Fair warning.

Apr 04, 2005 03:03

I have sent an e-mail to every American citizen in my address book, a great number of which are those of you here on my journal friends list. Save for Blake, because I believe I lost his e-mail address a long while ago. The contents of the e-mail I'm asking you not to ignore. It is my plea for your support of the ONE campaign, the cause of which I posted before. The one regarding the white bands. Please do not disregard the e-mail. Read it and consider what I've said.

This is not just an American campaign. For those of you outside of the US, you can join my cause here.

I was recently confronted about this cause by someone extremely cynical about the intentions of the ONE campaign. Let me assure you, this is not something I so blindly ventured into. This is not something that I have chosen to support simply because there are a few famous faces and a catchy commercial advertisement behind it. Yes, that very ad is what brought my attention to these efforts in the first place, but the cause itself is something I've always supported. I'm wary of charitable organizations, to be honest. Yes, I've even given people crap for so blindly suggesting support for state of emergency funds (the Oklahoma bombing, 9/11, the Asian tsunami, all good examples) that turned out to be complete shams. While I'm all for helping out innocent victims of terrorism and natural disasters, I also recognize that those tend to be moments in our history of pseudo-patriotism and an unprecedented outpouring of generous donation and aid. Those situations, these days, tend to draw in all the help they really need. I support them, but they are fixes for temporary situations.

However, the ONE campaign is addressing an issue that is not temporary. It will only become temporary when we actually do something about it, rather than toss money at it and hope it goes away. It is one so often disregarded and ignored because of a general "it doesn't directly affect us, why should we care? Why aid an impoverished nation, put roofs over the heads of their homeless, food on the tables of their starving, and provide medical aid for their ailing when our own streets are teeming with the homeless, hungry and sick too?" attitude. I loathe and despise that attitude with every single ounce of my being. I also loathe the "but I can't afford it!" attitude in regard to donating funds. There's a common misconception that you have to be able to donate hundreds or thousands of dollars to make a notable difference. You know what? You can donate pennies and nickels and dimes to this cause and make a very notable difference. These people we seek to provide aid and succor are people who are literally living on LESS THAN ONE AMERICAN DOLLAR PER DAY. Imagine that. You could donate a dime, fifty cents, and think of what that would provide for someone living on less than a dollar a day. Think about it. Imagine the money you spend on your delicious food, on the clothes that you feel comfortable in, the makeup you girls feel you need to wear, the movies you rent or see in theaters, the gas you purchase for your cars to get where you want to go when you could just as easily use public transportation. Think of all those things you spend your money on and whether or not these are things you could live without. Because I guarantee you, they live without them every single day:



POVERTY



HUNGER



AIDS (and yes, this tiny baby, this delicate and fragile child is dead, due to lack of resources for medical aid)

And I'm not asking you to give these things to them, I'm asking you to reconsider your priorities. To open your eyes and see a world you could have just as easily been born into. Look at them. Really look at them. Every day that we ignore this, every day that we do nothing about it, is another day that we allow it to continue unchecked and unaided. Look at what we're allowing to happen. These people had no control over the life they've been born into, just like you and I. What makes us so much more deserving of the lives we lead than they? What makes YOU so much more important a person that you can be sitting in front of an expensive computer reading this online journal entry while literally millions are starving, sick and dying? Three seconds. Every three seconds one of these people die. What if I were to count to three, snap my fingers, and one of your loved ones keeled over? What if they died due to circumstances over which they have no control and suffered every day of their short lives to survive through? Would you want to do something about it then?

Don't know about the debt crisis and what global debt cancellation could do to help millions of these people? EDUCATE YOURSELF.

Don't know anything about what lousy, antiquated international trade policies are doing to maintain their impoverished state? EDUCATE YOURSELF.

Don't know the impact of AIDS on a country other than your own? EDUCATE YOURSELF.

Didn't know that disturbingly large percentages of children in impoverished countries are denied the basic luxury of an education? This very thing I demand that you do, that you actually have the ability to do of your own free will, where they can't, that on its own would be a huge leap towards rebuilding nations? Well here are some basic facts with which you can EDUCATE YOURSELF.

Don't know that there's already an existing water crisis that aids in the spread of disease and other negative impacts? EDUCATE YOURSELF NOW.

You can't tell me that any of you have never once considered doing something to help any of these causes. You can't tell me that you can look at any of those pictures up there and not feel that they're wrong, that no one should have to suffer that way. You can't tell me to shove my bleeding heart up my ass and leave you alone, either. Because I won't. I won't give up on this, I won't sit quietly on this, I won't be another face in a sea of people who'd rather turn the other cheek. I won't make excuses for my inaction, nor will I stand by and let anyone I respect to make excuses either.

There are no excuses.

Please don't tell me that you wouldn't even know where to begin, that you wouldn't know what to do or how to help. I've given it to you in one painfully simple solution: the ONE campaign. It's an incredible start, an incredible stride in the right direction, and it's one of the painfully few efforts that encompasses all of these issues, that seeks not to aim itself just at one specific problem, but all of them. It is a global effort, not just one made by the US or Canada or the UK. It involves many individual organizations and charities and powerful countries in joint force. The more people that are involved, the more that can be done. Don't make anymore excuses. To me or to yourself. Do something about it.
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