Now that Congress has put United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on notice that the globalist organization he leads had better rethink their recent snubs to the United States or lose valuable taxpayer dollars, Annan spent part of his day last Thursday sucking up to key congressmen, in an obvious damage-control effort.
That butt-kissing fits nicely with arguments anti-U.N. folks like myself have been making for some time. I’ve said it before: U.N. policy dealing with Washington doesn’t revolve around ensuring American “participation” in U.N.-sponsored globalism per se, it’s about American money.
Annan and other anti-American factions in the globalist organization would rather U.S. representatives kept their mouths shut and their ideas to themselves. To anti-U.S. factions at the United Nations, America is like that rich, doltish cousin you tolerate because you don’t want him to write you out of his will.
To wit, all it took for Annan to come to Washington with hat in hand, you’ll notice, was a threat to withhold $250 million in funding the United States allegedly still “owes” the U.N. Were he standing on his “principles,” it wouldn’t matter if the U.S. voted to take its ball and go home.
Anti-U.S. factions at the U.N. are loathe to admit it, but were it not for the United States, there would be no United Nations. We thought it up, set it up, and got it running. We host it. We finance most of it. We are its largest benefactor. We are its most important member, in terms of financial and military support.
Yet the U.N., and other debtor nations around the world, constantly accuse Americans of being selfish, self-centered and squeamish about lending a hand when others need it most. That galls me because, as an American, I know better, and I know you know better too.
You can find selfish elements in any society, but generally speaking, Americans are traditionally a most generous lot and I can prove it.
According to the most recent figures, Americans gave a record $206 billion to charities last year, up nearly 7 percent from 1999 and despite a weakened U.S. economy.
The privately run Trust for Philanthropy, which has tracked U.S. charitable giving for over four decades, said in the past 10 years alone, Americans have doubled their charitable giving.
“Religious groups received the biggest proportion of the donations – around $74 billion, but the Trust notes a growing trend towards giving to environmental and wildlife causes and groups that provided public and society benefits,” one report said, quoting the group’s statistics.
Not bad for a nation of “deadbeats,” eh Kofi?
Interestingly, this is precisely the pool of generosity that President Bush has said he wants to tap in order to generate even more charitable giving, while giving said donors a tax break for doing so.
Bush seems to know about and understand basic Americanism. He realizes that if private charitable donations rise for social and civil organizations, the federal government can begin to back out of the welfare-state business. And to inspire donations, he wants to reward those who give.
The U.N. hierarchy, as well as U.N. backers in our own Congress, should take a lesson in basic Americanism, as well as from the most recent figures on American charitable contributions. If you allow that concept to work and even reward those who are generous, there is virtually no limit to the amount of money you could raise in a wealthy nation like the United States.
Instead, Annan bashes the United States until, finally, the U.S. smacks him back. Then, in shame, he comes here with his hand out like some pathetic beggar who is sorry he stole your apples from the front of your store last week. Pitiful.
If nothing else, these figures give us plenty of ammunition to refute the Annans of the world and expose them for the hypocritical boobs they are.
The next ungrateful bonehead at the United Nations, or in Congress, who feigns to suggest that Americans are skinflints ought to be shamed into submission. Americans, statistics prove, are about as generous as a people can get.
Is there any other country on earth that generates $200 billion worth of charitable giving from its citizens while suffering an economic slowdown? If so, fine – go see their leaders, Kofi.
How’d Trump do it? Here’s his secret weapon
Wayne Allyn Root