - $37.7 million - $12.2 million - 0.7%

 Veterans Assistance Foundation - $12.4 million - $11.1 million - 10.4%

Children's Charity Fund - $14.0 million - $10.3 million - 2.4%

The Veterans Fund - $12.6 million - $10.2 million - 2.5%

Wishing Well Foundation USA - $12.6 million - $10.1 million - 4.3%

Children's Leukemia Research Association - $9.8 million - $6.8 million - 11.1%

The 50 worst charities in America devote less than 4 percent of donations raised to direct cash aid. Some charities give even less. Over a decade, one diabetes charity raised nearly $14 million and gave about $10,000 to patients. Six spent nothing at all on direct cash aid. Several watchdog organizations say charities should spend no more than 35 percent of the money they raise on fundraising expenses, but that amount does not include salaries paid to employees. If they are correct I guess we have to decide is 5% for WWP salaries acceptable.

It does not make sense to me that a charity with major corporate sponsors such as U-Haul, Bank of America, Raytheon, NFL, Heinz and many others would allow the WWP to use their name and fund their events if they were in fact a scam. It is even more puzzling to me that Bill O’Reilly of FOX would not know if WWP was a fraud. Bill O’Reilly is a big supporter of WWP and generally appears to be very careful to protect his personal name.

The Better Business Bureau rates WWP as meeting their standards and has only had 3 complaints in the past 36 months and all three complaints have been answered by WWP in a manner that satisfied The Better Business Bureau. WWP meets all 20 BBB standards for charity accountability.

Brian Kolfage - A Wounded Warrior - an Air Force veteran and a triple amputee who was wounded in Iraq said he found it appalling to read the horrible things that the Wounded Warrior Project is being accused of and that he did not believe the accusations.

Another thing that concerns me is that a vast majority of the accusation against WWP comes from people who refuse to speak on the record and claim they are afraid of the power that Wounded Warrior Project has. This sounds a bit melodramatic to me.

One disgruntle veteran who would not give his name said, “Everything they do is a dog-and-pony show, and I haven’t talked to one (NOT ONE has been help by WWP) of my fellow veterans that were injured… actually getting any help from the Wounded Warrior Project. I’m not just talking about financial assistance; I'm talking about help, period”.  

The disgruntle veteran claimed all he got from WWP was a backpack maybe he did not know The Wounded Warrior Project was founded in 2002 by John Melia and his friends and family. Melia himself was severely wounded while serving in Somalia in 1992. Until March of 2005, WWP operated as a part of the United Spinal Association and is referred to as "United Spinal Associations Wounded Warrior Project."

Its first project was delivering backpacks containing personal supplies to the bedside of wounded warriors. The backpacks include "essential care and comfort items such as clothing, toiletries, calling card and playing cards, etc. all designed to make their hospital stay more comfortable." Melia remembered when he first arrived at the hospital after his injuries he arrived with none of these types of items. WWP started with just six friends packing backpacks to provide items to wounded services warriors at Walter Reed Medical Center and continues the practice to stay in touch with their roots. I would also think that most of the veterans in the hospital appreciated the backpacks and I also think these backpacks and items cost WWP money.

 I know some would object to WWP’s 2014 IRS report which stated $473,015 or   0.19% (less than 1%) of donations was paid to Steven Nardizzi Executive Director. I do not. I have worked in non-profit organizations and I know the importance of having someone at the top that is an expert in fund raising and managing non-profit organizations.  There is a fundamental misunderstanding in the public arena about what it really costs to run an effective nonprofit.

Charity Navigator one of the most respected watchdogs of non-profit organizations gave them the most 4 stars for “Accountability and Transparency”.  I stated earlier that 35% spent on fund raisings was acceptable and WWP spent 34% in 2014 on fundraising.  Charity Navigator gave it three out of four stars overall.

A 2013 independent investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting reported that the charity spent 58 percent of donations directly on veterans’ programs. That year, the figure WWP self-reported was 73 percent. Tampa Bay Times admitted they did not count literature handed out to veterans as direct aid and WWP did. I would consider literature that advises veterans of various aid programs that is available to them, how to write a resume, information on medicines and therapy is charity.

A lot of the veterans that complained are now affiliated with other veteran charity organizations. How much of their criticism is merely jealousy of WWP success and merely fear that WWP was eating up their donor dollars. Believe me when I say there is tremendous jealousy and competition among charity organizations – I know after 46 years in the industry.

At this time I do not believe The Wounded Warrior Project is a scam, nor an ill-meaning charity. Even its fiercest detractors admit that WWP has the right motives, even if they believe WWP can be a lot more effective. We can all do better!  I admit WWP Wounded Warrior Project has room for improvement.

I will not stop supporting WWP at this time. I will wait until it is proven to me that it is not a worthwhile organization. If and when it is proven I will chalk it up to another attempt at doing good gone bad – GREED!