Monday, Oct. 23, 2006 5:22 p.m.

diffe(red) from the norm...

I should not be writing this. this is going to get me in trouble. I should learn how to keep my damn mouth shut and not say things that people will hate me for.

but in here is the only place I can admit this - and it's typing anyways...so I'm not SAYING anything.

I really don't like this whole (red) campaign thing (which is actually just part of an even larger one campaign).

there. I said it. send me to hell now.

It would really not behoove me to ever admit this. not living the life I am. not interacting with the people I do.

but I went and looked at their website today. I've known about the campaign before for awhile, before most people did, in fact. I didn't care to have an opinion before. I care too much about myself to admit I have one now, either.

but I think it sounds too easy. yes, I think it sounds selfless - but I don't know if I think it sounds smart.

(red), for those who don't know, is a HUGE campaign started by bono to raise enough money to supply daily medicine to everyone living in africa that suffers from AIDS.

don't get me wrong - I like being alive, and assume that every other human being wants to be alive as well. however, I don't think I agree with the way (red) campaign is going about it.

I took this from this site:
"You buy the jeans, phones, iPods, shoes, sunglasses, and someone - somebody's mother, father, daughter or son - will live instead of dying in the poorest part of the world"

ahh!!! there are several reasons that something about this does not set right with me! I hope I can type them out so that they make sense:

a) campaigns like this make giving simply a fad. it takes away from those people who genuinely sacrifice for others. buying something for YOURSELF is the crappiest "sacrifice" I can think of! "hey mom - can you give me money to buy the new red ipod?" "you just got a new one last month" "yeah, but I don't want to buy it for me, I want to buy it for the people dying in africa" yeah, right, whatever. it's about looking cool to your friends and showing them your red ipod so that they think you are selfless - which you aren't.

b) call me negative. call me anything you want. but I don't think it is possible to ever abolish poverty. EVER. poverty could be abolished only a by a leveling of wealth, where everyone would be like everyone else - no one rich, no one poor. all in the middle. but by destroying our individual ability to work hard and earn an exponential amount of money destroys our desire to work. uh, think the failure of communism. yeah, not good.

c) it sounds wonderful and warm and fuzzy to say that you're saving people's lives. but is a life always worth living? seriously. say this campaign works and 4.3 million people who would normally have died before 20 (or whenever they die) now live to be 60 (just picking an age) - that is 40 extra years to 4.3 million people!! do you realize how much food and other resources this amount of people consume? and what a strain this would place on the people there? it would only INCREASE the poverty!!!! this sounds so horrible, but is a life in even more miserable and extreme poverty even worth living?

d) what about education to eradicate AIDS? keeping people with AIDS living doesn't do anything to stop the spread of AIDS - and stopping the spread is the only way to ever stop the disease. I know education doesn't happen as fast as life-prolonging drugs - but it is the only way for a cure to ever be permanent. why don't we spend more money on that?

e) this is going back to example a - but I honestly think that the majority of people only give money or time or volunteer or do anything like that because they feel as though they are supposed to, or like it makes them look good. it's kind of like my christian upbringing. people believed and did because they thought they were supposed to. the "stronger Christian" they were, the better they were and the better they appeared to others. if we start all sporting the new (red) apparel - aren't we really just trying to look hip...and what's even worse, pious?

I need to stop typing. I shouldn't be saying this. I should be normal. I should be like normal people and just accept things and not always be looking for the opposite view to try to stand up for in my head.

why is it so hard for me to be normal?

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