No, I always stand up for what I think is right. I thought her strongly-worded comment was dead-on…

however, until her post all the entries were warm-spirited.

I consummately disagree. If you want me to be blunt, I think the threadjack preceding JoAT’s response is what actually inspired this unnecessary clusterfuck. Dearest Ms Fink, unless Joan is talking about you (and if you’ll pardon my assumption, I don’t think from your past comments that you are that kind of shallow, heartless, clueless…woman), why take it personally?

I knew that my gut reaction of approval was right when another reader echoed Joan’s experience– I think it’s a common frustration for people who’ve worked with our community (hell, any community) and I was glad that they were sharing their thoughts, since the situation they were decrying was one I feel passionately about, due to my own heartache with similar efforts.

I was at a criminally low-paying job just two months ago. I know what it’s like to think paycheck-to-paycheck is an awesome thing. That is why I said that to me, just expressing that you would donate was as good as actually doing so. I loved the intention as much as the act.

IMO if one has wealth, flaunts it, indulges in excesses they lose the right to complain about how they can’t donate.

A 5 yr old Toshiba laptop, chellpa soap (?), haldi-besan-curd mix, wash cloth, and a desperate appeal to jumpstart “CAD fundraiser”. Talk about flaunting and indulging in excesses j/k

Perhaps the use of the word “calculated” was ill-advised. But so was insulting implications like the one below:

I’m just sick of cheap desis who are total couture whores but won’t fork over some generosity towards a good cause.

It was clear who you were addressing your comments to, but just because you recently worked at some fundraiser did not give you leave to demean people who said they could not currently contribute and assume all sorts of things about them, including that they never donate.

Ouch. I simply am not that cunning to make anything “calculated” Ms FN seriously. What you see is what you get at face value. There is no deception involved. I was simply voicing my feeling about something that popped up in my head at the time having gone thru a fundraiser for my own cause in the past two weeks. Your objection makes it sound like no one is allowed to rock the boat.

We all believe in some cause(s) or other (I HOPE) but we all also find that we have to end up choosing which to donate to in any particular year. So just because someone says in a NICE post that they cannot afford it this year … (1) that does not imply they have not donated to any cause they think vital and WITHOUT adequate donators (that last is important). (I donate generously every year to underfunded things) whether or not I can ‘afford’ it. (2) Anna, you are wonderful, but always stand up for JOAT…however, until her post all the entries were warm-spirited. I feel her post was calculated to make those who had taken the trouble to ‘explain’ their position feel cheap and bad.

Hey yo hey yo hey yo hey yo.

Done deal, SM, you be the baddest click up on this thing.