Anyway, as most people
who frequent social media to any degree that the word “frequent”
might be used, one of the latest rages is the Ice Bucket Challenge,
which seems to consist of people having buckets or tubs or any other
kind of container filled with water onto them, which somehow is
suppose to involved charitable giving to an certain organization
doing research involving a certain disease.
Ok, so, all well can
good. I'm all for trying to find cures for diseases, in this case ALS
or, as it's more popularly called, Lou Gehrig Disease. It's an ugly
disease, very debilitating. It would be good if it were cured.
But, yes, the Ice Bucket
Challenge itself is rapidly reaching the point of annoyance. Not to
fear, it'll soon exhaust it's 15 days of fame, and then something
else will take its place.
Now, legitimate
criticism can be leveled against this challenge. Perhaps the most
legitimate one is that the organization that is the focal point of
the charitable giving regarding this gag is one that engages in or
encourages embryonic stem cell research. To put it bluntly, they say
it's ok to kill George and use his remains in order to find a cure
for Geoff. Of course, it's quite all right for people to want to find
a cure for Geoff, but many of us do think that it is going too far to
insist that George's life should be sacrificed in order to find that
cure.
This is a real concern
in regards to the challenge and the charity. Sadly, this kind of
thing also attracts another kind of persons. I will call them
“killjoys”.
Here is an example of
what they do. There an image I've seen on social media over the past
few days. I can't remember the specific info on it, but it went
something like this, “Only a thousand or so people die every year
from ALS, but ten times that many, or more, die each year from lack
of water”. Another image I've seen shows one picture of a group of
people getting water dumped on them, with a message under it
something like “in America”, while right below this a picture of
a child, I could guess an African child, getting sip of water from
some kind of small container, and under that photo a message which
went something like “Other places in the world”.
I consider these kinds
of images to be “cheap guilt trips”. It's not that their
information may not be accurate, but that they are created in order
to make people feel guilty for no good reason.
How to explain what I
mean? Let's try this. Let's say that a person who posted these kinds
of images was really serious about them. How would that person
continue to act? Would that person not drink any more water each day
as he or she would need to? Seems like a good idea for them. Would
that person go down to the nearest public swimming pool, and demand
they stop wasting water for the simple enjoyment of people going to
the pool? Reasonable. Would that person try to organize protests at
water parks? Would that person go into conniptions when he or she saw
a bunch of five-year-olds in flimsy plastic pools? Would that person
demand that people stop going to Niagara Falls, because that
magnificent sight is actually little more than a waste of water?
We have reasons to doubt
that they will act in such ways, because they are not truly serious
about their protestations. Heck, I've not even noticed them even
providing information on charitable works that could provide those
people who need it with water, or help them dig for wells so they can
have access to water. No, they seem content simply to try to make
people feel guilty because they dumped a bucket of water on
themselves or someone else.
They are, to put it
simplest, killjoys. They are the wet blankets tossed on the campfire.
They try to make the campers feel guilty, because somewhere in the
world are people who are suffering from a lack of warmth. They may be
correct, there likely are people who are suffering and even dying
because they have no access to fire and warmth. That is a bad thing.
But the campers roasting marshmallows at their own fire are not the
reasons those others are suffering.
Like I tried to point
out a few paragraphs ago, I think there are good reasons for not
participating in this trend. But feeling guilty about dumping water
on oneself is not one of them. Now, if you really are concerned about
people not having access to water, good for you, that is a real and
legitimate concern. Let me provide you with a way you can be of help
to them, should you so choose.
Samaritan's Purse Water,Sanitation, and Hygiene
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