Twice in the past week now, I have come into possession of mail that is not my own. Its easy enough to put the mail back in the slot (which sends it back to the post office or back to the sender). Its also really easy to just throw it away. But, once you think about it, especially living in an apartment complex, how hard is it to just personally deliver to the correct apartment? Answer: Its not hard at all. This, though is the ultimate microcosm for our society. How hard is it really to recycle? How hard is it to carpool? How hard is it to spend 2 hours a week serving food to the hungry, building homes for the homeless, or just stopping to assist someone with car trouble. Answer: Its not hard at all. So then, why are there so many people not lifting a single finger to help the so many fewer that have so much need?
Sometimes it just takes a little inspiration. Are you lacking? Then, I would suggest watching a little bit of Secret Millionaire. I think it only ran for about 8 episodes on FOX, but I really think they hit the nail on the head. Furthermore, they really show that somehow our country is screwed up in that the only people helping the poor, are the people slightly less poor. The people who basically have nothing are giving more of their time and abilities than the people who have it all.
http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=Secret+Millionaire
(Warning: This show could cause crying...a weird sort of happy/sad/ breakthrough in therapy crying)
You should watch these. Don't watch them more than 1 episode a week. If you were ever in Americorps, you can understand a lot of this already (so you gotta get your friends to watch it with you!). I just got finished watching episode number 5. The one lady reminds me a lot of Octomom...well, actually the lady who owns the salon reminds me of her too. The difference is the focus on self. Octomom wanted a big family for her own benefit. She didn't care about the impact it might have on the kids...especially with many of them being handicapped. She WANTED something, so she made it happen despite how much it would hurt others. She was SELFISH. The women in the show on the other hand, acted SELFLESSLY. She even said that if she could she would have 50 kids. But, instead of making more, she took in more of the unwanted and impoverished kids. She is helping to fix problems instead of creating more....because she is doing for the benefit of the kids. Her benefit is second to the greater good.
Let me come down off of my soapbox for a moment...
On a more comedic note, I love the look of terror on the people's faces before they tell them that they are really crazy rich. There is always such calm on the poor people's face though...almost as if they have spent their life hearing bad news, so they know that whatever this stranger is about to tell them wont compare to what they have already heard.
...a few steps to get back up here and...
DAMMIT! These people are MILLIONAIRES!!!! What is a hundred grand to them? The cheerleader in episode 5 gave away the most money out of any so far that I have seen. If I were a millionaire, I think I would give all the people I met a 100 grand! Actually, I think I will never get to be a millionaire because once I reach $999,999 I will likely just start giving away everything above and beyond that! (I bet each of the cars that they people drive are worth over $100,000!) I cant believe FOX had to put the minimum stipulation on the money giving. Some of these people could probably lift an entire community out of poverty, or at least create programs and centers that would!
Lastly, there is this one funny moment right at the end of episode 5....profound words that are completely the opposite of actions.
"if we all just give a little, we could do a lot." [pan to amazingly giant big-ass house]
Please share this food for thought with everyone you know so that they will all quit their real jobs that they dont like and join AmeriCorps/ PeaceCorps.
DAlen
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
"My little girl is going to..."
If you read my last post, you should watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhF-ZUyLI50
If you didnt read my last post, watch this, and then read it.
The last little line the mother says has me laughing repeatedly.
If youre in a more somber mood...watch this one. I acutally agree with it very much and it goes with my last posting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cb4dMOdI3Y&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhF-ZUyLI50
If you didnt read my last post, watch this, and then read it.
The last little line the mother says has me laughing repeatedly.
If youre in a more somber mood...watch this one. I acutally agree with it very much and it goes with my last posting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cb4dMOdI3Y&NR=1
Monday, February 09, 2009
What if we ran foster homes the same as animal shelters?
One of the big news stories right now is the lady who gave birth to 8 kids. That would be a remarkably more amazing feat had it been natural, but in actuality, she had 6 embryos implanted in her uterus (two if which split to make twins). So, she actually chose to have the 8 kids, had them created in test tubes, and then she just carried them around for 9 months before they had to be surgically removed. Pretty much everything about this was unnatural. She now has a total of 14 kids, without a husband or any other type supporting parents, and she also has no job. Her plans are to go back to school. She better get some crazy high paying degree (can you major in CEO-ness?).
The price tag for the whole thing was quite exorbitant also. Who knows how she is going to pay for that part of it. I am guessing an insurance company will pay for it (so, all our rates will go up because of her) or the hospital will pay for it (so, our insurance will charge more for us to use that hospital) or maybe somehow taxes will go to pay for it (a bailout, to use a popular term). Either way, we, as a society, are paying for this. The biggest victims though are probably foster kids.
As I write this (and as you read this), there are kids who are living essentially in dorms with no parents. What hope do they have of being adopted when it seems that the first solution to infertility and wanting a "family" is for people to pay crazy $$ to get science to make them a kid?
Its the same hope that dogs and cats in shelters have against the desire for dogs that breeders churn out. They have to compete with a more specific example of what people want. When they lose and don't get adopted, we kill them. What if we let them reach a certain age and then released them? Why cant animals "age out" of shelter care?
Or maybe, we should start killing children in foster care. The chances of a kid who "ages out" becoming a burden to society are great, just like a stray dog or cat will no doubt cause trouble. Currently the options are "MY genetic children in a test tube or someone else's genetic kids (not my problem)." What if the options changed to "MY genetic children or save a life?" What if every time you wanted to create a child unnaturally existing kid had to be uncreated, also unnaturally? What if we hold a lottery for people who want to have kids, and if you win, you have to adopt an existing one first before you can make your own?
The price tag for the whole thing was quite exorbitant also. Who knows how she is going to pay for that part of it. I am guessing an insurance company will pay for it (so, all our rates will go up because of her) or the hospital will pay for it (so, our insurance will charge more for us to use that hospital) or maybe somehow taxes will go to pay for it (a bailout, to use a popular term). Either way, we, as a society, are paying for this. The biggest victims though are probably foster kids.
As I write this (and as you read this), there are kids who are living essentially in dorms with no parents. What hope do they have of being adopted when it seems that the first solution to infertility and wanting a "family" is for people to pay crazy $$ to get science to make them a kid?
Its the same hope that dogs and cats in shelters have against the desire for dogs that breeders churn out. They have to compete with a more specific example of what people want. When they lose and don't get adopted, we kill them. What if we let them reach a certain age and then released them? Why cant animals "age out" of shelter care?
Or maybe, we should start killing children in foster care. The chances of a kid who "ages out" becoming a burden to society are great, just like a stray dog or cat will no doubt cause trouble. Currently the options are "MY genetic children in a test tube or someone else's genetic kids (not my problem)." What if the options changed to "MY genetic children or save a life?" What if every time you wanted to create a child unnaturally existing kid had to be uncreated, also unnaturally? What if we hold a lottery for people who want to have kids, and if you win, you have to adopt an existing one first before you can make your own?
Monday, February 02, 2009
extended metaphor gone wrong?
It seemed so good in my head...then it started to flow out of my ears and onto my blog...
Sometimes, in life, your odometer breaks. The odometer of course is that key piece of instrumentation that tells us not where we are going or where we are. Actually, it doesn't even really tell us where we have been. It pretty much just tells us how long we have been going. It doesn't count when we are standing still, but only when we are charging ahead. The unfortunate side effect of charging ahead so much though is that eventually it can not record the charging anymore. It literally breaks. Then what do you do? Well, you can leave it, thus having no evidence of any forward movement. The upside of course is that many people correlate age with forward movement, so therefore you technically don't age either. Many people seem to not want to age. But with age comes wisdom. That's actually the only way you can come of it. It definitely impossible to listen to an old person's wisdom and effectively take it and use it. No matter what, we make our own mistakes. In the process we get older. The odometer ticks on. So, you fix the odometer, and you don't lie about your age. You don't turn the odometer back. You unbolt the vinyl panel below your steering wheel. Then you unbolt the steel panel beneath the vinyl one. Then you unbolt the bevel and pull the entire instrument panel out. At this point, you shouldn't drive through school zones, because it is impossible to tell your speed looking at the wiring for your gas gage and the duct for your AC vent. Then, you go to pull-a-part, pay your one dollar entry fee, and search for a car that was completely destroyed in what may have been a head-on collision with train. Luckily, everything was destroyed except the instrument panel. Then you pay $20 for a $300 set of gages. All going well, you take that panel apart down to the very last plastic gear...they call it a "worm" gear. Its common for plastic gears to fail in 1997 Explorer odometers. Luckily, this was hasn't. Then, you put it in, replace the gage, add a few screws to your panel in your car, and Voila! fixed odometer! Then, you drive around for a few days just to make sure. Life is once again recording your forward movement. After another couple hours of bolting panels back on, your car looks normal...newer even because you wiped all the dust out from behind the clear plastic. So, you pat yourself on the back for being some kind of mechanical genius and for saving yourself 200 dollars. A few days go by...just enough time for you to recount your adventures to roughly 5 people. Approximately 17.3 miles after that, your odometer will stop working. This leaves two choices: go back to living a life of no record that you were ever moving forward or figure out a way to crush and melt your entire car (to assuage your anger) at home using nothing more than a microwave, some jumper cables, and a Total Gym Ultra (minus Chuck Norris).
Sometimes, in life, your odometer breaks. The odometer of course is that key piece of instrumentation that tells us not where we are going or where we are. Actually, it doesn't even really tell us where we have been. It pretty much just tells us how long we have been going. It doesn't count when we are standing still, but only when we are charging ahead. The unfortunate side effect of charging ahead so much though is that eventually it can not record the charging anymore. It literally breaks. Then what do you do? Well, you can leave it, thus having no evidence of any forward movement. The upside of course is that many people correlate age with forward movement, so therefore you technically don't age either. Many people seem to not want to age. But with age comes wisdom. That's actually the only way you can come of it. It definitely impossible to listen to an old person's wisdom and effectively take it and use it. No matter what, we make our own mistakes. In the process we get older. The odometer ticks on. So, you fix the odometer, and you don't lie about your age. You don't turn the odometer back. You unbolt the vinyl panel below your steering wheel. Then you unbolt the steel panel beneath the vinyl one. Then you unbolt the bevel and pull the entire instrument panel out. At this point, you shouldn't drive through school zones, because it is impossible to tell your speed looking at the wiring for your gas gage and the duct for your AC vent. Then, you go to pull-a-part, pay your one dollar entry fee, and search for a car that was completely destroyed in what may have been a head-on collision with train. Luckily, everything was destroyed except the instrument panel. Then you pay $20 for a $300 set of gages. All going well, you take that panel apart down to the very last plastic gear...they call it a "worm" gear. Its common for plastic gears to fail in 1997 Explorer odometers. Luckily, this was hasn't. Then, you put it in, replace the gage, add a few screws to your panel in your car, and Voila! fixed odometer! Then, you drive around for a few days just to make sure. Life is once again recording your forward movement. After another couple hours of bolting panels back on, your car looks normal...newer even because you wiped all the dust out from behind the clear plastic. So, you pat yourself on the back for being some kind of mechanical genius and for saving yourself 200 dollars. A few days go by...just enough time for you to recount your adventures to roughly 5 people. Approximately 17.3 miles after that, your odometer will stop working. This leaves two choices: go back to living a life of no record that you were ever moving forward or figure out a way to crush and melt your entire car (to assuage your anger) at home using nothing more than a microwave, some jumper cables, and a Total Gym Ultra (minus Chuck Norris).
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