FreeRepublic Fundraiser -- Important -- FreeRepublic NEEDS Your Help! (Thread 44)

It will be very easy for you to say, "Well, I will do something, some day. When I can afford it, I am going to." But would you let an old "grad" tell you one thing now? Giving is a habit. Get into the habit now, because you will never be able to afford to give and contribute, thus to repay the obligation you owe to those people who made this college possible, if you wait until you think you can afford it. Start now regardless of how small, and in the days to come when you are confronted with demands for many worthwhile causes and charities I think you will find that you will give dutifully to all the worthy ones. But here and there you will pick one or two that will be favorites, and you can do no better than to pick this, your Alma Mater, because you will not only be repaying your own personal obligations, you will be making your contribution to the very process which has made and continues to keep America great.
This democracy of ours which sometimes we've treated so lightly, is more than ever a comfortable cloak, so let us not tear it asunder, for no man knows once it is destroyed where or when he will find its protective warmth again. - Ronald Reagan

While the large donations are exciting, the small ones may be more treasured ...... they may actually be sacrificial. So don't be reluctant to give if your donation can only be $5 or $10 ..... those are vital to the success of FR. And bumps help, too! :-) - posted by WillaJohns -

I move we put the fundraiser on hold while the national tragedy is unfolding.

I second that emotion.

From the Associated Press:
Grand total 266 dead on the aircraft.

–American Airlines Flight 11: A Boeing 767 en route from Boston to Los Angeles. The plane was carrying 81 passengers, nine flight attendants and two pilots. The location of the crash has not been determined.

–American Airlines Flight 77: A Boeing 757 en route from Dulles Airport near Washington to Los Angeles. The plane was carrying 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots. The location of the crash has not been determined.

–United Airlines Flight 93: A Boeing 757, crashed southeast of Pittsburgh while en route from Newark, N.J. to San Francisco. The plane was carrying 38 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants.

–United Airlines Flight 175: A Boeing 767. The flight was bound from Boston to Los Angeles. It was carrying 56 passengers, two pilots and seven flight attendants. The airline would not say where the plane crashed.

I expect that every American airport will now look and operate like an Israeli airport. Bear in mind that about 50,000 people work in the World Trade Center and this happened in the middle of an ordinary day of business. Fortunately there was about a one-hour delay between the impacts and the collapse of the towers. A lot of the people in the towers probably got out alive.

At least 266 people died on the aircraft. A total of two United aircraft and two American Airlines aircraft have crashed, and all Freepers are encouraged to pray for the families of those killed and injured. Relief efforts, particularly donations of blood, deserve our immediate support.

It is possible that the losses at Pearl Harbor will pale in comparison to this unbelievably dastardly attack. Total killed at Pearl Harbor, as I recall, were about 2,000. Over 12 times that many were working in the WTC at the time of the attack.

One of the government spokesmen pointed out that all four flights were from the East Coast to California, and that "the bastards knew they would be loaded with fuel." NBC's Tim Russert is reporting from Washington that there is "unprecedented anger" in response to this attack, but they "don't know where or how to channel it." I anticipate that we will know very soon, and that our response will be devastating.

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