One for the Good Guys
Professor Bainbridge today praises Spirit of America, and posts a favourable Opinion Journal article regarding the charity. Basically, they're trying to collect things needed to help rebuild Iraq. After identifying local needs through his contacts with the Marines, Spirit of America sends them over to Iraq where they can do immediate good on the ground. His latest project is to try to put together an Iraqi TV station before the handover, thus providing an alternative to Al-Jazeera.
The charity's primary advantage is the ability to avoid a bureaucracy suitable for equipping a massive military force in order to accomplish small acts of good. Remember when I was excoriating Take Back the Night Marches? Well, this is the opposite: a bundle of people seeing a problem and working to actually come up with a solution. It won't solve everything, it won't band-aid the world, and it doesn't raise all that much 'consciousness.' Just some folks getting the tools they need to build something. The guy who runs this, Jim Hake, gets my respect for his effort (and some of my money).