[Dialogue] The Red Cross

[Chagnon@comcast.net]

   I grew up in Athol, Mass., working in my Dad's drugstore during vacations from the age of ten until the winter I entered the convent at 17.  I don't remember getting paid.  I do remember loving to wait on trade and take charge. Some days I was alone at the soda fountain, making cokes with syrup and "fizzy water" for a nickel; selling Pall Mall cigarettes for 21cents a pack; or calling Dad from the back room, where he was filling prescriptions, because someone wanted a bottle of Johnnie Walker from the liquor display behind the cash register.  
   I remember three strong admonitions Dad gave me:  
--Once I called an Italian a wop.  I never did it again.  
--Ray's Pharmacy (name of previous owner) was one of three locally owned drugstores in our small milltown of 12,000 in north central Mass; and there was Liggetts.  We were required to support local merchants and not allowed to trade at any chain stores except the five and tens (Woolworth; Fishman's) because they had no local counterparts.
--When the hat was passed, we were not allowed to give to the Red Cross because, Dad said, they were not honest with what they did with the money.  We gave to the Salvation Army. 
   Today's International Clearing House piece did not surprise me.  I thought of Fred Tessier who died 44 years ago.  I don't know how he knew, but he did; and I knew he would want me to share it with my colleagues.  The URL follows.

A Bait-and-Switch Charity: The Scandalous History of the Red Cross
http://www.counterpunch.com/allen10202005.html

Lucille Chagnon
in Wilmington, DE where I saw two trees today that were no longer green (but there's no global warming).