by Joseph Whalen

Created on: March 31, 2008   Last Updated: August 21, 2010

Everyone should be encouraged to donate to charity on some level. As Americans we live in one of the most prosperous countries in the world, yet we still have needy people in our own communities. Homeless citizens crowd into shelters or sleep on streets while the more fortunate members of our society debate whether or not they need their new luxury car or the latest IPod offering. We as a society have our priorities greatly confused.

While it is not the obligation of every citizen to see to the comforts and needs of the less fortunate, it is right and proper to administer to those in need. Our contributions could be as simple as donating unwanted clothes to your local charity organization or as grand as annual cash payments to a deserving fund. Regardless of how you contribute to charity, everyone who can, should contribute. Instead we as a society all too often look down upon those in need. The downtrodden of our civilization are looked upon in disgust, as being pitifully responsible for their own plight. We are too quick to accuse an out of work homeless person addicted to drugs or alcohol of making their own mess. When we fail to take even the briefest of moments to understand their predicament and how they arrived at their unfortunate state.

What we may find is those that we snub on the street are not all that different from ourselves. Misfortune can befall any of us in an instant and we can quickly find ourselves in an unsavory situation where we become that which we have slighted for so long. Only then do we appreciate the situation that the less fortunate are in, only then do we have sympathy for their plight. At that point it is too late to do anything about it because we have become that which we pity. It is at times like this when we look at those with the power to help and wonder why they sit by idly as those in need suffer.

The real question is not should society be compelled to contribute to charity but rather who should compel society to donate to charity? Clearly our government is not the best choice, given the profligate spending and waste that runs rampant through the government with the billions of tax dollars that are already at their disposal. Who then does the authority and responsibility fall to for charitable contributions? It would be wonderful to think that societies concern for the under-privileged would translate into automatic contributions, but this simply is not the case. If charitable contributions are to become compulsory, there

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