Consumerism and Triviality

There are just so many opportunities to be disgusted by people and our society in general watching the coverage of this disaster. What's got me wound up this morning is why it's become so hard for people to just HELP. Why do we need benefit concerts and celebrity to get rich people to cough up money? The first thing my wife and I did yesterday was figure out how we could spare $100 or $200 to send to a couple charities, and how we can donate the bags of clothes in our basement to those that need it. I gave $5 to the firemen out on the street earlier collecting money in their boots. Not much, but people all over the country are doing that with whatever they can spare, but those fuckers with millions are sitting on their hands waiting to do something that helps their PR.

Granted, there are some celebs who stepped right up and donated money--I just read that Jay-Z and Diddy put $1 million each up right away (plus others) and made the call to their fellow entertainers to cough it up. Rosie did that several times--just pay the money. They don't need or deserve the ridiculous amounts they earn, and in this case, they should damn well part with it.

I saw on CNN's fucking crawl that Jay Leno is going to have people on his show autograph a Harley to be auctioned off. What?!? How about an admission fee for the show for the next 3 weeks--$100 grand per guest. You don't pay, you don't get on. Go ahead and sign the bike anyway, but that's a quick way to raise some cash. How about the asshole who's sitting there with thousands of dollars waiting to bid on that motorcycle? How about paying the money NOW? It's still tax-deductible, and that bike isn't going to make a bit of difference.

It's so disappointing to see how our country has been turned into such a mindless, trivial consumer society. I know, I'm totally guilty--I want new stuff, I want my TV, I want new golf clubs. But I'd like to think that if I had the kind of money that can really make a difference, I would just GIVE it. The panelists on Bill Maher last night made some great points about "where's the Christianity?"--I'm not one, but I understand one of the basic concepts is to help your fellow man. Don't see a lot of that right now.

Because my wife brought it up, I'll mention Oprah too. Maybe she's just in shock, trying to figure out what to do. But the richest, most powerful black person in the country should be leading this effort, and calling on the millions of women who hang on her every word to make this an overwhelming response. I sure hope she comes forth and proves that she's not just all talk.

And let's not lose sight of the point that even before this, these people had nearly nothing, living below the poverty line. And millions of others across the country, living in squalor with nothing to their name. Was there shock and outrage then? No, it wasn't a good story, so nobody bothered talking about it, nobody bothered listening to it. Too late now.

I just don't care about celebrities' response to this aside from how much money they give. All this other bullshit that goes along with it just keeps America stupid and pointless.