Pajamas Media

73 Comments

1. Roger Coke:

The American Bar Association is a notorious coven of rabid PC activists. State bar associations often have the same problem.

Real working attorneys have little time to waste on PC garbage, so it becomes relatively easy for a small clique – protected by a coddled union – to take over an organization.

Not infrequently, these cliques coalesce around sexual relationships.

Jun 5, 2008 - 3:28 am 2. Bob:

I quit the ABA long ago, not because it does not have many good projects that help lawyers but because it has too many that only support what it views as PC (read “liberal”) goals, like abortion, gun control, etc. At hundreds of dollars a year, I can find better causes to fund.

Jun 5, 2008 - 4:11 am 3. Pinkie Ann LeBrainne:

Send the $400 to your nearest Boy Scout troop. It will help fund lots of healthy concepts you can believe in. Send the receipt to the APA.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:10 am 4. Bulgaricus:

When I was a teacher in CA in the 1990s, I was required to join the NEA. In fact, one year I had to be the cursed union rep for our school simply because no one else wanted the job.

Frankly, as an evangelical Christian I had virtually no similar values or political beliefs that the union had. Never mind having the $ deducted from my check that went for lobbying liberal causes, Planned Parenthood & any democrat running for office.

Professional unions are a joke, if you ask me. Their leadership is often completely out of touch w/ the people they claim to represent.

Anyway, glad I’m outta there now. Great article!

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:19 am 5. Helen Smith:

Pinkie Ann Lebrainne,

Now that is a good idea!

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:21 am 6. Sassenach:

If you can’t morally support the activities of an organization, why would you financially support it?

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:33 am 7. jvon:

Thank you so much for continuing to call attention to the ridiculous way men are portrayed, well, everywhere.

I would never pay dues in a professional organization that published garbage like that. Fortunately I am in the tech field, which is more or less apolitical. I *have* however lost consulting business when customers here in Seattle found out that I was a Republican. I think they figured if I was stupid enough to think invading Iraq was a good idea, I had no business managing their networks.

Of course, to be fair, I don’t know that I’d hire a liberal as an accountant, but maybe we shouldn’t go there.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:45 am 8. s salley:

Dropped out of the AMA years ago for the same reason. The only benefit was to belonging was to have it on a CV or business card but then others in the profession presumed your political persuasion.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:51 am 9. RS:

I too quit the ABA long ago when it started pushing a highly one sided “debate” about the Middle East conflict.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:58 am 10. Dr. K:

I am an engineer and have had the same issues with my 2 main professional organizations (AIChE – American Institute of Chemical Engineers – and ACS – American Chemical Society). Both organizations worship at the “Global Warming” altar, and more recently ACS has had some Editor Notes (which do not necessarily represent the views of ACS they so helpfully point out under the article) anti-death penalty. ACS has been getting worse over the past few years.

This may just be the year I put an end to this nonsense.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:58 am 11. HR:

As another example, I decided to not re-up for the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) this year when they took it upon themselves to fight the recent Georgia law reducing limitations on where concealed carry could be carried.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:02 am 12. John Keegan:

I would not want to belong to any organization that would have me as a member.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:05 am 13. docduke:

I guess I solved the “professional society” problem a long time ago. I became a Life Member of the American Physical Society (the association for physicists) in the 1970s. The annual dues today are not too much less than what I paid then. By now, they know me well enough that they’ve even stopped asking for a “voluntary donation.”

I also attend a Presbyterian church. (What could be more politically correct than a church with the acronym PCUSA?) I detest what the national headquarters is doing, so many years ago I resigned my membership and became an “active nonmember.” That way I can tithe to my local church, and 100% of my contribution stays in the local church.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:22 am 14. Mary:

I’m a member of a mainline protestant church that recently held it’s General Conference. Local churches support the “national” organization with apportionments (a portion of their collections). The “national” church is VERY liberal and actively supports a number of issues that I find objectionable. For the first time I’m actually considering leaving this particular denomination, but a part of me would like to work from within the church to wrest it away from the radical leftists who seem to be in charge now. Sigh!!

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:28 am 15. PatHMV:

I haven’t been a member of the American Bar Association since my one-year free membership expired on the first anniversary of my law school graduation. I decided not to join because during that year, because of a column written by the President of the ABA, a distinguished elder member of the bar, a white man about 60 years old or so. Writing in 1993, he stated in one of his “President’s Corner” messages in the ABA Journal that “racial relations today are the worst they’ve been in my lifetime.”

His lifetime, which began sometime in the 1930s. Worse in 1993 than when legal segregation was widespread. Worse in 1993 than before Brown v. Board of Education. Worse in 1993 than in the days of Bull Connor. Worse in 1993 than before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I decided then and there that I would never be a member of an organization capable of electing such a complete moron to its highest office.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:32 am 16. jr:

Drop out and don’t look back. If it’s anything like the ABA it adds nothing to your credentials or professional education. I like the boy scout suggestion.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:35 am 17. Kyle:

Thank you for this article Dr. Helen. I’m a public health graduate and preparing to enter into grad school this fall. For sometime now I have been struggling with joining a variety of student and professional organizations, including the American Public Health Association (APHA).

Being a conservative, it goes without saying that I am a pariah in the field. I think it could help me professionally as far as getting my career started but I just can’t bring myself to pay money for a membership to an organization that supports abortion and drinks the global warming Kool-Aid daily.

Excellent article.

-Kyle

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:37 am 18. Eugene Dillenburg:

I work in the museum field. And while most museum professionals are liberal, our professional organizations pretty much stick to their mandates and don’t get involved in politics. If they did, their already-small memberships would plummet — not out of protest, but because our financially-strapped institutions would no longer support an association that didn’t provide the professional development services we’re paying for. I did once have to ask to stop receiving a free magazine (provided by an outside vendor) when the exhibit review column morphed into a monthly political screed.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:38 am 19. Steve White:

I’ll join the chorus. I’m an academic physician and for all my professional life have refused to join the American Medical Association and the corresponding state and local chapters. The AMA is a strange mix of multiculturalist PC activism and troglodytes who still resist the advances of the 20th century. I won’t be tarred by either group.

What’s worse, several of the professional journals I need to read regularly have been infested the same way. Many of you have heard about the political hack articles coming from Lancet, but now the New England Journal of Medicine is publishing regularly politically-tainted editorials. Really guys, I can read Mother Jones for that.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:47 am 20. Jim:

A few years ago I did not renew my membership in IEEE — not over any political position taken by the national organization — but because the Central New England chapter kept sending me announcements of anti-Iraq war screeds and notices of meetings and protests despite my request that my e-mail address not be used for non-IEEE purposes.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:51 am 21. Concerned Citizen:

Why pay taxes? There are many things the government does that I won’t support.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:56 am 22. RossI:

Helen:

Very good article and very true. As a conservative trial lawyer (yes there are a few of us) I constantly see our dues from the state and local trial lawyer associations funneled to lobby for legislation and other activities which are extremely PC and very leftist. Myself and others have argued that we should get out of this game to broaden our appeal to society…but we are significantly outnumbered.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:57 am 23. pete:

I am not part of the American Library Association for a similar reason. They make ridiculous anti-Israel, anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war etc. statements that often have nothing to do with libraries and when they do somehow relate to libraries they always take the side of terrorists. See here for instance.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:06 am 24. Dave Mastio:

You pretty much can’t be a member of any journalism organization, I belong to the National conference of Editorial Writers, and not end up supporting pretty extreme affirmative action views including all kinds of minority-only programs.

It makes me think twice about renewing my membership.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:09 am 25. Percy Dovetonsils:

“Why pay taxes? There are many things the government does that I won’t support.”

Wesley Snipes, is that you?

(I do hope Concerned Citizen is being as sarcastic as I am, and understands the difference between voluntary association and government coercion.)

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:14 am 26. GM Roper:

After years of sending bucks to professional organizations in counseling and psychotherapy, I realized that my values and theirs just weren’t compatable. I quit sending in memberships. Now, I have more room on my office walls for good art, and a lot of the money I saved paid for deep sea fishing off of Bermuda several years ago.

Great article Dr. Helen, keep ‘em coming!

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:19 am 27. Mike S:

We quit the state society of CPA’s years ago because there was absolutely no value in the membership. We still belong to the AICPA, but if we want anything from them, there is an extra charge for it, so I don’t see much value to it. At least they aren’t overly political outside of the areas of accounting and taxes.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:21 am 28. andyandy:

I too am a proud ex-member of the ABA. Further, I can attest that they’ve never gotten a dime of my money directly. They made me a member for the first year after I graduated and as soon as the year was up I dropped them and have never looked back. That decision has been repeatedly validated by the ABA’s pet projects, such as their death penalty project which is staffed entirely by anti-death penalty advocates.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:28 am 29. bc:

Like the boy scouts, consider giving to the charitable arm of the Catholic church. The money will be efficiently deployed to help really desperate people, and you don’t have to worry the Pope is going to get PC any time soon.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:35 am 30. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater:

Why pay taxes? There are many things the government does that I won’t support.

Because you’re legally obliged to as a citizen of the US?

If you don’t like what the government does with your money, get enough likeminded people to change that, or move to another country.

On the other hand, membership in professional organizations is (or should be) voluntary.

You asked, I answered. Share and enjoy.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:36 am 31. Ginny:

Then there is MLA, etc. It isn’t just the pc or even the leftist, it is the arrogance of taking stances on areas in which they have no expertise (global warming might be a good example, international relations). And the arrogance to think anyone would care.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:51 am 32. Graham:

I’m in the Alaska branch of the NEA; I’m not allowed to stop paying dues as I’d lose my job. And the NEA is even more slanted and one sided than the examples you cited.

Don’t re-up. Blow the money on something with value!

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:59 am 33. Brian G:

Helen,

I get an “invoice” from the American Bar Association almost every month. I throw it right out. I will never give them a dime.

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:01 am 34. The Monk:

I’ve been a lawyer for about 13 years but the only time I was a member of the ABA was when my employer paid the dues. I’ve refused to voluntarily remit a nickel to the organization because of its politics. Too bad you’ve dropped upwards of $5600 ($400 year/14 years, I’m sure this is an overstatement because dues tend to go up, not stay steady) on supporting an organization whose political agenda has little to do with its real mission.

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:09 am 35. SSmith:

I also never joined the AMA for the same reason. I have joined the Ohio State Medical Association, though, to support the good work they have done with tort reform. They aren’t as PC as the AMA.

I, too, have noticed the political correctness creeping into the New England Journal of Medicine editorials. Makes me very sad.

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:30 am 36. JL:

As a masters level counseling student 20 years ago I ran into this in the NC professional group.

The in-thing then was “values clarification” which I initially thought had some possibilities until I realized that it did NOT mean ‘clarifying’ and then *affirming* the traditional values of the people our communities (I live in the mountains). It was instead, PC based and these people needed to be enlightened or delivered. (I had already been through “T groups” et. al. with a liberal mission board, so it was more of the same thing.)

I forget the actual issue that tipped it for me, but I ended up writing the then president and suggesting that he start acting like what his position was supposed to be — not an evangelist for left wing social engineering. I never joined the state organization and lasted only a few years with the national AACC (I thought I had to for professional credibility).

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:35 am 37. Sheila:

Exactly why I (as a long-time librarian) do not become a member of the American Library Association.

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:49 am 38. JL:

Re domestic violence: — in my small counseling practice I have had what was to me initially a surprising number lesbian clients who were on the receiving end of violence from their partner.
Not one had reported it to the police.

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:55 am 39. Thomass:

Bravo… I have to say this bias has results. While dating, I found women felt entitled to hit, slap, et cetera when angry. I even had to break my wife from doing it explaining that it’s just not cool even if she generally doesn’t have the strength to actually hurt me… I do blame the PC culture for it. Men have been trained it is wrong but by giving women the victim slot, they almost seemed encouraged by it to act up… ah la like other PC victims groups becoming emboldened to do things that would be unacceptable for other groups (re: dread white males)…

Jun 5, 2008 - 9:10 am 40. Taylor:

I left the ABA in late 1992, shortly after it endorsed abortion. Although that wasn’t my reason for leaving (I actually favor abortion as a form of liberal voluntary population control), it certainly opened my eyes to that organization’s leftist political leanings.

For me the final straw was when I received my “Young Lawyers” magazine with a cover exclaiming, “The Ultimate Pro Bono: Electing Bill Clinton President.”

I have recently left two other business associations when I started receiving communications from them that had nothing to do with their ostensible purpose: specifically, pro-Hillary exhortations and BDS-inspired anti-war rants. Psychiatric associations would do well to encourage studies into why it is that leftists seem unable to repress the urge to impose their views on others, even in what should be clearly non-political arenas. It’s an undeniable mental tic.

Jun 5, 2008 - 9:28 am 41. Chuck Pelto:

TO: Dr. Helen
RE: Brava!

The APA has been a political activist organization of the [misnomer] ‘progressive’ ilk for several decades now. I noticed it in the late 80s.

Glad to see you’ve finally (1) twigged to and (2) acted honorably on that information.

Quiting such organizations is always a good idea. However, quiting does not mean, in my opinion, disengagement. You need to keep bringing their failings before their face and boldly expressing yourself to them and others who are associated with them or are aware of them. Just like you’re doing here.

Keep up the good work…

….we’re all excited.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Silence is acceptance.]

Jun 5, 2008 - 10:12 am 42. Roderick Reilly:

My ex worked for both the APA Dr. Helen speaks of, and its “sister” organization known as the “little APA” (American Psychological Association). Dysfunctional snakepits both.

The single creepiest thing about the “big” APA was one of its past Presidents: Dr. John Money. No, seriously, Dr. Money. Dr. Money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Money) was the monster who insisted that a Canadian male infant who lost his penis in a botched circumcision should be raised as a girl, simply because that creepy old asshat of a shrink was convinced that gender roles could be assigned like the flipping of a switch. The young “boy/girl” (”Brenda”) proceeded to live a horrible nightmare of a life that finally ended in suicide, but not before his travails were widely publicized on TV and in print.

The APA in general has shown the same kind of depraved indifference to human nature as Dr. Money, and has had an outsized and damaging influence on American social policy. Which circle of Dante’s Hell do they belong in?

Jun 5, 2008 - 10:24 am 43. kumayama:

I joined the APA long ago, as an idealistic student, and was so increasingly estranged from it I quit before I even graduated.

Time passes, some colleagues convince me to re-up. I say, “it’s whacky-left-wing-political.” They say, “no, no, it is mostly about improving the field, disseminating new knowledge, blah, blah.”

So I join. I can’t believe it! It is worse than a caricature of a blatant political rag. The Monitor, the monthly publication for members (as opposed to the scientific journals), has hardly a single page without some type of politically-charged loony leftie writing. The only cheering words (for me) were the letters to the editor in the front of each issue, from psychologists resigning their memberships, saying the political bias was unacceptable for a professional organization.

Now I am a member no more, forever.

Jun 5, 2008 - 11:02 am 44. KenB:

I dropped out of the American Bar Association for the same reason.

Jun 5, 2008 - 11:12 am 45. Boca Condo King:

FYI,

Just got a kindle, neat little box, but not yet sure if it is worth it.

Keep in mind that a Kindle book is still going to cost 50 to 75% of the print version.

Very convienent for sure, but not free or cheap to use.

FYI I only belong to two orgs. 1. NRA, 2. AOPA.

Jun 5, 2008 - 11:19 am 46. Mr. Peabody:

I am surprised no one has voiced the obvious. Our nation and its institutions (education, political, professional associations, charitable organizations…etc.) have been infiltrated and infected by Socialists. These vile leftist ideologues are laboring furiously to destroy our society, and they have made serious progress to that end. I wonder how long the conservative right will be content to slumber while their nation is stolen right out from under their noses? Anyone care to comment?

Jun 5, 2008 - 11:19 am 47. Wacky Hermit:

I’m a former member of the MAA (Mathematical Association of America) but not for political reasons; I’m changing careers and membership was no longer necessary. But I was always uncomfortable with the focus on special programs for encouraging women in mathematics. Women get something like half the undergraduate degrees but end up as around 10% of the full-time tenure-track professors. I thought a better special program for encouraging women in mathematics would be the invention of part-time tenure track positions, but evidently that hadn’t occurred to anyone but me and some large finite number of female part-time adjunct professors.

Jun 5, 2008 - 11:44 am 48. Rob Ives:

I quit the ABA a long time ago because it takes positions on issues not related to the practice of law. In addition, I disagree with many of those positions.

As a Kindle owner, I strongly recommend it.

Jun 5, 2008 - 12:19 pm 49. Karen Haff:

When I was in grad sschool 30 years ago to earn my MSW, I was (forcibly) introduced to
Black Liberation Tjheology in a course that insisted that ALL Whites, regardless of what they think, say or do, are racist, while it is literally impossible for ANY Black to be a racist, regardless of what he says, thinks or does. I sat there and thought of Viola Liuzzo and her son, two White people from NYC who travelled to Mississippi as freedon riders and were kidnapped and murdered by the KKK. Apparently, they weere just as much racists as the people who killed them. This is still regarded as an article of faith in liberal circles, by the way. I thought at the time that such idiocy could not possible last for long, but I was wrong. If anything, it has actually become worse.
I no longer practice social work. I couldn’t stand the nonsense any more. I never did join the professional association, and that was why.

Jun 5, 2008 - 12:22 pm 50. jb:

I dropped out of the A.P.A. about 15 years ago. They went from being a “professional organization” to being another wing of the progressive Democrats. (I’m to the right of Rush Limbaugh. grin)

I have to admit I was a little fearful of dropping my membership but at least in my state, that hasn’t kept me off any insurance lists.

One year ago I “counseled” another peer professional, who was reprimanded by the APA for inviting an ex-client to church and had to go to therapy with a licensed professional who was me. IRONY.
Ah, the long reach of the A.P.A. I wrote the obligatory letter to the APA ethics board explaining how their member had seen the “error of his ways” and was now much more sensitive to possible ethical issues. It was all Bull-Shovelings; especially my letter.

Glad I’m out. Don’t know how your status might be affected in TN., hopefully not at all.

Drop ‘em like a hot potato Helen.
They’re a cancer to a free society; ultimately fascists in nature.

Jun 5, 2008 - 12:44 pm 51. Bugs:

I quit the American Basketball Association because they were always advocating special preferences for freakishly tall black men.

Jun 5, 2008 - 12:44 pm 52. Gary Imhoff:

Why don’t the people who are dissatisfied with and alienated by their professional organizations start new, alternative ones to compete with them? The new organizations should not be identified as politically conservative mirror images. Instead, they should identify themselves with the original goals of groups such as the AMA, ABA, and APA — professional development, continuing professional education, and serving the professional needs of their members — without political baggage of any stripe.

My guess is that if groups like this were founded with a few prestigious leaders and one or two hundred members to start, within a decade they’d be as big as the current organizations. They would attract not just conservatives and moderates, but all who wanted to belong to a group that served as an alternative credentialing professional association, but that didn’t involve them in controversial political issues that had nothing to do with their professional goals.

Don’t just drop out. That won’t reform the current groups; it will just strengthen their strangleholds on the professions. Compete and win.

Jun 5, 2008 - 1:05 pm 53. Javelin:

If these orgs were promoting right wing PC, I’m sure 3/4’s of the posters here would have no problem supporting them.

Jun 5, 2008 - 1:08 pm 54. Hejde:

To join or not, that is the question. On a very basic level I decline to contribute voluntarily to purposes/organizations I don’t have at least a basic agreement with. At the same time there was this italian fellow Gramsci and his “long march”.

Staying out makes it easier for the fanatical deluded to take over. Staying in gives you a “theoretical” chance of influence, but only if you are willing, at least publicly, to drink the kool-aid. For too many organizations it is not worth it. Instead concentrate on areas where you can modify behavior.

So I dropped out of the AMA, and stopped subscribing to NEJM, Lancet etc. But I have stayed i my local medical society and the American Academy of Neurology. The latter in part due my mentor being one of the founders.

If sufficient people are interested it should be possible to retake the “castle”, although resistance of a “Darthmouth” type should be expected. The entrenched will not give up without a fight and they are not using Marquess of Queensbury rules. For the long term health of our society it will be necessary though – the earlier the better.

peace

Hejde

Jun 5, 2008 - 1:17 pm 55. Helen Smith:

Javelin,

I doubt it. I think what people are saying is that they are sick and tired of their professional organizations acting like political ones with agendas that are well beyond what one signed up for. If Rush Limbaugh were playing at all the conventions, my left wing colleagues were booed and hissed at, and only right wing views were allowed in the journals, I certainly would not be happy with that either. That is so unlikely that it is hard to even imagine it however, but it is how those who are libertarian or right are treated.

Jun 5, 2008 - 1:30 pm 56. Al Fin:

No doubt Javelin believes what he rights. But of course, Javelin is incorrect. Most of the posters here would object to PC from any direction of the political compass.

But the PC lefties can’t imagine such a thing. They believe everyone is like them, only worse.

Jun 5, 2008 - 1:43 pm 57. John:

I’m a member of the SEG, (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) We are pretty much into wide spread rape, pillage, and plunder. It’s a professional group I can relate to.

I really like the Boy Scout idea.

Jun 5, 2008 - 3:30 pm 58. Aileene:

From a fellow psychologist:

My favorite example of APA cognitive dissonance involves their positions on the death penalty for teens and parental notification for teen abortions. Predictably, they claim that teens are too neurologically immature to know what they’re doing when they kill others and, thus, capital punishment is inappropriate for them. But when it comes to abortion, teens as young as 12 or 13 or 14 are neurologically capable of weighing all their optionis and making the decision with no help from Mom or Dad.

Such contrasts clearly illustrate that the organization’s mission is often a political, not a scientific, one. Despite my disagreement with their tendency to impose political interprations on research, I still belong to APA, primarily because of their online data bases and journal access. Besides, I like keeping track of what they’re up to..

Jun 5, 2008 - 4:05 pm 59. Cappy:

There’s no reason to be a member of a volunatry organization with which one disagrees.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:16 pm 60. Noah Nehm:

RE: Jim and IEEE

I’m thinking about leaving the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) for similar reasons. The editor, William Sweet, of their main journal, The Spectrum, has turned the magazine into his own propaganda mill supporting the idea of anthropogenic global warming. It seems practically every article is related to this idea or the idea of renewable energy, so long as it has even a tenuous link to electrical engineering. Advances in wind turbines, solar cell technology, carbon capture, fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, carbon monitoring, cap-and-trade, blah, blah, blah. In one issue he even wrote a breathless movie review of “An Inconvenient Truth”. Just recently, we was absolutely verklempt with the possibility, however remote, that a Moore’s like law could govern the prices of photovoltaic cells. (BTW, it won’t.)

I really can see spending over $100 a year supporting Sweet’s quixotic crusade.

PS. I do have to say I was surprised by last month’s offering. Instead of the usual Global Warming stuff, the whole issue was devoted to “the Singularity”.

Jun 5, 2008 - 5:49 pm 61. Valerie:

Oh, dear. I’m late with my report to the State of Maryland re my pro bono obligations. Of course, if I’ve been doing nothing but earning money, they have a convenient list or organizations, and a suggested amount to donate to somebody else’s pet project…..

I’ve done officialized pro bono work, before, in Illinois. All we did is give a young man an excuse to stay unemployed while he waited for his trial (he was savvy enough to figure out that he needed damages) instead of doing the right thing — finding a better job.

As it happens, I do a lot of pro bono work these days, underbilling, paying ahead, stretching my limits for clients that are worth sheltering, and I resent the reporting requirements of the State of Maryland. My charity is not their business.

I have been amazed and gratified by the response of professionals in all walks of life toward genuine need. They are wonderful. And I am certain that very little of it gets reported because that would raise questions within their many respective firms. They just do it, God bless the good-hearted people of this country, who kick in their time and their effort generously when they encounter a worthy cause.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:30 pm 62. Valerie:

Wacky Hermit

LMAO. You’re my kinda guy.

Jun 5, 2008 - 6:34 pm 63. So Cal Jim:

I’ve been practicing law for just over 22 years and I am proud of the fact that I have NOT been a member of the ABA for just over 22 years.

Jun 5, 2008 - 7:12 pm 64. punditius:

I’m a lawyer who works for the government, & gets served the koolaid every now & then. I pour it in the flowerpot when no one is looking, or give it to the cat.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the ABA. At first it was because I was a poor government lawyer, & couldn’t afford it. Later, despite remaining a government lawyer, I wasn’t so poor, but I found that the ABA had gone left wing, while I was going right wing. They lost me totally when they began supporting abortion.

When I turned 55, I somehow wound up in the AARP. I’m not sure that I actually paid anything to join. When my 5 year membership expired, I didn’t re-up, because I learned in those 5 years that the AARP is just another collectivist gimme gimme organization. I miss the discounts, but not much.

It’s actually pretty easy for me not to belong to things, because I’m not a joiner. INTP, y’know. And as I age into curmudgeonry, I am less & less inclined to be a member of anything. I’ve certainly had it with the party formerly known as the Republicans, who will never get another penny from me.

I do send a fair chunk of change – a little over a grand a year – to the Army Aviation Association of America, because my father was a member, and they gave me a small scholarship when I went off to college. I wouldn’t mind being a member of that outfit, if I had the qualifications, which, regretfully, I never earned.

And yes, I contribute to the Boy Scouts now & then.

Jun 5, 2008 - 8:08 pm 65. TheNewGuy:

I’m an emergency physician, and I refuse to belong to ANY of my professional organizations.

ACEP has position papers on a host of issues, from no-nukes, gun control, corporal punishment, land mines, and any number of other causes celeb. They have multiple issues on which I disagree with their position. AAEM, while more apolitical than ACEP, has unfortunately taken a cue from ACEP, and likewise jumped into divisive political issues.

I have nowhere to go… and so I belong to none of them. They will not get one dime of my money to support political positions that I find abhorrent.

And the American Medical Association? Don’t make me laugh… they’re the worst.

Jun 5, 2008 - 10:15 pm 66. MarkD:

I’m tempted to send the AARP a brick in their postage guaranteed mailers begging for my membership. I don’t support their position on most issues, but the absolute deal-breaker was their opposition to any attempt to reform Social Security. I don’t hate my kids, why would I want to make their lives more difficult?

Not one dime, ever, even if it would save me thousands of dollars on insurance or whatever else they push. I may have a price, but it’s not one they can meet.

Jun 6, 2008 - 6:25 am 67. Larry J:

MarkD:

While AARP isn’t a professional organization in the sense of this thread, I agree completely with your assessment. I refuse to ever join or in any way let them claim me as a member precisely because of their stands on most issues and especially on Social Security reform. They’re trying to screw my kids and grandkids. I refuse to stand for it.

Jun 6, 2008 - 7:08 am 68. Howard:

I daresay Dr. Helen understands the general sense of the APA, but this is all I found on their Website about Zionism and racism. It’s from 1977, but appears to be still their policy in effect. If there is something equating Zionism with racism, I failed to find it.

http://www.apa.org/governance/CPM/chapter14.html

Zionism as a Form of Racism

The Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association shares the widely expressed distress with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution which holds that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination. This political distortion of the meaning of racism is unacceptable to scientific researchers and professional practitioners in psychology. Wishing to continue to support the principles on which the United Nations was founded, and concerned about the divisive effects of the process of politicalization, the American Psychological Association joins with other professional, scholarly, and scientific bodies calling on the United Nations to reassert its ideals, return to its original goals and halt the destructive politicalization of its specialized agencies. In addition, as an indication of its vigilance and concern, the Council urges the Board of Directors through its Committee on International Relations in Psychology to continue monitoring the evolving United Nations scene and to present periodically to the Council a status report with recommendations as appropriate.

Jun 6, 2008 - 8:58 am 69. Jerry:

I withdrew from the ABA in 1992 when they gave an award to Anita Hill.
That was at the same annual meeting that the ABA came out in favor of abortion.
I was contacted by that year’s ABA President who asked that I rejoin. I replied that,in the future, if I wanted to give money to the Democratic National Committee I would do it directly.
I was gratified to see that thousands of my fellow members also resigned that year, causing layoffs and serious cah flow problems at the ABA.
I have since personally convinced dozens of other attorneys to do the same.

We haven;t missed the ABA a bit.

Jun 6, 2008 - 11:45 am 70. Crafty Hunter:

The problem is an imbalance between the interest the ordinary rank and file, who are more interested in having real lives, show in spending time on filling power vacuums, and the interest agitated leftists show in spending enourmous amounts of time and energy on infiltrating offices of power in order to disseminate their propaganda. This has always been a problem for politics in general, not just for politics within professional organisations.

This suggests a fundamental reform for all significant organisations.

Jun 7, 2008 - 8:55 am 71. gordo:

I like the article because so often many of us fund these groups/publications without looking behind the curtain. When the curtain is pulled back we often see a small group of do-gooders and finger-pointers with an agenda. It really doesn’t matter to them if their agenda is supported by the membership, because they are right and you probably aren’t. The best thing to do is end your membership. Money talks.

Jun 7, 2008 - 11:25 am 72. tanstaafl:

The (ABA) flyer, titled 10 Myths about Custody and Domestic Violence and How to Counter Them…

While working inside the legal profession, I noted how lawyers drew out & prolonged (and, thereby, exacerbated) custody disputes. For profit. That phenomenon probably wouldn’t be included in their litany of “myths”.

At an APA convention some years back, the main topic of concern (obsession, really) seemed to be how to keep the the “practice” of psychology/psychiatry afloat, profitably. Lots of meetings about shrinkage through telephony, the internet etc.

The ends of any organization (including Greenpeace and The Sierra Club) can become politicized into an agenda. At which point, you’re paying your dues to support that agenda, one not (necessarily) of your choosing.

Jun 8, 2008 - 6:35 am 73. Big Dan:

I used to belong to ABBA, but I quit soon after.

“Dancing Queen” was all the rage at the time. I still can’t stand to hear it on the radio.

Aug 26, 2008 - 9:18 am

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