Love your Neighbor. No. Love Thy Neighbor.

Driving home from SA Saturday, I had the SA NPR station on (89.1) and was listening to This American Life. The show's theme was Neighbors, and the opening was about a woman who ran a charity called Love Your Neighbor that helped homeless and poor folk. Turns out another good Samaritan was doing the same kind of work under the name Love Thy Neighbor. Apparently, the first lady was concerned that people who wanted to give to her charity would get confused and donate instead to the other charity--that did the exact same kind of work.

Being an American, she sued. The other guy was incredulous, having had to shell out $13000 in legal fees to fend off A Charity! that was suing his. He said he could provide a meal for 38 cents, so somewhat more than 30,000 meals to folks who needed it went to lawyers' pockets instead. The lady wouldn't appear on the show and provided her lawyer instead. Ira Glass, the host, asked her if she didn't get the irony of a charity of that name suing another for the naming rights. Of course, she didn't. The lady had the right to sue. Ira asks but was it right? Was it being a good neighbor? The lawyer said the other charity was the one infringing on the name and thus not neighborly. In the end they had to agree not to agree.