Re: More good intentions
Steve said: "Charity is not intended for show."
Yeah, I agree. It’s not intended for a lot of things, such self-validation, promoting an ulterior agenda, or to have a few extra write-offs on your federal taxes. Gotcha. But those motivations to help often exist, and if they result in reasoned charity when reasoned charity is needed, then fine by me.
And I'm with Steve on a few of his points, but a solutionless attack on those rolling up their sleeves doesn’t really help in matters such as this. Neither does polarizing those concerned about an issue: ‘Liberals wrong, me right.’ That’s sad American politics for you, though. Too many people just see black or white and right or wrong when it’s never that simple; we rarely see the shades of grey that actually exist. Too bad we didn't see the grey areas of choosing to invade Iraq before we did, but that's a subject for another thread.
The fact is — like for most every challenge we face as citizens of America and the world — we need a well-balanced amalgamation of progressive and conservative philosophies to solve the problems involved in African aid. Like Behethland said, people are starving now. Let’s figure out a way to feed them so that the ‘average African farmer’ that Steve mentioned actually has some neighbors to sell his food to in the future.
While I hope that high visibility attempts at charity do actually feed a few people here and there, such events almost always accomplish something equally beneficial: a dialogue on the subject. Now we’re here talking about it. There’s the accomplishment of Madonna, Bono, and the others that contributed performances at Live8. (And I’m with you on Madonna, Steve, but the new U2 album rocks.)
Yeah, I agree. It’s not intended for a lot of things, such self-validation, promoting an ulterior agenda, or to have a few extra write-offs on your federal taxes. Gotcha. But those motivations to help often exist, and if they result in reasoned charity when reasoned charity is needed, then fine by me.
And I'm with Steve on a few of his points, but a solutionless attack on those rolling up their sleeves doesn’t really help in matters such as this. Neither does polarizing those concerned about an issue: ‘Liberals wrong, me right.’ That’s sad American politics for you, though. Too many people just see black or white and right or wrong when it’s never that simple; we rarely see the shades of grey that actually exist. Too bad we didn't see the grey areas of choosing to invade Iraq before we did, but that's a subject for another thread.
The fact is — like for most every challenge we face as citizens of America and the world — we need a well-balanced amalgamation of progressive and conservative philosophies to solve the problems involved in African aid. Like Behethland said, people are starving now. Let’s figure out a way to feed them so that the ‘average African farmer’ that Steve mentioned actually has some neighbors to sell his food to in the future.
While I hope that high visibility attempts at charity do actually feed a few people here and there, such events almost always accomplish something equally beneficial: a dialogue on the subject. Now we’re here talking about it. There’s the accomplishment of Madonna, Bono, and the others that contributed performances at Live8. (And I’m with you on Madonna, Steve, but the new U2 album rocks.)
posted by Strother | 11:12 AM
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