The giving season

Last week, on the eve of the holiday season, a national organization that tracks philanthropic giving released a report showing that the New England states, including Maine, trail the pack in supporting charity.

Explanations, and excuses, were offered: New Englanders are an independent lot; they prefer to give locally and quietly; the study was based upon itemized tax returns, maybe Yankess don’t itemize as much as flatlanders.

Hogwash.

To see just how much hogwash, one need look no further than the Rockland Salvation Army. As reported in this newspaper’s Thanksgiving Day edition, Capt. Jean-Paul Richard isn’t just finding his kettles bare, he can’t even get enough bell-ringers to tend them.

The same story is popping up throughout the region. The Boston Salvation Army, for example, tried to boost its corps of volunteer Sidewalk Santas by offering new recruits $7 per hour and got precious few takers.

In a time of vanishing unemployment, this difficulty in finding warm bodies willing to stand out in the cold is somewhat, though far from entirely, understandable. In a time of economic stability and low inflation, this new miserliness is perplexing.

To be sure, Mainers have a long, proud history of helping neighbors in need. The counters of general stores throughout the state are littered with collection jars to aid families devastated by fire or catastrophic illness. In town after town, volunteers gave up their own Thanksgiving to serve meals to their local elderly and needy.

That’s commendable, but charity, while beginning at home, doesn’t end there. And that’s where organizations such as the Salvation Army come in. They can reach out to folks you don’t know with food, clothes, toys and fuel. When disaster strikes, they know what to do and they’re ready to do it.

Early returns suggest a robust shopping season with record crowds. That means a lot of small change — loose coins and crumpled dollars — is going back into pockets, wallets and purses to be squandered elsewhere. Or, it could go into a red kettle and do some real good.

A lot has been written and said about charity, how it is the pearl of Christianity, how it beats out faith and hope any day. Heck, it even covers the mulititude of sins, which alone sounds like reason enough to give.