When we left Hemant Mehta, he was still trying to get someone
in Morton Grove — anyone — to accept his money. the $3,000 in donations. As I
noted in my column last week, Mehta had asked readers of his blog on atheism to help make good
money lost to the Morton Grove park district when the local American Legion
post withdrew their regular contribution to protest the fact that one park district
board chose not to stand while the members stood to recite the schoolchild’s
Pledge of Allegiance.
I am delighted to report the news that the Niles Township Food Pantry confirmed the receipt of Mehta’s donation,
and deposited the money with its other holiday contributions. One trustee of the charity – an elected
official, and thus the anxious type – had fretted that some people in the
community would stop giving themselves if their money was mixed with that of
the godless. How the food pantry might be harmed by being associated with
generosity was not explained. In the end, the directors of the food pantry
sensibly concluded it is the gift, not the giver that matters when you are feeding
the hungry.
This article appears in Jan 9-15, 2014.
