The “Wonk Wonk” of the Week Award goes to:
Wednesday, March 30th, 2005The parents of Terri Schiavo are adding more news to the already insurmountable pile they’ve already created. From The New York Times:
The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.
If you are one of the thousands who have given financial donations to the Schindlers towards their legal battle to reinsert their daughter’s feeding and hydration tubes, you’ve just helped them a second time without even knowing it. Don’t worry though, you’ll be well aware of it soon - when your mailbox is full of conservative junk mail! You may also be recieving conservative spam if you gave Schindler your email address. How much is he getting for selling out those who were nice enough to donate money to him out of the kindness of their hearts? The direct-mailing (and apprently e-mailing) firm is paying Schindler “$150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo’s father,” according to the New York Times. Not bad, I could rent a one-bedroom apartment here in New Brunswick for what he’ll make a month off of the names, addresses, and email addresses of people who were trying to do nothing more than offer him help in the fight to keep his daughter alive.
Soon, Terri will be dead. Somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 people had enough emotional stake in her life to send Robert Schindler money to help fight keep her alive. I may not have agreed with those people, but they were simply trying to help with something that they believed was right. And this is how Robert Schindler pays them back.
