Tired and thin, she walked hesitantly down the alleyway. In the weeks since she had been thrown out of the car, Maggie had searched for food and a safe, warm place to give birth…. Barely more than a [child] herself, she found life on the streets to be hard. She had been chased away from the little food she did find by other[s] who claimed it for themselves. And trying to find a place to sleep that was protected from the cold night air was just about impossible.

She found herself alone in the alley behind the diner. Attracted by the smell of food coming from a nearby garbage bag, Maggie clawed through it, devouring the thrown-out food from the kitchen. Her stomach full for the first time in days, she curled up in a crushed cardboard box behind the dumpster and had her first real sleep.

Young, abused, knocked up, then abruptly and brutally abandoned to the harsh realities of life on the streets. It’s a grim depiction of an even grimmer reality.

Were you moved?

More specifically, were you moved to the point of giving money to help mitigate young Maggie’s lot, and, presumably, the lot of the countless others like her?

Seriously, now—and, of course, pre-supposing that you are someone in possession of discretionary funds—if this scenario appeared in your mailbox during the “holiday giving season” (the six-some-odd weeks from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve, during which nonprofits traditionally rack up a staggering percentage of their donations from individuals), would its pathos prompt you to loosen your purse strings?

Would it help, or hurt, the odds if the “Maggie” in question were a cat?

Again, seriously now, would you be more likely to give money to help poor abandoned Maggie and her potentially doomed progeny if they were human or feline?

The reason I’m asking is because I work for an organization that does advocacy around the issue of homelessness of the human kind. Our Maggies come in all shapes and colors. Some have run afoul of today’s tough economy, low-paying job, high-price ticket rental, ends not meeting. Some may be simply down on their luck, out of touch with family, friends, a caring community, or simply out of these resources altogether through no fault of their own. They might be from another country, one in which being alone and in the family way are simply inconceivable, but lacking that kind of built-in support network in the United States. Some might have become isolated because of coming from a place in which societal conventions dictate silence on the topic of sexual abuse. (Note: In this context, “place” might signify a foreign country, or a culture that is far from unknown in this one,) Some might have cut themselves off from the very people who would have sustained them because of mental illness or have come in conflict with loved ones or the law, or worst of all, themselves, over their use of drugs or alcohol.

There are scores of Maggies of the human kind, each with her own unique set of driving circumstances. Some are warm and personable, some are quiet, subdued, nonconfrontational and hence non-confrontative; others are quite the opposite; in fact, some give you the distinct impression they’d as soon spit on you as speak to you. These are the ones who, having found-or put-themselves outside of mainstream society, are simply not looking to get back in-at least not before that society has undergone some radical alterations in terms of its values and priorities.

I say all of this, because I realize that the backstories of those whom you would be helping definitely play a role in your decision process as a potential donor. Other considerations probably include the following: Would my money actually make a positive difference? Would it be welcome? Would it be well-used or would it be going to line the pockets of an organization for which fundraising has become an end in itself? Would my money end up bankrolling policies, programs, politicians, or other public personalities whom I do not support? Would I be curtailing or condoning substance abuse? Supporting or challenging current public policies in the mental health arena? Backing or undermining current law enforcement tactics? Easing or exacerbating tensions on the street? Or, to get truly personal about it, thinking to yourself, “The next time I make a deposit at the ATM, if I get spare changed, will it be in any sense ‘my fault’ because of some “climate of acceptance” that I’ve helped to create?”

AND that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

IT’S SO MUCH easier with cats.

Political affiliations? Alternative life-styles? A donation to the cat cause cannot possibly beseen as an endorsement of anything of the kind. What would you be backing? Purrs and fur. Warmth and fluff. A clean litter box in every apartment.

Cats are not likely to overturn anything but a bag of dry cat food. Classism? Cats ARE classist: they believe in the ascendency of those with enough money to afford tasty food, enough caring to make getting such food in front of their noses a top priority. And of course, opposable thumbs with which to operate can-openers.

Don’t get me wrong: I love cats deeply (which is probably why I got this mailing in the first place). And the organization behind the mailing is on the side of the angels, no question. Spaying and neutering stray and feral cats to reduce the numbers of feral kittens being born, as opposed to trapping and killing to keep in check an increasing feral cat population; it’s a good cause, certainly.

The thing is, the reason the story tugged so hard on those proverbial heartstrings is its human note. And if playing the human sympathy card is causing dollars that might help suffering humans suffer less to shift over to the feline relief effort, I can’t help but eel that something’s just a little bit askew somewhere.

It’s neither easy nor simple, any of it.

I guess all I’m really saying is that if you’re one of those “discretionary funds” types, I would hope that you actually use some-discretion, that is. And optimally, preceding the discretion, I’d like to see some rational thought. For example, if diminishing suffering is truly your goal, then it behooves> you to actually take a few minutes to reckon up the relative merits of a few different giving options on some kind of personally manufactured absolute “degree of suffering eased” scorecard.

And not to be tagged as a species-ist (two out of three of my best friends are, in fact, feline), and regardless of which you in general find more endearing, or which you’d rather curl up with on a cold night, I would still tend to hope that humanity might win out as a priority.

Anne

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2005 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.