Veterans For Peace- Shopping List

The Veterans for Peace have set up shop in Covington, LA. Their anti-war "road trip" is taking a break to help victims of hurricane Katrina, which I think everyone would applaud (until we get to the fine print). They've issued a shopping list of things they need in order to be effective in helping, and here's where the problems start. They want our donations so they can pay for nurses, food bank trucks, self contained kitchens and office and media equipment. Nurses, ok. Food bank trucks, well, maybe. Self contained kitchens... isn't that a bit much? And office/media equipment. What? Did I hear that right- office and media equipment?

Depending on which site you get the list from, they want up to $45,000 of our donations to pay for the following:

(5) Apple iMac G5 Computer 20" Monitor = $3,000 each
(5) 500 Gigabyte Firewire Harddrive= $500 each
(5) Canon XL2Digital Video Camera = $4,500 each
(2) Digital Projector (3000 lumens) =$1,000 each
(5) Apple iPods with recording = $600 each
Monthly Satellite Access and Website Hosting Fee = $200 pr/mo

Do they think the American people are STUPID? Why would we spend that kind of money to upgrade their media wagon when we could be using those funds to feed and clothe the suffering? Not to mention those grotesquely overpriced TOYS have no business being there anyway.

Veterans for Peace are using the disaster to scam us into outfitting them for their pilgrimage into the political arena. Shame on them!

How about those self contained kitchens and food service trucks and vans. Will they be leaving all that stuff in New Orleans for the benefit of the people? And this rolling media center, in their own words- "will support refugees, volunteers, Red Cross, staff, press, keep in touch through via email, web, blogs, and teleconferencing. In order to insure our message gets out." And there it is, folks, the whole reason behind the humanitarian effort and the huge expense-

"In order to insure our message gets out!"

Dear veterans, if you need all this stuff to be "truely effective" in helping the disaster victims, as you say, then maybe you're not cut out for charity work. By your own admission, you're not effective. That means you're in the way. Go home and let someone be there who will make do with what they have for the right reasons. We will not trust our donations to someone who uses them for their own agenda under the guise of hurricane relief.

By the way, how many hungry mouths will an ipod feed?



Here are links to some of their sites in case you want to see for yourself:
http://crawfordpeace.nfshost.com/node/1865
http://www.vfpsb.org/
http://www.vfproadtrips.org/