[achafallya]

This is my first post and i would like to introduce http://www.reboottees.com where you can buy the MAKE LEVEES NOT WAR T-shirt. It is a high quality T-shirt with a very apt slogan. All the profits go to the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund. New Orleans is still in very bad shape folks. The city has no money, the energy company (Entergy) has declared bankrupcy and people are still hurting. I believe that the city can rise again and getting the music back there will be a key ingredient in this process. Check out the site and buy a bunch of shirts as Christmas gifts and wear one to your next gathering.

 

[sarafina]

Welcome to the forum! I applaud your effort. Will you be offering more tees in support of New Orleans or is this the only one?

 

[achafallya]

Thank you for the applause. ...(aw schucks)
Yes!! I will be offering girly tees (ringer neck type) as soon as they come back from the printer- same color/style. I will also be doing other color schemes and I hope to have them online at least 10 days before Xmas. I also have some new designs in the pipeline but I will not be able to pump those out til after the ..New Year.
Thank you for your post sarafina!!

 

[monkeylantern]

Superb idea, and I commend you.

However....no offense....but isn't New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund a slightly peculiar choice of charity for such an effort?

Isn't it a little like selling charity tees following the tsunami and giving all the proceeds to Indian Ocean Surfers and Clay Pigeon Shooting Relief Fund?

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

I was kind of thinking the same thing. I'm sure there are people out there that would like the shirt, and even more that would buy it just because it is New Orleans related, but may not really want to support the New Orleans Musicians Hurrican Relief Fund. I think maybe picking some worthwhile Katrina-related charities, listing them on the site, and explain that the funds would be distributed between those charities might be better. That way you could include the musicians and others affected by the hurricane as well. It may also prompt more people to buy the shirts, thereby getting more money for the cause that's dear to you, the musicians.
Just a thought.

 

[Solmu]

Charity is about helping those who need help; is a cancer patient more worthy than someone afflicted with MS? Is drug addiction worse than schizophrenia? Is natural disaster more or less worthy than a war?

Is a musician a better or worse choice of charity than another type of person?

We can't help everyone, and so we each choose who to help.

So long as help is going to people who need help, I don't think it's fair to criticise someone for helping. The point achafallya makes on the site (I think that's what's being gotten at anyway...) is that the musicians are the life blood of New Orleans, without them the city won't thrive, and with them back on their feet the city can truly start to rebuild itself. Help them and they will in turn help other people. Now you may or may not agree with that contention, but it's a reasonable viewpoint and if someone chooses to support that viewpoint instead of e.g. the Red Cross, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I don't think there's anything peculiar about the choice.

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

I went back to the site and got corrected. On the mission page it states at the end that more charities would be added in the near future. I missed this on my first glance.

Solmu, I agree that charities are about helping people. I wasn't critisizing the fact that
achafallya chose musicians to help, but that other people might think that people being homeless, or not having food to eat, might consider music a strange cause to support given the plight of some of the other people in New Orleans. If music is the choice, I have no problem with that. I just suggested that if other charities were added, in the long run the musicians would probably benefit more from the sale of the shirts, than if the only charity that benefited were musicians. But the idea to add more charities was already there, I just missed it.

 

[DickTees.net]

Isn't it a little like selling charity tees following the tsunami and giving all the proceeds to Indian Ocean Surfers and Clay Pigeon Shooting Relief Fund?

Well... are the Indian Ocean Surfers and Clay Pigeon Shooters from Sri Lanka?

You are comparing apples and oranges. What would be strange is if rebottees.com were donating funds to the Arkansas Hillbilly Hunt Club. Instead they are donating funds to a charitable organization that is helping out victims of Hurricane Katrina who just happen to be musicians. Keep in mind that a lot of these people/musicians were poverty level citizens of NOLA before the Hurricane. Just because they are musicians does not mean that they are any better off than the rest of the survivors.

It's a worthy cause.

 

[achafallya]

All of you~ thank you for your comments and hearty debate...
I must be brief- as I am about to get on a redeye to New Orleans- where I will be camping out in my house in the Bywater area for a week -and attempt to get Entergy to hook my house up w some electricity -and meet with insurance adjustors and such...i will check back with you guys in a week and participate in what looks to be a great forum here.
best~
achafallya~