My wife and I give modest amounts to a variety of charitable causes each year, but probably nowhere near what we should. We are also usually active in at least one local Santa program for needy families, but are usually constrained in what we can do due to limited time. This Christmas season, we decided to do more.
At first we considered "adopting" a family from a local shelter, which involves obtaining a list of the family's needs and filling what we can. But then it occurred to us that we could do the same thing much closer to home. My wife is Latina and has close immigrant family members who are struggling greatly this holiday season. And yes, the ones who are struggling the most are the families in which the grown adults are undocumented. They work long hours in hard, low paying jobs, live in crappy neighborhoods and cannot qualify for public assistance programs. Most of them struggle just to come up with rent, food and utilities each month, nevermind things like warm winter clothes and certain other essentials..
Now I don't want to turn this into an immigration debate, but even were we to say too bad to the grown adults, their American born children are stuck in the same conditions. Now the American children of undocumented parents do qualify for health care coverage and, in some states, limited food assistance (WIC and modest food stamp allotments based on the legal residents), but that is about it. If their parents cannot earn enough to pay all the bills, buy food and clothes, etc., then the kids go cold and hungry along with them. Now just imagine what it must be like for these kids in school, lacking everything from adequate school supplies to computers that many kids are now required to use to complete homework assignments.
Well, this year I am going to fix what I can. No child who calls me Tio (more or less "uncle" in Spanish, but is used a touch more broadly as a show of respect for an older adult) is going to lack warm clothes and other essentials this Christmas. And the older ones are going to have the computers and other things that they need to give them at least some hope of academic success. For too long I have watched this go on and it has been breaking my heart.
The sick thing is that I spend so much on dancers/clubs in a year that I can fund most of this simply by staying out of them for a single month, lol, which I have been (more or less) doing this December. It feels good to redirect the money normally spent on my wandering penis to something that will really help others. And as I watch the Christmas orders continue to come in and pile up in my office, my happiness continues to grow as I fully realize that, for at least this one month, I am a better person for the choices I have made.



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Awesome to have ppl who care


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