Tzedakah

I hope there is a special place in Hell for so-called "charities" that collect donations from well meaning souls and proceed to line their own pockets with millions.  Better yet, I hope there are places in our prison system.  If not, perhaps I can start a charity of my own.  I assure you, I would use every dime to get these no-goodniks put away for a long time.

Thanks to some great but I suspect very tedious work on the part of journalistic investigators we now have a list of the Fifty Worst Charities in America.  Luckily, I have never heard of (or donated to) any of them.  Eleven of the worst charities, more than 20%, are based here in Florida, the scam and flimflam capital of the world. 

I believe in Tikkun Olam, the concept that it is our duty to try to heal the world, and in Tzedakah, which does not mean charity but rather justice.  But I choose my donation dollars very carefully.  I fully support the kids' annual run for Breast Cancer.  I bought 16 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year (haha more for me than for them) and I slip a few bucks to disabled and wounded Veterans groups. 

It is infuriating that so many bad apples are making the work of those who are truly dedicated to helping others more difficult.  Those guys are goniffs on a level with Madoff.

:-(