Make-A-Wish kid's super hero wish comes true - Page 2

Nope.


There is no way you're going to ooze out of this. You can't say you feel happy for this child getting his wish in the same breath as "Why waste the money on a terminal kid". I understand how you think you might be able to justify yourself, because you are clearly a sociopath, but it's not going to happen. You're a bad person, and you should feel bad,

I'm not blaming him for his wish, and I don't know what the solution would be, but if you look at the global problem of "dying kids" with a triage perspective in mind, knowing there are only so many dollars that are going to be given to charity in a given year, then I am just not sure MAKE A WISH makes much sense.

Any way, I'm off. I've made my case now you guys make up your own minds. Don't want to fight.

By the way, I love how much money you think is thrown into this, especially when most of the people volunteered their time and energy to help this happen, which is free, and awesome.

Uh.. OK.

I can't be happy to see a dying kid get his wish, but also wonder about how money given to charity can be most effectively utilized?

Ok, sign me up for the sociopaths list.

EDIT: I am LOLing at you. My desire to save the maximum number of children possible means I am a sociopath. How is life on the Bizarro-Planet?

Don't worry, I'm sure someone has.

I was actually going to say that before. I agree, people doing that is fantastic, and if it was a local community based effort I wouldn't see any problem. It's just the idea that there are some people on the other side of the country from this kid, writing checks to this organization that could have been written to other organizations, and if they had, then maybe a kid who otherwise would have died would be saved

Kate the flaw in your argument is that Make a Wish does not take funding away from other charities, if they did I could get what you are saying

Ken,

I really would like to exit this thread because I feel I've made my point and don't have anything to add, but if you saw what I said there is only a certain ammount of dollars that are going to be given to charity in a given year. I feel like dollars given to MAW are dollars not given to saving lives

Thats just how I feel. I don't hate sick children or desire they feel awful. The "You're a sociopath!" hyperbole makes me think that I'm not going to sway anyone to my side with further reasoning so I'd rather stop talking about it. Thanks for trying to engage thoughtfully with me though

It wasn't hyperbole, here is why I called you a sociopath:

While your desire to see all the worlds children be saved from possible shows a social conscience, your curiosity as to why anyone would allocate money to help a terminally dying child as opposed to a child who could be saved shows that you lack a sense of moral responsibility. There is a fundamental part of human nature that lends itself to hospice. The fact that you see that as less than important is bothersome.

You just think they should be shipped off to third world countries to perform free labor. Makes sense.

Go to H-E double hockey sticks, Chris. I have a social conscious and a moral compass. It's why I wanted to make sure money was not being wasted that could save kids.

You're just making stuff up and not at all staying true to what I said. I said that if it were a community based effort to make a kid feel great that I was all for it (If I knew a child with cancer I would take part in an event designed to boost their spirits), but that if we're spending money on helping kids those dollars could be used to help kids who are not terminally ill already.

Now leave me alone

Well maybe we should just make Kate the charity czar since she clearly knows how to spend other peoples donations better than everyone else.

This story gave my faith in humanity a much needed lift.

Princess Kate's comments bummed me out.

Everyone else's comments saved it.

It's been a rollercoaster, that's for sure.

Jesus fucking Christ, I've been ignoring her dumbass too, but I'm done.

Kate: Put your money where your bullshit is. Clearly you don't have much else to do with your life, so go to Africa and clean descended bellies, or shut up.

Those dollars are donations made for that charity. The idea that one charity takes money from another one at the macro level is kind of absurd.

Most people donate to a particular cause because the charity represents something they value, or have personal experience with. So it is not unusual for a person who had a close relative die of cancer to donate to a cancer research charity, while say a person who appreciates art donates time, money and supplies to a charity or organization that teaches kids how to express themselves by painting and sculpture.

You make it sound like these charities all take money from a set pool, while ignoring that their individual areas are what drive people to send them money in the first place.

I mean he's just gonna die why waste that much $$$ and cause that much traffic. He should donate that money to cancer research so no one else gets cancer and plus what 13 year old pretends to be a superhero I mean what a fag

When this was posted at FARK last week, an early replier did a withering pre-emptive takedown of any of the inevitable malcontents and parade-rainers that she knew would be sure to follow. 'Twas a thing of beauty. Wish I'd saved a link...

That's it! Thanks.

Princess Kate, you stink! Just because of you I am going to donate the entire total of my savings account to buy machetes for warlords in order to ensure the slaughter of the most third-world children possible.

More money for the first world! Down with the third world!

Kate, did you ever answer Cap's first question? How much of your income do you donate to mosquito netting for third world countries?

I've defended you in the past, but this really just irks me. It's like you're finding clever and creative ways to derail threads and come across as a genuinely shitty person. You basically say, in not so many words, that this child who is dying of cancer is selfish for wasting these funds that could be given to help out in poor countries.

So again, how much of your income are you giving away to mosquito netting in third world countries?

Video of this event;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFhWZ...layer_embedded

Real sweet.

Holy shit, that's awesome.

This is an awesome story, made all the better that I've got Princess Kate on a filter. Just the quoted bits of crazy reminds me why.

Agreed, it really is a divine state of grace to be in.

Thirded. Talk about missing the point.

I not to much of a man to admit that I teard up watching that.

Just when I was feeling kind of guilty for having someone in my ignore list ( I couldn't even keep Snaieke in it for long, for fuck's sake) PK justifies my decision.

I'm seeing a lot of visceral reactions to Kate's point, but not too many actual refutations.

Here's why, Kate: it has to do with the way our brains our wired. We read about 500 people being killed in a mudslide, and it rolls right off us. We read about one puppy with leukemia, and we cry. Why? Because we can *grasp* one puppy with leukemia. 500 people in a mudslide, or thousands dying of malnutrition, is simply too big for us to wrap our hearts around.

When someone tells us to ignore the puppy and focus on the 500 people over in Sicily or someplace, we tell them to get bent because the puppy is *right there.*

So, yeah, if Central Planning was allocating the resources, they'd go to the victims of catastrophes in far-off lands. But it isn't. Humans, with hearts, allocate the resources. And they want to help the puppy.

BTW, be careful how you allocate your resources in Africa. There are some outstanding organizations doing good, long-term work in some of the most blasted parts of the continent (See Kristof's recent pieces on Catholic charities in the NY Times, for example.). But there are others that (at best) throw money down a hole, or (at worst) exacerbate the problems they're trying to solve.

I've answered this same question on other threads, again when I was accused of doing nothing to support my principals. I'll answer it again now:

I donate 50 to 100 dollars, split evenly, to Amnesty International and UNICEF every Christmas. I frequently put my spare change into various charitable change things at check out.

I make $165 dollars a week and that's about all I can afford.
I am just sharing my opinion. Should I shut up and keep quiet because people might disagree with me? I have not been rude or argumentative, yet people have gleefully posted poems that suggest I "drown in bleach". That irks me

I never suggested the child was selfish. That's absurd, Kevin. When I was 13 I wanted to go to Disneyland and I certainly don't blame a child with cancer for wanting to go. And you know what? If everyone who knew that kid didn't get together and scrape up the money to send him there, then that would be pretty shitty.

But that's not what I'm saying. I am saying that a charity like MAKE A WISH is a luxury of first world privilege. I know that the money that goes to charities does not come from some macro pool, where money that goes to one is taken from another... Where the money goes is a decision made by individuals when they choose who they are going to write their check to. Individuals DO have a set amount of money they can afford to give to charity, and I'm calling into question the judgment and morality of anyone who writes a check to MAKE A WISH instead of an organization that works to save the lives that hang in the balance. If I had only one dollar to spend, and I could either spend it on sending a terminally ill child to Disneyland, or spend it towards saving a child who didn't have to die, I don't see how I could spend it on the amusement park. Maybe I'm wrong, and MAKE A WISH frequently takes 7 year old AIDS victims from the Sudan to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, but I've never heard of such a thing. Instead it seems to be totally focused on western children, and to my mind it's an example of fatally skewed priorities on the part of some people. You can disagree with that, fine, but don't try to suggest I'm just trying to derail the discussion. I'm only still here talking about it because people have called my motives into question and said that they'd prefer I die painfully than question MAKE A WISH.


Anyway, assuming no one wants to follow up with another creepy poem centered around my grisly death, I'd like to make this my last word on the subject

PS Frank Cobretti:

I get what you're saying but that doesn't mean that I can't judge people for only wanting to help out in their own back yard, thanks for debating the merits of my argument though and not my ability to feel empathy

PPS Yes, I agree about Africa being a giant pit for aid money, but that doesn't really change my point about better ways to donate charitably

So you don't go see 3D movies or spend money on video games then? Because that's fifteen to sixty bucks that could be going to a terminally ill child. That's like fifteen to sixty times the dollar that you could be spending to send the terminally ill child to Disneyland.

And...I hope you're happy Frank. Freakin' puppies.

Yep.

Honestly most of that money comes from my parents these days. I'm super poor, it's terrible.

Anyway, I basically spend 1/50th of my of my total pay for a year on aid. That's more than the united states government spends annually, percentage wise.

EDIT: I shouldn't have even responded, I'm now realizing. Don't reply to this please.

Peter Singer's analogy is, you see a child drowning in very shallow water. There is no danger to yourself if you were to rescue the child, but you would ruin your new pair of shoes. Most everyone says that of course they would save the child without caring about the shoes, and then his rejoinder is that when you spend money on a $150 pair of shoes, or subscribe to cable, or go see Kick-Ass, or grab The Godfather trilogy on Blu-Ray as children in Third World countries are starving, you are ethically in the same position as refusing to help the drowning child. "That stance can't possibly translate to real life," you say. Singer notes that the ethical life is a very difficult one, and there are always greater degrees of generosity to which we can aspire. He advocates starting out with giving 1% of your income to a reputable charity with a proven record of tangible impact in the communities it serves and minimal administrative overhead, with the goal of increasing that percentage to as much as you can afford.

I'm posting this on an internet movie board, so obviously, I have a ways to go before I can say I'm on my way to the kind of ethical life Singer proposes. I am not in any way frowning on what Make-A-Wish has done for this child or any child that they help. And I'm really not telling anyone what they should or shouldn't give. But in Singer's book The Life You Can Save, he makes some points somewhat aligned to what PK is saying here. Granted, he's not making them to inflame internet tempers, and he's a lot more eloquent than PK or I am. All of this to say that I can see where PK is coming from and maybe that the reactions she's getting are more due to her persona and the way in which she presents herself rather than the meat of the idea.

The reactions are the way they are because its a stupid, and a hypocritical point that she is making.

Plus, in the real world there isn't a strict hierarchy of problems set in stone in some holy mountain. Not every major world problem has to be solved before anyone can think of trying something smaller, more manageable and more personal. A good thing is a good thing and it must be appreciated for that, not nitpicked as a way for internet philanthropists to award themselves their "Holier than thou" badge.

I'm with PK on this one; how could those selfish fucks do such a thing? Trying to bring some sort of happiness and joy into a dying kids life, or what little remains of it. What assholes.

I mean seriously, what's the point? He's gonna be dead soon!

Yeah man...just wait that shit out and you wouldn't have to do fuck all. These people have jobs, man...they got better shit to do than fucking around with some kid so reckless and irresponsible he went out and got cancer. Probably just did it for the attention, I bet.
I say, let him die.

Totally. What was that crazy asshole kid thinking?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6nNcW2M73E

*sniff*
How could you say those things??? I love those goofy little Make-a-Wish bastards!!!

I just watched the video of the event. Damn. That kid was really, really happy. His mom was fighting back tears as well. What a great story.

I think this is great. Is the kid mentally handicapped though? He looks it in the photos and as cool as it is I have a hard time believing a 13 year old would want to dress up like a superhero and fight monsters in front of everyone.

At any rate I think it's a great thing to do, I would have helped out had I lived nearer.