Charitable Gift Giving

The image you see to your left is the Arabic character ن, or “Nūn”. Normally it’d be a beautiful character in a beautiful alphabet, but its meaning has been perhaps forever tarnished by the way it’s been used in the wars of the Middle East.  The character stands for “Nasara” or “Nazarenes”, a pejorative word used […]

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As most of you who read this blog know, I live in the New York City area. I was one of the fortunate ones to whom Hurricane Sandy meant a few hours of lost power and inconvenience. But it’s heart-wrenching to hear the stories coming in. Many people in Long Island, New Jersey, and New […]

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One of the sad realities of any disaster is that criminals and charlatans will invariably come and try to profit off of them by trying to pass themselves off as charities. If you get approached by an individual or receive something in the mail, double-check and triple-check it before providing any kind of financial information. […]

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This past summer was one of the most devastating wildfire seasons in Colorado history. It cost six lives and destroyed over 600 homes. It also took over 5,000 firefighters to contain, many of them from volunteer fire companies that were pushed to their brink. Back in August, The Art to Ashes Project was formed by […]

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While most of us in the United States were focused on Hurricane Isaac here on the Western Hemisphere, there was a deadly typhoon, Typhoon Haikui, that was pummeling Asia. While Isaac didn’t come close to the devastation many predicted, the opposite is true of what Haikui did to the Philippines. Over 90% of Manila was […]

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I used to work at Merrill Lynch in downtown Manhattan between 1999 and 2001 at 222 Broadway, a block from the World Trade Center. I’d have a little ritual every other day after work. I’d walk down Fulton Street, cross Vesey, walk into the World Trade Center and cross the walkway into the World Financial Center, and down to the Merrill Lynch Fitness Center. From time to time, […]

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Songs for Japan is a benefit album featuring the biggest hits from some of the world’s top music stars, available for immediate download on iTunes. All proceeds will go to benefit the Red Cross in Japan. Here’s a track list: 1) Imagine (remastered) – John Lennon 2) Walk On (radio edit) – U2 3) Shelter […]

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