Several times I see "Help these children" or "They need your help" ads all over the place. I see them, but I ignore them. I know I shouldnt, but I ignore them anyway. I know I care, but I dont do anything about it anyway. I was going through Newsweek, and as i flipped from page to page, front cover to back cover, I completely missed (or ignored) a "Help a Child" ad. This made me realize how much I do this all the time. I ask myself, "am i too lazy to even consider helping?"
I mean, we have so many things in our life, and there are so many temptations in society that we think we need. We whine about things we shouldnt whine about. And on the other side of the world, there is a child who yearns for a home, food, shelter, an education, etc. Now I dont want to go all social justice teacher on you or anything. Im not trying to make you feel bad. I just wonder why we tend to never even consider helping out these children. The picture doesnt compel us to help the child. We should do it because we are morally right. Are we just too lazy? I mean, we have experience so much happiness and joy in our life. Why not help out in order to give even a small amount of happiness and joy to someone else's life. Do we sometimes think we cannot make a difference?
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking
something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he
asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the
ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back,
they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles
of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!” After listening
politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into
the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”I made a difference for that one.”
-Loren Eisley
Each child is one of millions of abandoned, poor, orphaned children. Each has a unique story, but all suffer a great deal of pain and suffering. Even in today's society, we are told about the injustice that happens through the media, but we react the same way we would each day.
Surprisingly, I also found out that in these ads they only depict and explain the story of one child. I did not even realize that this one story, this one ad, can make me think about society and the many millions of poor people in society (So this is their strategy!). I beleive that through this one story, it will persuade people to think about the many millions of children similar to that child who are suffering. Here is a article going more in depth about this.
No comments:
Post a Comment