Service Rightly Motivated Is True Service To One's Communitiy; Or Why I am Totally Against Forced Charity

I have very definite feelings about the need to give back to the community. And I am involved; I just don't like to talk about it unless I am asking you for help. But I also disagree with forced charity. My law firm requires it's employees to contribute to charity. My law school required it's students to do 40 hours, before graduation, of something that was loosely defined along the lines of "giving back" to the community. In college, we had numerous "drives" encouraging students to "give back" to the community. And before you graduated, you had to show that you had participated in at least one.

Now, as you can probably tell, I was not a fan of any of these initiatives. I donate of my time and money on a regular basis. I just don't want to have to tell you about it.

I truly feel that the community does not need your forced charity, not when you have no real relationship to or understanding of the agency you are forced to support, and not when you do it for a photo op. Not when it is done as something you must do to get your J.D. degree. Not when it is done as something you must do to meet your corporate obligations. Not when you are not connected. I think you do more harm than good. Especially when it involves children.

In law school we had a discussion about one's duty to the community, and as it was amongst the Black law students, it was a very guilt-infused discussion. The feelings on the topic ranged from people who felt that driving in disadvanted communities in your BMW is giving back, to people who felt doing anything else with your life other than devoting yourselves to these communities makes you a sell out (now this is my understanding of the discussion, and not a fact!). I think it falls somewhere in the middle. I think it involves passion, and connection, and a sense of duty to fellow human beings.

Last month I read a story on CNN about a woman who lives in Texas and each week she loads up her car with toys, and clothes, and food for children in a town across the Mexican border. She and her husband have started a church and mission there. She had been doing this for years, long before someone who knows her brought it to the attention of a reporter. She does it because she cares. She doens't tell people, beyond asking them for donations. She doesn't use it to meet a corporate need, or assague guilt. She does it for the little children whose lives are made better every week simply because she cares.