Steve Hurley wrote:
> Hi,
> I suggest you check the following link to find out all abour 'poor'
> Valentine:
> http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/valentin.asp
> Steve
> ___________________________________________________________
> Telefonate ohne weitere Kosten vom PC zum PC: http://messenger.yahoo.de
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the tip off. Sadly, there
> _are_ honest people in Russia and other countries who could use the
> spare largesse many of us here in the USA have, and these guys like
> Valentine ruin it for everyone. PAT]
Pat,
That's why the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are always a safe
choice: not only do they have a lot of experience in culling out
thieves, but the money stays in the U.S. to help people _here_.
William Warren
(Filter noise from my address for direct replies)
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is true of Salvation Army mostly,
but I have a problem with Red Cross. If you recall from the news, the
Red Cross had a difficult time thinning its ranks of thieves during
the Katrina/other hurricane events of this past summer. Red Cross
lost about a quarter-million dollars to internal theft as they tried
to serve Katrina victims. Was it about fifteen or twenty employees in
their Sacramento, CA office involved in the rip off? That quarter-
million came from donations. I also have a problem with the Red Cross'
blatent homophobia regards blood donations. They claim they will not
accept blood donations from any GLBT person who has had any sexual
activity in _thirty years_, or since 1977. I do not frankly know any
person, gay or not, who has not had any sexual activity in thirty
years, and in order for a gay person to have not had sex for thirty
years -- assuming that one begins engaging in sex as an older teenager --
would require the gay person to be at least 45-50 years of age, and
yes, some gay people are that old or older, but the _vast majority_ of
gay people who identify willingly as such are in the twenty to forty
or possibly even fifty year age brackets. In other words, no blood
donations accepted from gay men, at least according to the Red Cross
workers in this part of Kansas, based out of Wichita. And not even
consistently gay; their rule is _even one gay experience in thirty
years_ disqualifies the person. In other words, a teenage boy who
experiments with gay sex once or twice in that thirty year period is
excluded also.
I am well aware of HIV/AIDS, and yes, you can 'catch AIDS' from one
single episode, but the chance of that happening from one episode that
long ago is very slight. And, although in the earliest days of
HIV/AIDS (early 1980's) there was no reliable test for it in blood,
there certainly is today. Red Cross says they test all blood prior to
banking it, so I am certain that in the unlikely event that an old,
very ancient person, admittedly gay had AIDS (and had not died from it
by the time he was in his middle sixties) it is even more unlikely
that his blood will be contaminated and it will not get detected in
a routine screening. My complaint is also that they will not acknowlege
that fact in their constant requests for donors. Signs around town
here during the quarterly 'blood drive' invite everyone to give; they
do not say 'except if you are homosexual do not bother to come around',
or 'if you have ever experimented with homosexuality do not come around'.
I think they should be honest and say those things, or words to that
effect. I think they are very homophobic for that reason and cannot
recommend them to anyone.
I said to someone at their office here locally, "well, but I certainly
could have just lied about it, is that what you would have preferred?"
The lady said, "We hope you would not lie about it." Well, gee, that
would a first, wouldn't it ... a young guy lying about having had a
homosexal experiment in the past few years ... PAT]
William Warren (william_warren_nonoise@speakeasy.net)