Re: services

>    I'm looking over the organizations you recommended  (5/31/01) I send
>my small tax refund to.  One of them is Jobs with Justice,  but I can't
>find any mention on their web site of essential services they  provide to
>poor Americans.  Same goes for the SPLC and United Students  Against
>Sweatshops.  Habitat for Humanity, for example, I understand--they  build
>houses for people.  Am I overlooking something at these other web  sites? 
>Do they provide food, shelter, medical care?   Transportation?  Some
>essential service?  You did say "We have assembled the following list of
>organizations that provide essential services -- which the government does
>not  -- to poor Americans."   Thanks, Kevin Parker Austinfast.com  

These descriptions are from the organizations' respective websites, with my
commentary after each one:

"Jobs with Justice (JwJ) is a national campaign for workers' rights.
Working through coalitions of labor, community, religious and constituency
organizations, Jobs with Justice is fighting for workers' rights and
economic justice."

Jobs with Justice provides the essential service of giving the workers a
voice to help enable them to raise their standard of living to the point
where they might appear on the government's radar.  Our enormous domestic
poverty problem is not going to be solved out the goodness of employers'
hearts, or out of some beneficent act by the Labor Department; grassroots
organizations such as JwJ are there to give the working poor a voice.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit organization that combats
hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation. Its
programs include the Intelligence Project, Teaching Tolerance, and
tolerance.org. The Center also sponsors the Civil Rights Memorial, which
celebrates the memory of those who died during the Civil Rights Movement."

With John Ashcroft in charge of the Department of Justice, it should be
clear that justice is one essential service that the government is not
providing to minorities.

"United Students Against Sweatshops is an international student movement of
campuses and individual students fighting for sweatshop free labor
conditions and workers' rights. We define "sweatshop" broadly and recognize
that it is not limited to the apparel industry, but everywhere among us."

Sweatshops, believe it or not, are not just a third-world phenomenon.
Immigrant workers in the United States, some of them here illegally and
afraid to raise their voices about it, are being put to work in conditions
that are not legal, for pay that is far below livable.  See, for example,
the recent New York Times article about sheep herders in California, who
are paid a pittance for their long hours of work.

However you feel about these organizations, the most important thing to
note, I believe, is this quote from my article:

"We suggest that you give some portion of your rebate to one or all of
them. Or choose some others. After all, as the President likes to say, it's
your money, right?"

If you don't like the organizations we've selected, feel free to select
others that are more in line with your beliefs.  If that happens to be
Operation Save America, well, I don't like your choice but it's your choice.

Thanks for your message.

Niel