We are being flooded with fund-raising events for
worthwhile causes. Too often these are staged by professional fund raisers who
take their cut and whatever is left over goes to the titled charity. A lot of
people earn a good living in the name of charity, sometimes too good. We’re
asked to walk, jog, golf, bounce, run and even dance to benefit a worthwhile
cause and we turn out to do what we feel is our duty. Too often the charity
we’re supporting only receives 10 or 20 percent of the efforts. The rest goes
to professional promoters. Insider does give to charity, but all of his giving
goes directly to the main office of the charity he is supporting or just to
local causes without the ridiculous overhead of the large conglomerates. A
couple of years ago after one of those big storms, Insider stopped donating to
America’s favorite charity after learning its director received an annual salary
of $500,000. For what? The old guy thinks some of his money is putting gas in
that guy’s wife’s Suburban.
Progress sucks and here’s some more of it. Not too many
years ago a standard pickup truck with manual everything cost about $8,000.
That same little pickup without any of the amenities (they do make you get a
radio) cost in the neighborhood of $18,000. Why? A 25-cent candy bar now cost
$1.19. Why? A $9.95 steak dinner now cost $19.99. Why? A loaf bread was 39
cents, now it’s $1.99. Why? A quarter of can of Coke now used to be a quarter,
now you can’t buy cans many places anymore and vending machines only sell the
plastic bottles for $1.25. Why? People used to be able to afford doctors
without health insurance, not any longer. A friend of the Insider’s recently
had a heart attack without health insurance and now the family is considering
moving out of state because there’s no way they can afford to foot the bill.
Why? It used to cost 25 cents to ride Ocean City’s bus. Now it’s $2. Why?
It’s
early May and the grass is growing greener and taller every day. The problem is
nature refuses to allow us to cut the grass this time of year because some
sections of the lawn look more like a swaying wheat field than a lawn. After a
day or two of rain, nature gives us one day of sunshine to dry the lawn out for
mowing, then it immediately rains again before we’re able to mow the first cut.
On occasion we are honored with two days of sunshine and the world is filled
with the roar of lawnmowers throughout the land. A couple of months from now
the rain will have disappeared altogether and we will be mowing our lawns once
a week whether it needs or not.