The body of the message contained a link, to this donation page by a special needs caretaker looking for help in purchasing portable communication devices for poor kids who need them.
At first I had no idea if said harpy was trying to bury the hatchet by asking me to help someone who was in the same situation as Schuyler. When I went to her page, however, it became clear that once again, even in the guise of helping someone in need, she was taking another opportunity to be hateful.
The communication devices in question should sound familiar, no? So I cackled and forwarded the link to an Internet Titan who is adept at asking for money from his readers, and we'll see if he's interested in doing that when it doesn't directly benefit him and his. One would think someone who has been so blessed by the generous nature of his readers might want to give back. Ah, charitable blackmail. A win-win situation.
Okay, so a few things I'd like to say about this.
1) I'd LOVE it if the readers of my blog were to be responsible for putting this particular donor request over the top and make this happen. Imagine if the friends of Schuyler out there donated (in her name if you feel like feeding my bloated ego) enough to cover the cost of these devices before the end of the night? (Or tomorrow night, since Blogger appears to be having Issues this evening.)
2) My only hesitation here is that the devices that they are trying to buy, while certainly affordable and perhaps appropriate for the kids in question, are made by a company whose product line left us pretty underwhelmed when we were testing augmentative alternative communication devices with Schuyler last year. Again, perhaps they are being purchased for kids who are so severely affected that they won't ever need to progress to a more advanced system. If not, however, this particular device won't (in my admittedly underinformed opinion) provide a very significant long-term solution, and that's an important part of investing in an AAC device, regardless of the cost.
If you'd like an alternative donation option, you might try contacting the Prentke Romich Company (makers of the Big Box of Words) and let them know that you are interested in helping either a school or an individual family that is trying to purchase a similar device. They have a whole division dedicated to funding and would almost certainly be able to point you in the right direction. PRC is the AAC device of choice of a lot of programs, including the amazing cyborg class that Schuyler is a part of here in North Dallas. If you help someone who's trying to get a PRC box, you'll be certain that you are putting your money into a powerful tool.
3) Why someone would be so hateful as to suggest that I wouldn't be willing to help another parent in the same situation as myself is beyond me, particularly if they were trying to get me to lend a hand? Is the idea that a person who donates to another kid's device might not send money to greedy me and my greedy kid? News flash, genius. Schuyler already has one. "Charitable blackmail"? What the fuck?
Yeah, she must be a real delight to come home to every night.
Anyway, if you feel so inclined, go make a donation, either to this donor request or to PRC. I think it would be cool if you did it in Schuyler's name, but again, that's just me being me.
16 comments:
The internet is full of such charming people. I don't get how anybody could question your intentions unless they, a) haven't been paying attention; or b) are gigantic asses.
I just got this in email, keep 'em coming!
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Rob,
There's no way to donate to Donors Choose on behalf of another person without entering a bunch of information about that person like mailing address, e-mail and so forth. (Presumably for grandparents, et al.) So, I made a donation in my own name but am forwarding this to say that the donation was made on Schuyler's behalf. Maybe you can wave it at that colostomy bag of a critic you've been dealing with....
Congratulations on the new gig!
Made a small donation in Schuyler's name - hope they notify you! Bleah to cranky blackmail harpy and Yay to giving another kid a BBoW (even if a less snazzy one).
So this is called taking the high road. Well done.
Made a donation - in Schuyler's name, using dummy address info (the site didn't balk at this).
Blogger apparently is having some illness in which is rejects its users. Silly Blogger.
what is it with people? why must they be so hateful? so what? you used the resources you had available to you (your witty writing and your blog, sorry, journal) to get a better life for your daughter.
is this hateful woman saying that she wouldn't have done the same thing?
the point of the web is to connect with people--people you couldn't connect with otherwise.
you made the ultimate connection with many of your readers. and, had they not wanted to donate their hard earned money to you and your daughter, they wouldn't have.
that's what bugs me the most. these haters attack you for asking, but don't realize that no one had to answer your call for help. they did it because they wanted to and because they cared.
Rob, start a foundation in Schuyler's name.
You know, it's funny, I was actually talking to our PRC rep over the summer about doing something like that, coordinating with PRC to do fundraising for people and schools who needed help purchasing devices. Then we moved to Plano and it just sort of died on the vine. Thanks for mentioning that, I should get in contact with her and see if it's still something they might want to do.
Rob, I know that you don't have time to be doing administrative tasks for me but I have to ask. Since you've taken the aforementioned high road and not published this commenter's e-mail address would you please forward my hearty "Fudge you!" to him/her. (See, I took the high road, too, that's not what I really wanted to say.)
Thanks.
Also re: Foundation or fundraising you can check out the Foundation Library's web site, they might have some starter information.
I've actually thought about a Schuyler or CBPS foundation too - every time I watch a game show or Texas Hold'em game on TV where celebrities play for a charity, I think to myself, "when I become unbelievably famous and invited to these things, I'm gonna direct the dough towards Schuyler's monster."
If your name is Andrea and you posted something about how the harpy in question went after Dooce as well, the only reason I didn't publish your comment is that you linked to her. I'm not interested in increasing her traffic, sorry.
But yeah. Like Dooce gives a shit what some jowly malcontent has to say about her.
You know, I think you and your friends have made you feelings pretty clear about the whole donations thing. What does that have to do with this latest?
Let me answer that for you. Absolutely nothing. Jane, by her own admission, was being a bitch for no reason at all other than just for shits and giggles.
And apparently did a lot of good for someone as well, judging from the number of donations that appeared on that donor request following my post. So perhaps, Kim, just perhaps it's time to cut me a fucking break on the donations thing.
And incidentally, genius, when Jane said "we'll see if he's interested in doing that when it doesn't directly benefit him and his", who do you think the "his" was that she was talking about? That's leaving Schuyler out of it?
Jane's readers sure are loyal. I wish they were a little smarter.
And just so no one else wastes a lot of their free time typing a comment that could be used for scrapbooking or posting photos of your cats, Kim's was the last comment I post about the fucking donations topic from like a month ago. The very last one. You can get pissed if you like, and I'm sure you have plenty of blogspace of your own to write about it if you're still hung up on it. But I think I've provided plenty of space for that tired topic already.
And finally...
The donor request from NYC has been met, 100%. Now, was that due to the people who have been writing about how much they hate people online asking for money or the generous readers here who have in the past helped Schuyler get a voice? I can't say.
But thank you all just the same. You did a good thing for those kids, and without trying to make someone else feel like shit while you did it.
Frankly, this seems like much ado about nothing. If Rob had simply posted "I'm turning off my web hosting, selling my computers and cameras and using the money to [visit a specialist in another city, buy an assistive device, join a health club, get some hookers and blow, whatever] because I'm broke" I'm certain that at least one reader would have asked "How much do you need?" In fact, probably a lot of people would have asked, most of whom have no contact with Rob or his family except through D-T and MBM&M. And, I was never asked to fund anything frivolous or have my reading priveleges revoked if I didn't donate.
I get asked for charity money ALL the time. Very rarely do I ever get anything back for it, especially anything as interesting as Rob's journal entries. It's a no-brainer for me to pitch in a little, either to help Rob directly or to back him up on a dare from one of his detractors.
Let me repeat myself, if I may:
And just so no one else wastes a lot of their free time typing a comment that could be used for scrapbooking or posting photos of your cats, Kim's was the last comment I post about the fucking donations topic from like a month ago. The very last one.
As you were.
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