| October 19, 2001
By TOM DUGGAN
PAYING ATTENTION
Since the September 11 tragedy
millions of dollars have been
donated by well intended
Americans to benefit the
“victims” of the
terrorist attacks. We have opened
our hearts and wallets to help
our fellow countrymen in dire
need of immediate help. It is a
great show of our American
patriotism and our willingness to
sacrifice to help others.
While millions of dollars are
pouring into charity funds,
however, the victims themselves
are wondering, where’s the
money? Fox News commentator Bill
O’Rielly recently
interviewed two women who were
widowed when planes crashed into
the World Trade Center towers.
Both of whom said, a full month
after the attacks, that they had
not been contacted by any
charitable organization to get
financial help.
Both widows said that they were
in desperate need of financial
aid to buy food for their
children, pay their mortgage and
take care of daily needs. Both
widows said that they were
concerned about all the money
being raised saying they
contacted these charities
themselves and were told there
was no mechanism in place (as of
yet) to disperse the money
collected.
The United Way has run television
commercials stating that all of
the money donated to their fund
would go directly to the victims,
yet their website says that
administrative costs will be
taken out before money will be
allocated. O’Reilly invited
executives from the United Way
and several other charitable
organizations on the air to
discuss the situation but none of
them would agree to discuss the
issue in public.
Former North Andover resident
Elizabeth Orth, whose mother was
on American flight #11 says that
she contacted several charitable
organizations and they were only
concerned with asking her to
donate money. “I kept
telling them my mother was killed
and I wanted to know how to go
about applying for aid. After
transferring me to several
different people I was finally
told they were only collecting
money at this point. They are
collecting, all right, but the
people they say they are helping
are not being helped. We need
help now, we can’t wait a
year to pay our mortgage and take
care of our families.”
Several congressman have said
they want the federal government
to oversee the huge amounts of
money being collected to be sure
that it is being properly
handled. And while I am the first
person to advocate less
government involvement in our
lives, it is clear that someone
has to step in. According to the
Attorney Generals’ office a
committee must be set up by each
charity to decide how to spend
the money. Yet, to date, a full
month after the tragedy, none of
the organizations raising money
have done this.
It’s so sad that American
families have been destroyed by
the terrorist attacks of
September 11th. But, what’s
even more sad is that the
millions of dollars being donated
give us the impression that
people are being helped, while
the victims are still waiting to
be contacted.
Where’s the Money? Nobody
knows. We do not know how much
has been collected. We do not
know exactly how the funds are
being handled. We don’t even
know how these families are
getting by.
I know that many of these
non-profits are taking money off
the top for themselves.
That’s a fact. Donating
money will only serve to make
ourselves feel good that we are
doing something for the families
of this attack but the reality
is, so far the money is
collecting interest in the bank
accounts of these non profits.
I think about the fact that the
head of the united way is still
in jail for stealing millions of
dollars from his organization and
that was when the money was not
pouring in millions at a time.
And then I think about people
like Elizabeth Orth, working to
pay her way thorough school, now
burdened with paying the mortgage
on her mothers house and waiting
for all this relief that is
sitting in someone’s war
chest.
If you want to help the victims
of this tragedy, call the
charitable organizations and
start asking, where’s the
money? How many victims have you
helped to date? Why is it taking
so long to get these people the
help you promise them? And then
call your congressman and tell
them what kind of answers you
got. Tell them that there needs
to be federal oversight of the
millions of dollars being
collected.
We have an obligation to help our
fellow citizens by not just
donating a few dollars, but
making sure it is going where it
is supposed to go. From what I
have seen so far, the victims of
this tragedy are suffering
needlessly because nobody is
minding the store.
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