Don't Praise the Charity Work

Written by Gene Zarnick

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

I'm not a person who gives a lot of money to charity. I don't know what sounds worse; that sentence or the title of the column. I do try to give as much as possible by doing different things that I think is charitable, but I'm not usually one to help out at the soup kitchen or try and raise money for a cause. I'm not going to try and pretend I do because I don't want to be seen as something I'm not. I can say if I had lots of money I would, but who knows then either. Either way I guess I prioritize other expenditures and other time induced activities over charity work. I guess I'm just not that philanthropic, so be it, at least I can admit it. But guess what? I donated to Haiti!

I donated to Haiti. I don't know if it was really the earthquake and all the casualties that made me want to give or if it was the public response to the situation that I felt I should give, but either way, I did. I don't want any praise though. I don't want any good job, that was nice of you, or any sort of statement projected towards me for doing a good deed, that I'm still not sure why I actually did it. Why should I be complimented? Because for one time in my life I went beyond my normal ways and donated money to help the needy? Does someone like me actually deserve a compliment? Now let's get this straight. I'm not a bad person by any means. I constantly am helping people in various sorts of ways. Usually it's fixing computer problems or finding out information for people. Friends, family, and acquaintances know that if they contact me for anything I will try my hardest to do whatever I can for them. Even when I do that sort of "charitable" work I don't want any money or praise. I like knowing I did something nice for someone. I fixed a computer problem that's easy for me to do, but very complex for the person who needed help. I like knowing that I'm needed. Haiti

This is why I don't think we should be praising these athletes for their charity work towards Haiti. One day Gilbert Arenas is a bad person for being stupid and bringing an unloaded gun with him to the arena and the next day he's Pope Gilbert John Arenas the Zero. People flock out of the woodwork in times of catastrophe. I saw a celebrity phone bank on Larry King last night and we've all seen the messages flying around Twitter and Facebook to text to donate $10 to Haiti. This is great by all involved, but there doesn't need to be any praise. Now I'm not pointing out all athletes. I don't really know which ones do more charity work then others, but I do know that I've turned a blind eye to it if it's been in front of my face before. I just hope we don't see these celebrities on television who are working for Haiti and immediately think that they are the greatest people in the world. People put on facades and people are ruthless. I'm sure some of these people are doing this for their own public image and don't care anything about charity. Then again, I still don't know why I donated.

All I'm trying to say is let's look at the situation for what it is. A catastrophe, a tragedy, a natural disaster, whatever you want to refer to it as, it's still an unsettling event that will take many years or decades to recuperate from. We can be somewhat thankful for the celebrities who are trying to help or who have donated millions of dollars to try to help, but lets' not focus on that. We love to focus on the people who are helping instead of the people who need help. I just want people to focus on what needs to be done and not what has been donated. Like I said above, I like knowing that I'm needed. I like being a person who can help. I didn't donate money because Jay-Z or Lebron James was doing it and I didn't donate any money because I felt it was the right thing to do. Maybe I finally decided to donate money to charity because for once it felt like they really needed me.