I apologize, but this post is sort of all over the place and a far cry from my vibrators in San Diego post. Again, I’m sorry. And if you’re feeling fragile, stop reading. No seriously, stop.
Pretty much every single time I read a news article and make the mistake of reading the comments, I feel like offing myself. Comments, especially anonymous ones on news sites reveal the angriest, darkest sides of human nature.
“Child Trampled By Elephant, Then Shot By Escaped Giraffe”
And the accompanying comments:
- “Where were the parents!!!!!????”
- “This is what is wrong with Mexican elephants. They come to this country and take our jobs!!”
- “I think I sat next to that same kid on an airplane. He cried the whole time. Glad he’s dead.”
Yet, I seem unable to stop myself. I was, for a time, only reading the news articles, and forcing myself to click away, rather than read the accompanying rage in the comments. But that didn’t last. Just let it go, let it go. Don’t scroll, just….look…away… and then I scroll. And…I’m off, reading every. horrible. comment.
Today, I made the mistake of reading this. The day before, I read the NPR report on the nightmare unfolding in East Africa. It may be the worst famine ever. This picture below, headed an NPR piece and I immediately imagined the child to be Clyde. I think it’s what you do as a parent; you imagine your own children in their place. It’s an instinct that’s hard to fight. And so for a split second I saw Clyde. This is how children sleep, and this child could be sleeping, curled up on his side, arm draped over his face. I don’t know if he’s sleeping or not. But he’s definitely dying.
I did not read the NPR comments, and those tend to be not as rage-filled anyway. Which the commenters on CNN would probably say was because NPR is liberal media. Anyway. After reading the CNN article, I did what I always regret: I scrolled to the comments. The percentage of comments that made me want to rock back and forth muttering to myself was about 50%. I pulled out some gems for you, a lot of them fell into predictable categories. None of them seemed reason enough for me to do nothing.
The Africa is Tedious Argument:
Why do I get the feeling you NEVER sent money over there.
The Blackhawk Down Argument: Nope. We tried to help you guys before. Let someone else do it. Jay Z for example.
Because rich black dudes should help their "own"?
The This Photo and All The Other Photos Are Set ups/Propaganda/Photoshopped Argument. In other words: Acting!
Everyone's fine! In fact just off camera they are having a dance party. With steak. Also, it's pretty clear my money is going for Crest Whitestrips.
The These Idiots Shouldn’t Be Having Babies Anyway / The Blame the Parents Argument.
No sex without contraceptives (you can't get anyway.) And look out for all the rapists! All that? Your fault. The babies, the kids, the teenagers you had long before the famine, should die as your punishment.
The You Totally Deserved This Argument. Also Known as Location, Location, Location
I especially love that the avatar is a piece of cake. Indeed. Let them eat cake.
And finally…
The Wait, What Now? Argument
I *am* sorry about God eating your dog though.
In honor of these seven morons, I’m donating $70. Ten dollars per moron. Maybe pick your favorite moron and give $5 in his or her name. Or even $1. If you’d like to help, here are ways you can.
The fastest ways? All these charities are currently doing work and are mobilized in this area:
- Save The Children: ”SURVIVE” to 20222 to donate $10 from the United States.
- Unicef: To help UNICEF’s efforts, text “FOOD” to 864233 to donate $10
- International Medical Corps: Visit the website to donate from various countries or text “AFRICA” to 80888 to donate $10 to the group’s drought relief response from the United States.
- The United Nations World Food Programme: Donations can be made from various countries online or via text. To donate $10 from the United States, text “AID” to 27722; to donate $5 from Canada, text “RELIEF” to 45678; to donate £3 from the United Kingdom text “AID” to 70303.
- World Vision: To donate to relief efforts from the United States, visit the website, call 1-888-56-CHILD or text “4AFRICA” to 20222 to donate $10.
- Oxfam America: Visit their website to donate from various countries.
- Doctors Without Borders is operating nine medical-nutritional programs in south-central Somalia. These programs, along with three projects in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, provide thousands of medical consultations each day. Teams are treating more than 10,000 severely malnourished children. Donations can be made online in the U.S. and by following this link in other countries.
There are more here. Along with specifics about how the charities are helping. Give a little if you can spare it.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, you did warn me. Now I’m sad AND pissed.
Thank you for all of the helpful links. I love a good call to action!
Stupid people are always going to be stupid. I think that even multiplies when they’re given a computer with internet access. I don’t really know what else to say about that.
I’ve always been a “fan” of OxFam. And will continue to donate with the hopes that it always does some amount of good. Big or small.
Umm, I’m not sure how you even put this post together without becoming seriously enraged. I’m putting a Save the Children Badge on my blog this afternoon. And re-tweeting the link to your post.
Thank you Meg. Thank you thank you thank you.
The comments section is ALWAYS the worst. Fills me with rage and it’s probably a good thing I don’t own a gun. Just sayin’.
This hurts my heart. I am one of those people who sends my money to places often to help. I sponsor children in Haiti to go to school & have food and clean clothes, and I believe in the work of community development that my sister (mainly) does in countries like Zambia, Africa. That being said, I’ll look into this and give what I can.
Can I also just say? Its kind of amusing (in a sick-twisted-way) that the guy who made the jackass comment about the kids hygiene is also holding a ginormous gun? Okay. Maybe I only see that as ironic.
Best. Idea. Ever. Transform that negative troll energy into something that could make a real difference.
I also frequently torture myself with comments on those kinds of articles. It continues to blow my mind how many people will blame world problems (most caused by greedy politicians and CEOs) on impoverished immigrants. It also blows my mind how many people go out of their way to be nasty in a public forum.
Thanks for leaving us on a positive note.
I just sent $10 to Save the Children via text message. Thanks!!
Thank you Amy!
Thanks for this post! For any of your readers from Canada, the govt has said they will match any donations made to the Red Cross up until Sept 16th. Which is pretty cool I think.
Canadians can text the word “AFRICA” to 30333 to make a one-time donation of $5 to the Red Cross’ Horn of Africa Drought fund.
Thank you Amanda. And yay Canada!
I work for a newspaper, and we often have to shut down comments on articles because they quickly devolve into something horrifying. Racial slurs, hate speech, conspiracy theories, plain old vitriol. It’s absolutely appalling what people say under the guise of anonymity.
Now I’m gonna do some texting …
I totally know the feeling with comments… I want to not look. I’m always like “there can’t POSSIBLY be any negative/mean/hateful/ignorant comments on this story, right? surely no one would have found something terrible to say about this story?” … and I’m always proven wrong.
I really appreciate you sharing this. I’ll admit – I have been seeing these stores for days now, and I kept meaning to donate… but your blog post finally pushed me to do it. I feel like I have to do something to cancel out these morons! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Donated 10 through text. Thanks for this.
oh thank you Ragini. xox
I always read the comments too even though I know they will upset me. We take so much for granted when so little makes such a big difference. Thank you for posting about this – just donated to Unicef and posted to FB to encourage others to do the same.
Donated through text. Despite the morons who say otherwise, may these children live, grow, and prosper.
thank you sarah, xox
Your post pushed me to donate too. I donated through http://www.thechildhealthsite.com. They are giving free shipping on anything ordered along with a donation, and whatever you buy helps feed kids through corporate donations.
I can’t read the comments because not only are they hateful and ignorant, but these people are illiterate. Half the time I can’t even figure out what they are trying say!
Rich got me into reading comments, I think you should combat the incredibly horrific ones like you’ve posted here with the ones we find reading things like, oh I don’t know, the 220+ reviews of KY His and Hers on amazon? I didn’t know there were so many ways to phrase ‘my junk felt like it was on fire.’
Otherwise, thank you for bringing this up Tara, I’ll definitely be donating.
Just texted to donate to Save the Children. THANK YOU for this post! I also shared it on Facebook and Twitter.
HUGS
Thank you Marian!! And thank you for sharing.
I love, love this post. Nice job. My solution is just not to read news stories. I get sporadic news from NPR in the car and whatever my husband happens to pass on to me. That way I avoid the temptation to read the trolls!
There’s so much pain in the world… and anger. Where does this seething anger come from? Our world is in a lot of trouble. I’m glad you offered a way to help at the end.
$10 to Unicef as a rebuttal to those idiots. Thanks for posting.
Thank you Jen
On payday–the 19th–I will donate a minimum of $10.
I would do it now but I’m broke till payday.
Ignore the comments if you can. It just shows that not everyone who has a computer should voice their opinion, since it is mainly negative. I like that you are calling them out in a “put your money where your mouth is” way..turning their negativity into positive productivity.
Another reason why you are awesome.