How do we help when the money has dried up?

I see so many organizations that I know do good work struggling for money. Global, national, local-- every good group is hurting, especially due to the federal funds being cut. It's not fair, it's not noble, and it's just plain dirty pool-- but here we are. I can't afford to give money to everything, so what do we do? First, act locally-- food banks, soup kitchens, little free pantries. Small museums are feeling gutted-- they already run on a shoestring, but now, with no grant funding (or having their grants rescinded in the name of ...waste? fraud?), they are hard pressed to stay open. And we need these little museums, because they are the keepers of local history. And if the Smithsonian must operate (at least for now) as a collaborator with the regime, we will need a lifeline to our collective past, one small historical society or library at a time. We may have to put the pieces back together someday.

And what then? People are already hungry, many are one or two paychecks away from real difficulty, and the costs of health care are going to balloon. I feel for the independent contractors, the small business people, the artists, musicians, poets, etc. who depend on the ACA for their health care. Those premiums are going to be wild. How awful. How denigrating, to take the people who are trying to live the so-called American Dream (whatever that is, now), and who will be having to make incredibly hard choices about whether to get insurance. Or just be sick and die. Way to gut our society, eh? If there's any hope at all, maybe there will be some co-ops for insurance available, but I'm not counting on it. To create a society-- to plan for this destruction-- is so damned short-sighted, let alone evil. To have entire demographic groups sick, in poverty, and dependent on other people's kindness is not what we have always believed ourselves to be. Giving to local health organizations, to national ones, too, will be useful. The American Cancer Society, St. Jude's, etc. will need our help even more than they do now.

On a global scale, people are starving. Correction: being starved. And living in bombed out buildings. And being hunted down and destroyed. Natural disasters don't take holidays, either. World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders are two of my favorites. They do good work, and they are not afraid to go in where others have left or have been killed. On the local level, senior centers could use some help, especially since all funding for Meals on Wheels was cut. All it takes is a phone call, and the needs will be apparent. 

And environmental issues are not going to go away, either. Earthjustice does a good job, and they have a wide ranging team of lawyers just itching to get at these polluters, these deniers, these destroyers of the only planet we have. There are many other animal/environmental groups, too-- but I like these folks. 

Fair housing? There's Habitat for Humanity-- one of my very favorites. I'm sure there's local shelters, too, that need donations of material goods as well as money. Blankets, warm clothes, OTC meds, etc. are always a need that we can fill. 

How do we choose? Research. Proven record of success. Follow your heart. And pray for saner, more humane days. It's gonna be a while, I think. May God guide our hands and help us to see a need and fill it. 

And hug your loved ones tightly. Winter is coming, and it will be icy.

C