I just read Jeri's post which was in part about junk mail and charities so rather than mention this in a comment to her I decided to write my own rant.

There's a webpage where we can check out local charities and I got a suggestion from the former national commander of the Legion on how to help veterans, but then there was this.....

For several days an area code 516 number (Long Island) has been calling all our phones. We don't usually answer unknown numbers but I picked it up this morning before I saw caller ID.

It was a recorded message from some sort of police union asking for money for the families of the average 100 cops who get killed on duty during any year.

Good thing it was a recording or I would have asked who is taking a collection for the families of the 400+ citizens who were already killed by the cops so far this year. "Cop" isn't even on the 10 ten list of most dangerous jobs. The last State Police officer who was killed in the "line of duty" ran her car off the road while she was on the clock. Those folks are already over-paid with starting salaries while training of 60K. Their surviving spouses are well provided for and their kids get college paid for. What more could one want? Farming is a more dangerous job and If I choose to donate for the survivors of a worker in one of these professions I'd rather support the people who feed me.

Ok, rant over, L8er,