Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.6 of 7)

Erin antelope, emboldened by the speeches of others involved in setting up the many nonprofits said, “Well, I don’t want my ideas about service quashed by some committee that doesn’t know better. There has to be a place for personal initiative. There are a lot of creative ideas coming forth in the community these last few years, and I think it’s a bad idea to stifle this kind of initiative.”

Leaky the Canadian goose gave it his all when he said, “This charity we’ve formed has given me a sense of personal achievement. My charitable work is a way I can help out everyone else. It also has given me personal satisfaction, and everyone who gives to our nonprofit can have that same sense of achievement and satisfaction.”

Big Red the educated bear remained on all fours, so as not to scare some of the smaller creatures, ‘It’s true, you know. You can’t tramp all over personal initiative. It’s a right of all forest animals. And we don’t all have to give every time we’re asked. You give to what you want to, let the others go away. Eventually this will all sort itself out as the forces of the market take over and weed out the weaker, less desirable charities. The best ones will survive. We’ll all need to vote by simply restricting our contributions.”

But then Homer the Lovarabbit interjected yet another issue: “We’re doing on an informal basis what our Forest Administration can’t do – we help each other when we are in need. That’s not a bad thing. It’s very much needed. It’s a way of expressing our caring, but also an avenue through which we demonstrate our ability to make that caring happen for others.”

At that point, When and Where, the groundhogs from the Forest Café, who were also recently named to the Board of Directors of the Forrest Community Foundation stepped forward. Where said, “We want to encourage all the charities to start to work together and cooperate in what they do. There are precious few resources in the forest, and we need to use them efficiently.” and Where said, “It is not appropriate that some of our residents are now earning salaries and are getting to be better off than some of the others. That brings an unwelcome inequality to the forest. We’d be much better off with some mergers and acquisitions, and if we developed ways of giving service that didn’t enrich some at the expense of others.”