Charity Begins at Home

Darfur, is that near Cleveland?

Once again the Hollywood community has chosen its cause of the week and this week’s winner is Darfur, which I believe is somewhere near Cleveland. Now before we all get testy let’s be sure to clarify that Hollywood does do a lot of charity work. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that community stepped up and raised a lot of money for the victims and families of those injured or killed. After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast, again Hollywood stepped up and raised money for those devastated by nature’s fury. And, when the list of b-list actors and has-beens grew too large, they created Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Fit Club so these folks would have an outlet for their talents.

So now we are to send our overtaxed, hard earned dollars to the Darfur region that is experiencing atrocities unmentioned. I’m taking this as an affirmation that there are no more problems facing the people of the United States. Apparently there are no more children here who go to bed hungry. I’m assuming that every citizen has health insurance. I surmise that the homeless all found homes, all domestic diseases have been cured and that each of us has a full tank of gas.

Millions of dollars were raised last week when a benefit for the region of Darfur was held last week in Chicago by the new ‘brat pack’. Fat cats happily shelled out hundreds of thousands for a chance to view a movie and have a ‘meet and greet’ with the stars of Oceans Thirteen. Now, from the viewpoint of a middle-class Midwestern boy this is tantamount to holding a benefit for hair plugs for singer/actresses that decide to shave their heads in a moment of supreme drug or alcohol induced idiocy.

I don’t mean to seem insensitive and I’m sure that the problems facing this region are indeed staggering, to say the least, but the fact is that the affluent and infamous of American society, who get affluent and infamous wholly, if not completely, on American dollars, always seem to find causes outside the United States to devote their time and efforts to. And while they do, they continue to collect exorbitant amounts of American money for dressing up and pretending to be someone they’re not or by stripping the public of their money and dignity.

Last time I checked a random microcosm of American society did not closely resemble fuckin’ Mayberry, the greatest threat to our safety was not a drunk named Otis, and we did not all have an Aunt Bee sending us a gingham lined picnic basket full of fried chicken and homemade Apple Pie for our lunches while we sat around our offices with the Bass family singing and strumming our guitars. We have crime and disease and poverty and politicians; all indicators that we still have our own problems to deal with.

So while Hollywood sits around this week and takes a vote on which cause they want to focus on next week, let’s all remember that charity begins at home. We still have people living in the streets, we still have people dying without proper healthcare, and now we have people standing on busy corners holding signs that read, “WILL WORK FOR GAS MONEY”. Until that day comes that there is indeed a chicken in every pot here in the USA, let’s focus on causes at home rather than abroad. Or then again maybe I am wrong and Darfur really is near Cleveland.