I was infuriated beyond reason when the Susan G. Komen Foundation decided to yank funding from Planned Parenthood. I threw out some pretty heavy twitter posts demanding the resignation of the Vice President of Komen who was a former conservative Republican elected official in Georgia, I watched the twitter attacks and goaded them on, and I was relieved when they reversed their decision.
Here's the problem I see that is not getting enough coverage. Conservatives have been saying for decades that welfare programs and other programs that help the poor by using tax money are beyond the scope of our government because the non-profit charities and churches should be sufficient to cover the need. They know they are lying, but they keep saying it.
At the same time, they are putting people into positions of power within those very non-profits that are focused on helping people, and then coming out with statements like this:
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Right and fair? No. Heck no. Because what this says is that anyone in Congress can put together the paperwork to begin a "criminal" investigation against a group helping the poor or with a politically motivated bend, and they can again pull the plug on donations.
It's not the mission of non-profit groups to "fulfill a fiduciary duty to their donors". That's insane. That's corporate speak for not giving a zing about their communities and the people they are supposed to be serving.
It's not time to pull back on the social media coverage on Komen and the larger problem of conservatives taking over our entire society with their "I don't give a ding about those people over there" ideas. It's time to double down. And it's time to kick the entire Conservative Movement back across the ocean, which we did originally in 1776.
2 comments:
Chad,
You are getting way ahead of yourself. This foundation has done a lot of good and will continue to do so. Getting involved in pulling funding first place was a mistake. Taking a step back from this specific context, any non-profit needs to justify to their donors that money provided is put to good use. No margin, no mission. To say that this non-profit or any other does not care about the people they are trying to serve is crazy.
When a non-profit brings on leadership with the attitude that people should take care of themselves or that other non-profits actions should be based on their own morality, they can justify pulling back on donations. Of course they have done a lot of good. But it doesn't justify what they are doing now.
My rant is less about a single charity and more about the need to point out the lies that come out of the core of the conservative ideology and how it is destroying this country. You can disagree with me if you wish.
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