March 4, 2011: Our readers write

March is as good a month as any to help
March is Red Cross Month, and the American Red Cross is asking you to join us in providing help and hope to people in need.
The Red Cross works tirelessly to help those who need assistance, whether down the street, across the country, or around the world. We respond to disasters, help members of the military, provide blood for those in need and teach lifesaving skills.
When you help with a gift of your time, your blood donation or a financial contribution, you join the Red Cross. We want to thank those supporters whose generosity helps ensure we are able to continue our service to those who need us. Thanks to them, the Red Cross is there when needed most.
In the past year, the Hardin/LaRue Service Center helped more than 70 families affected by house fires, issue more than 8,000 CPR/first aid certificates and collected more than 7,000 units of blood.
Red Cross Month is a great time for people to join the Red Cross. Please give blood or sign up to be one of our volunteers. Please take one of our lifesaving training classes. Please give a financial gift. Please join us, and enable us to continue our work, both here at home and around the world.
Sharon T. Thompson
Manager, American Red Cross, Hardin/LaRue Service Center

On benevolence
Benevolence is when I willingly give something of my own to another individual with no expectation of either a returned favor or obligation. Giving things which don’t personally belong to me does not count as there is no personal sacrifice on my part. 
I have a problem with those who refer to taxpayer-funded public assistance programs as a form of benevolence. Decades ago, liberals began using tax money to circumvent a traditional mission of the church to buy votes and consequent political power.
The source of money being used for these programs is my first issue. U.S. citizens don’t voluntarily pay taxes. Taxes are collected under force of law. People falling behind in tax payments are pursued without mercy by government agencies. No one, liberal or conservative, should dispute that.
When politicians pass bills that many consider “benevolence,” there is no personal sacrifice on their part because money they spend are tax dollars belonging to the collective people.
There are too many federally subsidized things in larger cities in this nation, such as public transportation.
Large metropolitan areas are always taken care of by liberal political machines because of the Electoral College vote power liberals reap in each presidential election I’ve ever seen. This vote power for use in future presidential elections is calculated  prior to each typically liberal bill being submitted.
A huge example of phony benevolence is looming on the horizon. Many think that blanket amnesty is a benevolent solution to the immigration problem. There will be a huge glut of uneducated, untrained, often criminal individuals who will need liberal public assistance programs to survive. The apparent plan is to grant them amnesty, register them to vote and fortify the liberal voting block for future elections. In my opinion, this is why President Barack Obama drags his feet on the immigration issue. If so, it’s not about benevolence.
Harry M. Braxton Jr.
Elizabethtown