Joining The Captain In Battle

Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters has an excellent proposal for those who have not yet contributed to disaster relief. To quote:

At Captain's Quarters, we're declaring January 12th World Relief Day. I ask that CQ readers donate their take-home pay for January 12th to the tsunami relief effort at World Vision. Obviously, we cannot hope to match the funds raised by governments -- but we can show what a handful of determined private individuals can do to help. If you can't afford to donate all of your take-home pay for that day, please donate what you can.

This is an excellent proposal and to that end I have placed a "Donate Here" button for World Vision Disaster Relief in my sidebar. If you donate via this website or want to make a pledge toward Captain Quarter's January 12th World Relief Day, leave a comment and I will pass it on to Captain Ed. ( I could not identify such a mechanism at Captain's Quarters, so I did it here. Maybe I just missed it.)

I disagree with the Captain as to whether or not private donations will surpass governmental aid . I see that as a distinct possibility and am quite certain that American private donations will surpass the governmental aid from France. Look at what has been raised by Amazon.com for the Red Cross. I have not been been able to find a total for World Vision, but heard on Hugh Hewitt Monday night that their goal is $25 million in the U.S. and $50 million worldwide. My church released $20,000 to two organizations in Sri Lanka this past week and will send much more as they identify local mechanisms for doing so. But this does not mean that we can rest on this. Consider Captain Ed's proposal as a starting point for changing priorities in your life. I have already contributed to this cause once and plan to make a monthly contribution for the next five months. At that point, I will assess whether to continue contributing to this cause or if my donation will go elsewhere. Forgive me for repeating this but "give like Democrats vote: early and often."