I acknowledge your kindness
"Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of [the human] race is indiscriminate charity." — Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919, "Wealth", From the North American Review, June 1889.
These words of warning by Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born US industrialist and philanthropist, are poignant even today. It is a good thing that, in the name of charity, many caring people give what they can to one or more favourite causes.
However, it sometimes happens that when they give a dollar to certain large organisations, as much as 90 cents of it is used to pay upper-middle-class administrators to get the other 10 cents to a person who may or may not be in need. I am urging all who would be charitable to please be wiser than that. Use discernment to send your donations where they are really needed and used for the greatest benefit.
Give as much as you can, and give where you feel that you can do the most good. While you are in that benevolent state, I hope some of you will think of individuals such as myself who are in need.
Yes, I need your help. For more than 20 years I have been living on death row, locked down 18 to 21 hours a day in a tiny cell. Those of us living under the death sentence are not allowed by the prison to work for pay, nor does it supply anything more than an austere diet and the most basic hygiene and clothing needs.
I am a writer, and writing the way I do is a costly endeavour in a US prison. For the last eight years I have produced the "Looking out" column weekly. My international publishing credits include a column in the Atlanta News Weekly called "An Inside Look with Brandon A. Jones", as well as articles and essays in the New Internationalist Magazine, the Nonviolent Activist and Skipping Stones.
I have developed an extensive correspondence network with readers from all over the world who respond to my articles and columns. Currently, I am preparing for publication a collection of my writings, which includes an autobiographical account of whence I, a middle-aged, African-American essayist, poet and storyteller, came.
The prison does not supply prisoners with pens, paper, envelopes, postage stamps or copies. It sells a limited selection of those things via the prison's store. It costs me about $50 each week for the necessities for my work. I have no support, either financial or emotional, from family. I depend entirely on donations from friends and readers.
I need your help; immediately. I can assure you, every cent of every dollar you share with me will be used directly and thoughtfully to take care of my very real needs.
I welcome any amount of money that it is possible for you to donate. Please make your money order out to Del Cassidy, my trustee, and send it to him at: 142 Wilmer Street, Glassboro, New Jersey, 08028 USA. He will see to it that I get every cent.
Please print clearly your full name and address so that I can acknowledge your kindness.
BY BRANDON ASTOR JONES
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA, or email <BrandonAstorJones@hotmail.com>. You can visit the author's web site at <http://www.BrandonAstorJones.com>.]