Generosity is Often Slight Stupidity

Headline news in Las Vegas this morning; a man falls to his death while working on a new condo project. At his funeral last week folks donated a bounty of money as folks at funerals tend to do. The man will be buried “properly” in Texas. The money was both for this reason and surely more. One of his fellow employees that spoke at the funeral has allegedly ended up stealing all of the donations.

A horrendous act by a human being – absolutely. Yes, this is a tragedy for a local family who just lost their dad. No doubt about it that this guys is a piece of trash for running off with “$5,000 to $14,000 in donations” after speaking at the guy’s funeral!

The local radio station has held a campaign all morning for donations to get this family back the money they have lost. Thousands of people have been lining up all morning at several locations to give their lunch money and much more. Some businesses donated a few thousand, other fellow contractors gave “a helluva lot” and you can imagine that they are already at a total which exceeds the possible $14,000 lost.

I can’t help but think about everyone else during this time. They’ve said a lot of things about this man being a great human being who deserved all of Las Vegas’ generosity. What about all the other great men who get nothing? How about all the other budding families in America that have lost the head breadwinner this year? I think about the children without a proper Christmas just as much as I think about the grieving wives or husbands who have lost their partner any time of year, with not one mention of their loss or misfortune on the radio.

Before you think I’m a terrible person, I only have one major thing to say about all of this. What happens when the thief is caught and the money is returned? I’ve seen this happen time and time again, especially since I have been in Las Vegas. Common people everywhere have a tragedy occur to them. People get their homes robbed or major possessions stolen and there is an outpouring of affection from the community. Two weeks later their possessions have been found, unharmed, and they get to keep the thousands donated to them. The news covers it all and sums it up by saying something like, “well, they deserved all that money anyway even though they got their stuff back!”

If this was a court case they would be arguing something about how you can’t make someone more than whole. You’ve been robbed and the robber needs to pay you back, but you can’t make more than you lost. Court is to make you whole. You don’t get any extra pie.

We don’t know the outcome of this story yet. We are not sure if this family will get any of the stolen money back. It is a fact that they deserved to have a lot of money donated to them for this tragedy. I can tell by what they were saying on the radio during the collection this morning that they have raised at least $20,000. The question is do they deserve all of it? These people gave it to this family knowing the circumstances so yes they do deserve to keep it. But in the laws of nature do they deserve to keep it and the money that was stolen? This is if they get the money back.

They kept saying that it doesn’t matter if they met their goal for this morning, just keep sending it in as it could go towards his child’s college fund. This was not a fund raiser for his kid’s college. It was mainly so this man could have his proper burial in Texas and so that the family can get along for a little while without dad.

I only feel a certain embitterment about these situations because I do know the other side of the coin. I know that for every one person America pulls together and helps there are countless thousands that are being ignored. It bothers me that it takes reporting a story on a radio show to get people off their asses and freely handing over hundreds of their hard earned money. Do these people regularly give to charity? Are they handing a hundred to the homeless man on the corner? Would they cut their friends a thousand dollar check if they knew they needed it? A lot of them probably would, but I’m betting there’s a whole lot of hypocrites in the mix here doing it because it took a broadcast and a campaign to discover their warm hearted nature.

In this country where “we’re starving” and “can’t afford it” we can all of a sudden do a lot of the things we said we couldn’t whenever we choose to. Americans are not poor, they are largely deprived by choice.

We need to have fund raisers for those who have been taken advantage of but there needs to be a time when they say “stop, our goals have been met, now go out and give that to someone else who needs it!” There comes a time when the robbed have been rightfully paid back and it becomes a waste of money. People who suffer and get put on a pedestal end up becoming more than whole from their situation.

What I would like to see is that family having a head on their shoulders and using the money they receive for the intention it was meant for before they knew how much they were going to be getting from the community. Then take the remainder and do something charitable with it themselves. This was not for Little Johnny’s college fund. They’ve no doubt got enough to pay for the funeral and go towards a year’s worth of personal expenses. Make a responsible decision, take even more than you think you deserve, but just don’t be greedy.

At final reported total there has been $33,000 donated. This does not include anything sent in via direct deposit after the morning collection had ceased.