No Red Cross in Baltimore

I donated blood today for the Red Cross. My employer allows them to come once a quarter to each of our sites and recruit as many donors as possible. Usually they get between 30 and 50 donors. They best part of the whole deal is getting out of work for an hour and a half. And if you're really smart, you'll milk it and pretend that your light headed and need to rest for a while.

Donating blood doesn't take that long. I don't think it's ever taken me more than 15 minutes. Usually it's closer to 10 minutes. One time I tried to see how fast I could fill the bag, but the next day I was greeted with a huge bruise that ran the length of my arm.

So why does it take 15 minutes to donate the blood, but an hour and a half for the whole process? It's all about the screening process. The Red Cross wants to know all about your sexual escapades. Have you ever been to Cameroon? Have you ever shared needles with a prostitute? Have you ever had sex with a man since 1977 (thank goodness the cutoff was 1977!!!)? Have you ever had oral sex with a monkey. And the list goes on and on.

The question that got me to thinking, however, is 'have you ever been to prison, even once?'. By my calculations, that would eliminate 95% of the population of Baltimore City from being eligible blood donors. However, would this include the 35,000 arrests that did not result in convictions? Would you be ineligible to donate blood if you're from Baltimore City and you've been arrested for a nuisance crime - spitting, jaywalking, talking too loud, voting Republican? I would almost think that this would not be fair. What do you think?