Originally titled 'Hand me my wallet, not the bucket.'
One day I was on Facebook, looking for nonsense to mock, when I noticed a bunch of silly
people dumping water on their head. Apparently one individual wanted to
make people aware of ALS aka Lou Gehrig disease, a rare yet fatal
illness that affects neurons and ultimately muscle control in the body.
The ice bucket challenge basically allowed people to donate as well as
nominate others to donate, while dumping ice water on their head. Beyond
the inherent humor of watching grown men and women struggle with
dumping water on each other, it became a successful fundraiser, leading
to 24 million dollars towards ALS research. But of course since this is
the internet, it’s also led to a variety of backlash, some warranted,
while others being extremely hypocritical and asinine. Now, I have many
flaws, and I embrace the majority of my flaws, but one thing I tried to
avoid is the blanket of hypocrisy. There are few things that bother me
more than intelligent people making stupid proclamations to prove a
ridiculous point. Here’s a few that I’ve noticed over the past week,
but instead of just listing, I will explain why I avoided them.
I
donated to ALS, but I didn’t dump water on my head, nor call anyone
else out. It wasn’t because of concerns of conservation of water. I’ve
heard people bring up the drought issues in the US and the world, as
well as stating that dumping water on your head has nothing to do with
charity. Now, I live in a house with 4 bathrooms. I wash clothes and
run the dishwasher multiple times per week. I’ve taken showers that
lasted longer than 5 minutes. My sprinkler system runs a total of 2
hours daily. I wash my car. I’ve gone to Six Flags. All of these
things use far more water than is probably necessary. And I lose not
one iota of sleep over any of these actions. So for me to complain
about the loss of the equivalent of one toilet flush is moronic. I have
no problem with water conservation, but this isn’t Dune, and I don’t
see Sting running around in a rubber suit trying to save water - relax.
I
didn’t dump water on my head, but it wasn’t because of what happened in
Ferguson. Wait, what? Yes - there is a sentiment that the ice bucket
challenge is not only a silly endeavor, but a tool used by the media to
distract people from the serious occurrences of police brutality
towards black males. Let me put the disclaimer that I’m aware of the
media using fluff stories to steer us away from important issues.
Having said that, I have to wonder at the sanity of certain
individuals. For as long as I remember, cops have been shooting at
black men. They were shooting at black men when people were debating
gay marriage. They were shooting at us when Miley Cyrus was twerking.
They shot at us while people were concerned about Gaza and Israel.
When people put the buckets down and start talking about Lebron James
on the Cavs, they’ll be shooting at us. It’s not as if Joe Blow was
about to donate some money to the Ferguson fund, and then saw a video of
Jennifer Aniston with a platinum bucket and changed his mind. Those
who cared will continue to care, and those who didn’t wouldn’t have
given a damn in the first place. Contrary to popular belief, it’s
possible to care about multiple causes at the same time. The media
isn’t distracting me from other issues, so I won’t use that as an
excuse. It’s like any other sport - once you know the rules of the
game, you can’t complain about being caught out of bounds. As a black
man, I understand at how devise and combative life can be toward us, and
I can also understand the human desire to worry about your own
problems. But as a human being and a health care professional, I
couldn’t picture myself clowning a cause that donates to a real disease
that actually kills people, just because it doesn’t affect me directly.
If someone chooses not to participate then more power to them. But
leave the cops out of this - if they see me jogging in my neighborhood
and my sneakers are the wrong color, they won’t check Bossip or TMZ to
see what’s up before they decide to shoot me. Nor will they see if its
Breast Cancer Month before deciding to pull the trigger.
This
isn’t to guilt someone into giving money. Charity is about giving to
something you believe in. As a human being, you have the right to give,
or not to give, to whatever you choose, as long as you’re willing to
deal with the consequences. I didn’t dump water over my head because I
didn’t feel like it. It wasn’t because of water conservation, or Gaza,
or the lack of a sickle cell challenge, or any other reason. I didn’t
choose to donate more because I didn’t feel like it. I made
contributions to other causes. I also purchased two soundbars and some
weights for my home gym. I went to the movies. I even purchased some
mediocre hot wings from KFC. I have no regrets or remorse whatsoever,
because I was honest with my decision. If you don’t want to participate
in the ice water challenge because you don’t care about ALS, then go
right ahead. Maybe you don’t want to get your hair wet. Maybe you
rather spend that money on the Essence Music Festival or the new Madden
video game. Perhaps you rather give in your own way without attracting
attention or participating in a silly social media experiment. The
reason doesn’t matter, so long as you’re true to yourself. But let
those who choose to donate do so without mockery or scorn. Don’t bring
in any strawmen or hypocritical scenarios to defend your choice. No
need to front for Facebook - it’s 2014, and we’re better than that.
Now
if you excuse me, I’m about to participate in some other silly donation
challenge. And I won’t even need to use a bucket for it.
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