I'm wondering why there is not a "direct donation" to the government earmarked for this disaster. At this point, it is the military (National Guard and Active Duty) who have the logistical ability and know how to assist. Maybe, they need to put a box on our tax forms that state you can give $$ earmarked for disasters only. All of the agencies do a good job but I'd just rather give the $$ to the government to help with the expenses. Nothing tied to FEMA, nothing that can be appropriated in another way...just like emergency savings.

I remember all the millions sent for Katrina and where a lot of it went, facelifts the best handbags etc. No don't ask me for money if you are hungry I will feed you but no cash.

I would offer help, but I'm not part of a union....

Full disclosure: Donations to the Red Cross go into their general fund and are not set aside for Sandy relief efforts. Don't know if that extends to administrative and/or operating costs, etc. If you want your donation to go to Sandy relief, specifically, I guess you need to pick and choose amongst individual funds?

Still don't understand what the Romney/Ryan campaign is grousing about with FEMA. Sure looks like local efforts are being directed "locally" ~ right down to Staten Island borough's president. And, the Red Cross might be a registered non-profit business, but it definitely qualifies as a private sector (multi-national?) business/enterprise? The American Red Cross is definitely NOT a government agency. A "for profit" business model would just seem wrong relative to disaster relief?

One thing is for certain!! The Humane Society of the United States WILL NOT use your donations as intended!! Give to LOCAL shelters in the Sandy-affected areas to actually HELP pets. Hopefully, since NJ's Governor Christie stipulated that pet owners should take their pets when they evacuated, and told his constituents that their pets would be housed safely, there won't be as many in need as there was in Katrina, where the H$U$ PROVED BEYOND A DOUBT that they can't be trusted to use donations for pet care as intended!

Sandy has brought it really bad,
People around us are all so sad,
But it is the strength inside that keeps us going,
And stand together is what we’ll be doing,
People around the world should all spend,
It’s on us they do depend,
Shades of pain and sorrow,
We lend our hand to help for tomorrow.
God bless all in the people in the U.S.A ,
We are with you all the Way!

With kind Regards

Wim Voos from Germany

Please donate to any of these organizations EXCEPT the RED CROSS. They will suck up your money and give you very little in return. You might try Goodwill or the Salvation Army, or your local charity that is "really " out to help Sandy victims...but not the RC!!!

FYI: Not that I mind but when I text 90999 through my cell phone the amount donated and added to my ATT account was $25.00, not $10.00.

A really great way to raise millions for the New York area and to prove, yet again, your resilience would be to hold a marathon or something.

Oh wait. The Mayor, pressured by the people and the press, decided not to bring in those millions of dollars.

I suppose, running my chainsaw to help clear debris for $10 per hour is ripping you off because I'm not in a union and not licensed in new york...give me a break...so its better to hire some licensed contractor with his illegal mexicans to do it for you at $50 hour is better....color me funny but I don't think so....ahhhh, the northeast...don't miss it a bit.

Thank you, JenniferT5606.

It's all I have. My precious stuff that I have not even seen for years now. It meant, means, a whole lot to me. Why do people today always insist on the new? I would be grateful.

I'm overwhelmed by the rush of aid from other countries, not! Its true folks, we have no friends in this world. So why do we still have foreign aid, keep our money at home, for our people.

Sam 79003

I feel sorry for you....I will put you in my prayers

Sam 79003

Sam, I feel sorry for you....I will put you in my prayers

ht tp:// socialistw orker.org /2005/10/21/truth-about-red-cro

please donate elsewhere these people are evil, not the volunteers working for them. have the red cross contract garbage containers to throw and pick up garbage residents are doing the cleanup now but have no containers .

/2005/10/21/truth-about-red-cross

h /20 05/10/21/truth-about-red-cross

FOR MANY people, the American Red Cross is the very embodiment of lifesaving. Its bold red emblem is imprinted on the sides of vehicles that appear at natural disasters, storms or fires, to take care of the survivors. Millions of Americans donate blood or hard-earned pay to the organization each year, or during special appeals like after the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

But as JOE ALLEN reveals, the real story of the Red Cross isn't nearly as noble and humanitarian as the image.

October 21, 2005 | Issue 562

IN RECENT years, the image of the Red Cross has been tarnished. The worst scandal came after the September 11 attacks, when it was revealed that a large portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the organization went not to survivors or family members of those killed, but to other Red Cross operations, in what was described by chapters across the country as a "bait-and-switch" operation.

Recently, long-simmering concerns about the Red Cross' disaster relief operations were expressed by Richard Walden, of the humanitarian group Operation USA, in the Los Angeles Times--prompting a vitriolic response by the Red Cross.

But these recent scandals are nothing new for the Red Cross. In fact, the whole history of the organization is one gigantic scandal--stretching from its racist policies toward African Americans to its corporate mentality toward human beings.

It is a tribute to the feebleness of the U.S. media--and the Red Cross' powerful Republican allies--that an institution with such a dubious history continues as the symbol of "humanitarian leadership," when it should have been replaced by a far more effective agency decades ago.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE AMERICAN Red Cross was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, who became famous during the Civil War for organizing the distribution of food and medical supplies to Union Army soldiers.

The Red Cross is specifically mandated, according to its Congressional charter adopted in 1905, to "carry out a system of national and international relief in time of peace, and apply that system in mitigating the suffering caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry out measures preventing those calamities." The organization was also to carry out its work in accordance with the Geneva Conventions concerning the treatment of prisoners of war. Later, the Red Cross would also be entrusted with control of a large part of the nation's blood supply.

But who got relief after disasters has always been affected by the racism that has been part of the Red Cross' long history.

For example, during the Great 1927 Flood that destroyed large parts of the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana, Black farm laborers and sharecroppers without a doubt suffered the most. As John Barry documents in his epic history of the flood, Rising Tide, delta plantation owners refused to evacuate them out of the region for fear--rightly--that most wouldn't return to their miserable, slave-like conditions.

The Red Cross came in to provide temporary housing and food aid. What African Americans of the Delta got was prison-like camps where they were routinely beaten by white, racist National Guardsmen. Food distributed by the Red Cross was given to whites first, and if anything was left, it went to Black survivors.

On the eve of the Second World War, the Red Cross stockpiled large amounts of blood because of techniques developed by the brilliant African American scientist Dr. Charles Drew. Drew himself became director of the Red Cross's Blood Bank in 1941, but resigned his position after the War Department ordered that the blood of Black and white donors be segregated.

Drew called the order "a stupid blunder," but the Red Cross complied and imposed Jim Crow in the blood supply. The Red Cross even initially refused to accept the donation of blood by African Americans at the beginning of the war effort--though it was willing to accept cash donations from them. Throughout the war, the NAACP investigated complaints by Black servicemen of racist treatment by Red Cross.

The Red Cross desegregated the blood supply after the Second World War nationally, but it allowed its Southern chapters to continue segregating blood through the 1960s.

People who think of the Red Cross as a "private charity" would be shocked to discover its actual legal status.

Congress incorporated the Red Cross to act under "government supervision." Eight of the 50 members of its board of governors are appointed by the president of the United States, who also serves as honorary chairperson. Currently, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security are members of the board of governors.

This unique, quasi-governmental status allows the Red Cross to purchase supplies from the military and use government facilities--military personnel can actually be assigned to duty with the Red Cross. Last year, the organization received $60 million in grants from federal and state governments. However, as one federal court noted, "A perception that the organization is independent and neutral is equally vital."

The leading administrators and officials of the Red Cross are almost always drawn from the corporate boardroom or the military high command. Among the past chairs and presidents of the Red Cross are seven former generals or admirals and one ex-president.

The current president Marty Evans is a retired rear admiral and a director of the investment firm Lehman Brothers Holdings. Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, the chair of the Red Cross, is also CEO of Pace Communications, whose clients include United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and AT&T--a group of companies known for their vicious treatment of workers.

The Red Cross has become particularly tied up with the Republican Party in recent decades. Both McElveen-Hunter and Evans are Bush appointees--for her part, McElveen-Hunter has donated over $130,000 to the Republican Party since 2000.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THOUGH IT is technically a nonprofit, the Red Cross is run more like profit-hungry corporation than what most people think a "charity" would act like. The most deadly example of this was the Red Cross' criminally negligent response to the early stages of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

The Red Cross has been for many decades, and remains today, the largest blood bank in the country. In 1982 and especially 1983, when it would have possible to contain the outbreak--or at least stop the spread of the disease through infusions of infected blood--major blood banks, led by the Red Cross, opposed national testing of blood for HIV.

The Red Cross' opposition was based on the financial cost. As investigative journalist Judith Reitman wrote in her book Bad Blood: "It appeared it would be cheaper to pay off infected blood recipients, should they pursue legal action, than to up the Red Cross blood supply."

Earlier this year, the Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty to distributing contaminated blood supplies that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s. This scandal is a large part of why the Canadian Red Cross was removed from running the country's blood supply in the late 1990s--but not the American Red Cross.

Enron-style bookkeeping, deceptive advertising and outright theft of funds have also been a big part of the Red Cross' recent history.

For years, the organization has been criticized for raising money for one disaster, and then withholding a large chunk of it for other operations and "fundraising." For example, the Red Cross raised around $50 million for the victims of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake in San Francisco, but it's estimated that only $10 million was ever turned over to the victims.

Similar charges were made against the Red Cross following fundraising operations after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and a San Diego fire in 2001. There was also a huge scandal involving the embezzlement of millions of dollars in donations in the New Jersey chapter in the late 1990s.

These scandals and the potentially embarrassing political fallout from them were muffled by the media and the Red Cross' political allies. But the truth couldn't be contained after September 11.

Soon after the attacks, Dr. Bernadine Healy, who was appointed president of the Red Cross in 1999, appealed for donations to help survivors and the families of those killed. In record-breaking time, the organization raised nearly $543 million.

Then the controversy began. A congressional investigation revealed that--though it had promised that all 9/11 donations would all go to victims' families--the Red Cross held back more than half of the $543 million. During congressional hearings, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.)--soon to become a lobbyist for Big Pharma--declared: "What's at issue here is that a special fund was established for these families. It was specially funded for this event, September 11. And it is being closed now because we're told enough money's been raised in it, but we're also told, by the way, we're going to give two-thirds of it away to other Red Cross needs."

Healy was forced to resign, and her successors promised to allocate all of the money to September 11 survivors and their families.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE HURRICANE Katrina catastrophe on the Gulf Coast has revealed the same old problems with the Red Cross. In late September, the organization was ordered out of a suburban Atlanta relief center because, according to the New York Times, its "application process had resulted in long lines and the group had made false promises of financial payments."

In an even more bizarre incident in Chicago, students were turned away from volunteering for a multi-agency relief center because they refused to sign a loyalty oath to the U.S. government!

Some more scrutiny of the Red Cross is beginning to take place. As Richard Walden, of Operation USA, wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "Its fundraising vastly outruns its programs because it does very little or nothing to rescue survivors, provide direct medical care or rebuild houses."

Walden noted (and the Red Cross now confirms) that the organization has raised $1 billion in pledges and gifts for hurricane relief. He also revealed that "FEMA and the affected states are reimbursing the Red Cross under pre-existing contracts for emergency shelter and other disaster services. The existence of these contracts is no secret to anyone but the American public."

How many people would donate to the Red Cross if they knew all this?

In the richest country in the history of the world, it is a travesty that such an organization is responsible for lifesaving. We deserve so much better.

Could not be more proud of the marathon runners to pitch in and help out the relief organizations!

Those are memories that will always mean the most ... at the end of the day!

People are trying to help- Alabama Power Co sent two crews to N.J. and were refused to help because they are not in the UNION !!! THIS IS FACT !!! We are Americans trying to help Americans and this is ridiculous...!!! What has this country become. No wonder it's a welfare state now!

In addition to the billions per year we provide to Japan each year in the form of free military protection, I recall that we gave away billions more in humanitarian aid, by letting our military play the role of the Red Cross, during their big storm last year.

I have not yet heard of any donations coming from them. However, you get bet they'll ramp of production, at the Toyota and Nissan plants to fill the need when all those stupid Americans buy a new car to replace the ones lost in the floods.

Please, please add Convoy of Hope to your list of organizations who are helping. COH deployed to the northeast BEFORE the hurricane and has handed out hundreds of thousands of supplies since then and more supplies are on their way. COH also has excellent ratings on charitynavigator.org.

You can go to its website www.convoyofhope.org for more information on how to donate or volunteer in the relief efforts.

Thank you!

The most important way to help is to vote for Romney before Obama's EPA comes in a taxes all of the people whose homes were destroyed for polluting. Yes, Obama's storm troopers in the EPA are ready to pounce on America with taxes and regulations that will destroy more jobs than the collapse of 2008! Obama will let the poor die unable to buy food or energy.

Here's another way to help if you Know a Sandy survivor in need. Start a ZPerfect Gift collection (www.zperfectgift.com):

* 100% goes towards helping them.....no fees
* Funds go direct to the recipient....no bureaucrat re-directing
* They buy EXACTLY what they NEED (clothing, food, home supplies, etc.)

You can start with as little as $5 too. Pretty awesome.

Here is the information from Jean O'Shea below:

Should anyone want to support those in Battallion 41, they can direct their donations to the FDNY Foundation. We we will hold these donations in a separate fund. We will notify Chief Brandes of the dollars available and he can allocate funds accordingly. Donations can be made through our website, or checks can be sent at the address below or they can call us at
the number below.

Please make sure they reference the - donation is for:
FDNY Battalion 41 Fund.
Please let us know if you need any additional information.
Thank you again!

Jean O'Shea
Executive Director
FDNY Foundation
9 Metrotech Center
Brooklyn, New York 11201
phone 718 999 0779