Methinks he doth protest too much.

My wife toils as a fund raiser for a parochial high school. She is good at it and respected in her circles for her efforts. One of her duties is to maintain alumni data and hear their concerns. On occasion, she is just amazed at what people will do.

Most of the alums are supportive and have good memories of a very positive high school experience. But she got a call the other day from an alum of some years distant, angry and demanding to know why he hadn't been notified of his class reunion. He challenged her with "Why is it all I ever hear from you is 'give us money, give us money'? I am close to telling you to remove me from your mailing list."

She explained that the reunions were handled by people from each class, not directly by the school. And seizing the moment she told him that he had indeed received notice of many alumni social events to which everyone was invited to participate--some of them after football games, at anniversaries of the school's founding, at the annual campaign celebration, at commemorative masses, at the school golf tournament; even invited to mail in personal news to publish in the quarterly newsletter. "You have been invited to join in all of those things," she said to this fellow who lives right here in town. "And we don't ask for money at most of them."

The man was unmoved, snarling that he indeed must be omitted from further mailings. She complied, but later, on a whim, looked him up in the school's gift records.

He had never given a dime to the school. Not one red cent.