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Letter Re: Show Caution When Dispensing Charity
Jim--
Some years ago, we enjoyed a power outage when we were living near Tacoma,
Washington. It occurred on Thanksgiving day, so everybody's turkeys were
slowly cooling in their ovens. Our next door neighbor, knowing we were
into preparedness, called over (land line phones were okay) asking to borrow
our
Coleman stove so they could heat up water for coffee. I sent one of my
girls over with the stove. After about 15 minutes, the neighbors called again
asking
for help in lighting the stove. It was an old stove and I was embarrassed
that it might have given up the ghost. When I got there, however, I found
them in their family room (housewife, pre-teen daughter and Mom and Dad)
all huddled around the stove. Several burnt matches were in and around
the stove box. To my surprise, the gas tank was still in[side] the
stove body. I realized
that had they managed to turn the red knob on, they could well have started
a dangerous fire.
Mind you, the housewife was a school teacher and her Dad a physician, so
they were not uneducated people.
My point: handing these folks, educated as they were, a surplus bucket of
wheat or beans would be worse than useless--you lose the food, but they don't
get
fed. Even if you gave them flour, honey, salt, oil, water and yeast, they
still would not know what to do with it.
In a disaster scenario, they probably wouldn't even have a can opener to
deal with any canned goods you might hand them.
You'd better either: (1) prepare for woebegone beggars who will need/expect
your continuing generosity/expertise, or; (2) plan to order needy folks to
get on their way.
Worst case scenario: they circle the block and show up back on your doorstep,
hungry children in the forefront. Now it's one thing to threaten, perhaps
even to have to kill a thief, but what will you do with the obviously desperate
(no food/water for 24 hours) neighbors?
Thinking about all this made me realize that perhaps one charitable solution
is a 6-pack or two of energy bars, plus a few liters of water as you send
them on their way.
But doggone it, then they're likely to pass the word to others who are needy
and you are back to numbers (1) or (2) above.
Sure looks like urbanites and suburbanites who want to and/or have made some
survival preparations need to also prepare a place away from home so they
can G.O.O.D. and not have to face these unhappy choices.
On a different note: Some years ago, I read an article in a Farm magazine
reporting that most large-acreage farmers didn't have their own gardens. The
article
was praising
the virtue
of having a garden and quoted a few farmer's wives waxing poetic about their
little plots. I couldn't believe it--farmers being encouraged to do a little
self-help farming!
So, you may escape to your retreat only to find neighbors stopping by for
a handout even there. Better start preaching self-reliance a little more
vigorously,
maybe an article in the local rag, free handouts on the local store bulletin
board regarding 72-hour kit contents, etc. Maybe throw in a little scare
about the economy and inflation. Good luck with that. - Bob B.
