Posts in "Private Charity"

By Benjamin Levine at 6:48PM

Dec 6, 2011

Choose Charity: Encouraging Data

Young Americans for Liberty has recently launched a great campaign titled "Choose Charity," which is an activism push toward volunteering...voluntarily. It highlights the libertarian view that the best way to solve problems is through voluntary action because, after all, this is truly the only moral action.

I recently came across some fitting and optimistic (for our cause) polling data:

In a 2011 survey, nearly 7 in 10 18-29 year-old Americans viewed community volunteerism as an "honorable thing to do" (only about half of that say the same for running for office)
In a 2006 survey, 82% of 18-29 year-old Americans viewed community volunteerism as an effective way to solve community problems and 63% saw it as an effective way to solve national problems

I think what this shows is the underlying belief amongst the youth in America that volunteerism can make a change. Our goal at YAL should be to transfer that belief, through activism and education, into a broader political ideology. If we can show our peers that libertarianism is based on volunteerism -- something that young Americans endorse as an effective means to solving problems -- then we can grow our numbers of pro-liberty activists.

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By Joshua Parrish at 2:37PM

Jul 8, 2011

Man Explains to WFTV News Why He Loves the Orlando Police Department

On Wednesday July 6th, activists, concerned citizens and local media gathered at Lake Eola to witness the ongoing battle between Food Not Bombs and a City of Orlando Ordinance criminalizing charity in public parks. During this scheduled feeding of the homeless, two activists were served tresspassing notices and asked to leave the park. When they did not comply and continued to serve food to two young children, members of the Orlando Police Department quickly arrested them and escorted them to their cruisers. This now brings the grand total to 27 arrests for violating this city ordinance.

The majority of the people who gathered to witness this were in opposition to the ordinance. However, there was one gentlemen holding a sign that said "I (HEART) OPD". He was interviewed by local WFTV Channel 9 but for some reason none of his interview made it on the news. Thankfully, freelance media and local police accountability organization Orlando Copwatch documented this interview and has released it for your viewing pleasure.

It appears that the gentlemen being interviewed was clearly being sarcastic. I can only speculate that his strategy was to ridicule the power and arbitrary authority that is being assumed by local government in this instance. Perhaps he was motivated by a belief that these types of ordinances only exist to regulate private charity and justify the expansion of the welfare state. Perhaps he was upset that tax dollars are being used to incarcerate peaceful people. Perhaps he was upset by the unquestioning obedience of the enforcement arm of the state. Either way, good for him.

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By John McKenna at 12:49PM

Jun 9, 2011

Three Floridians Arrested for Feeding the Needy?

Go into any major city in the country, and chances are you're going to run into a couple of homeless people on the street. While many people may just walk past them, one group of people in Orlando, Florida wanted to be pro-active, and organized a free buffet for the homeless in Lake Eola Park, serving nearly 40 people.

What was the thanks they got? They were arrested and could face 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.

The three men who ran the event, who were part of the international group "Food Not Bombs", were arrested for violating a city ordinance limiting the amount of times a group can legally assemble in public parks, as well as the amount of people that can be involved in group activities. Although this was challenged in the courts, it was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, stating that it was constitutional for a city to limit the number of times large groups can gather in city parks. Despite this legal setback, the group decided to break the ordinance, claiming it was absurd to regulate when and where people can gather together to share food. More at www.silverunderground.com.

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By Aaron Rainwater at 9:42AM

May 31, 2011

So it's good to ban charity? Really?

Do you ever spend your evenings aimlessly browsing the internet, clicking on whatever links happen to catch your interest? Sometimes it’s a video of a man, in his finest sweatpants and a t-shirt that’s sleeves have been cut off to reveal his tree trunk-like arms, swinging a sledge hammer at a bowling ball. Other times, you find yourself stumbling upon an article describing particular city government officials attempting to strictly regulate, or even end, some of the most genuinely helpful forms of charity. Tonight, I found both.

Members of the City Council of St. Petersburg, Florida are considering placing a ban on feeding homeless people in city parks. This ban is being championed by Karl Nurse, a councilman who apparently believes the city will benefit by punishing the most generous citizens of St. Petersburg, who dare to take pity on those in need. The proposed plan would make it illegal for any individual or group to feed over 25 people at a time, unless that person or group had first obtained a permit. Even if one did, indeed, meet the set requirements and pay any associated fees necessary for the wise local officials to grant a feeding permit, the permit would only allow feeding to occur twice a year and in specifically designated locations.

Disaster relief: Beat the government to it

This post was originally intended for my Facebook friends in Alabama, however, everyone who advocates liberty and non-compulsory forms of assiting your fellow man can find a way to assist or support those recently devastated by the tornadoes in Alabama and the southeast. As those who hold true the principle "that voluntary action is the only ethical behavior" let us constantly be mindful of those in need around us. This has been a widely abused sentiment used to expand the role of government with perilous consequences to our economy and civil liberties.

I wanted to take some time to remind everyone as the semester winds down -- and you have time to do something besides stress over exams -- to consider investing some time in the Alabama (and surrounding states) tornado relief efforts. This is the perfect opportunity to invest in your community and demonstrate your commitment to a more peaceful and prosperous society.

I know that many of you are already participating in the relief efforts. Awesome! I can't wait to join you in a few weeks!

It is likely that it will take several months (probably even longer) to complete clean-up and relief efforts. Remember that there are dozens of smaller communities beyond Tuscaloosa and Birmingham who need as much help as the major cities and may tend to be overlooked by people seeking to volunteer.

False Compassion: Not Compassionate at All

Much has been said about the difference in death tolls in the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes: Though the quake in Chile has considerably stronger, tens or possibly hundreds of thousands fewer people died. While some of this is due to physical factors such as the distance of the quakes from the surface and from large cities, many have also drawn connections between the types of economies in each country and their ability to deal with these tragedies (Chile has a much stronger free market).

But regardless of whether that connection is causation or simply correlation, any time is a good time to pause and consider the effectiveness of our charity. A new article at Civil Society Trust argues from a Christian -- though in this case probably universally applicable -- perspective that a necessary component of true compassion is effectiveness:

At the end of the day, most of the programs and policies of government initiated in the name of helping people amount to rounding up resources from the private sector and redistributing them to others. And there are plenty of people who argue we need to do more of that. But if these programs and policies are in fact not working, or perhaps even making things worse, and yet we continue to do them, I would suggest that we are ignoring the original goal of helping others and instead focusing on how these programs make us feel instead....

The humanitarian with a guillotine? Hopefully not.

The UK's Telegraph reports on accusations coming from both the French government and internationally-renowned Swiss emergency relief charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders):

"This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti," [a French official]said.
Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed his calls saying hundreds of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital medical supplies were being turned away by American air traffic controllers.
But US commanders insisted their forces' focus was on humanitarian work and last night agreed to prioritise aid arrivals to the airport over military flights, after the intervention of the UN....
Haiti was occupied by the US between 1915 and 1935, and historical sensitivities together with friction with other countries over the relief effort has made the Americans cautious about their role in the operation.

Here in America, some libertarians like Lew Rockwell share these suspicions of the US military's long-term motives for involvement. Rockwell commented: "Murray Rothbard didn’t call it the welfare-warfare state for nothing. It’s the social worker with a machine gun, or as Isabel Patterson put it so long ago, the humanitarian with a guillotine."

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By Bonnie Kristian at 2:30AM

Dec 26, 2008

Increase Private Charity

As the financial crisis continues, it seems to be bringing with it some drops in charitable donations, even as the need for charity increases. For advocates of a less powerful state, however, this need (and the holiday season) presents an excellent opportunity to increase charitable giving, filling the needs in our community ourselves, and leaving government with no excuse to do so in our stead.

The Mises Institute's Journal of Libertarian Studies published a scholarly article by James Rolph Edwards several years ago entitled "The Costs of Public Income Redistribution and Private Charity" which includes in its literature review very readable statistics and arguments on why privately supported charity is superior to government aid from a practical and financial perspective. For other arguments which include a moral perspective as well, there are quite a few discussions of this topic available at the searchable Ron Paul Library. One of the best of these is "True Foreign Aid," in which Dr. Paul explains that

There are good reasons why the US Constitution does not allow our government to send taxpayer money overseas as foreign aid. One of the best is that coerced “charity” is not charity at all, but rather it is theft. If someone picks your pocket and donates the money to a good cause it does not negate the original act of theft.

To research national charities doing excellent work in their fields and make your own donations, try visiting the website of Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator which rates charities on their efficiency and effectiveness.

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