My cynical nature over charities and donations

[sapphi_snake]

oldschoolfool said:

I have never donated to anything and I have never done any charity work. I don't feel the need to. Disaster's happen all the time. There's also thousand's of needy cause's and people in the world. Am,I suppose to break down and cry,everytime an unfortunate disaster happens? I mean you have the the japan disaster,then you had the hati disaster. There was also hurricane katrina. You also have the struggles in Africa. There's also all of these children's chairites,they always advertise on T.V. There always about poor children in third world countries. Then there's your disease and hunger charities and the salvation army. I'm not a rich person,so I don't think my couple of dollars are really going to make that much of a differnce. There's also no way to tell,how much of that money is actually going to people in need. I'm so cynical,I'd rather give people money,that really need it;myself. They can say that it all goes to the needy,but I just don't trust them. It's probably • overhead for all I know. Am,I suppose to stop living life and cry everyday and run to a corner,when something tragic happens? Don't get me wrong disaster's,the hungry,the needy,the homeless,the sick and the poor children of the world is sad and tragic,but I really don't think a few dollars and maybe alittle volunteer work is really going to make that much of an impact. It's a crazy and tragic world that we live in these days,but one can't save the world. 

It may seem that way, and a single individual's few dollars/volunteer work isn't going to change the world. However if many people donate a couple of dollars/do voluteer work, things can really get done.

For example if 1 million people donate a dollar each, then you've raised 1 million dollars!!!

Change requires collective work, and everyone needs to contribute a little. It may seem non-important on an individual level (sort of like "hey, how's my 3 dollar donation gonna make any difference?"), but if all people think this apathy will change from the individual level to a collective level, and nothing will ever get done.

I beleive it was Ghandi who said "be the change that you wish to see in the world". You can't control other people, but you can control yourself. All you can do is go out there and do something, and hope that other people will follow your example. Even if you end up being the only one who did anything, at least you can look back and tell yourseld "at least I tried".

There was actually a theory that I learned about in my sociology class, who's name I can't remember, that said that people generally act by copying eachother's behavious in situations where they're not sure what to do. The example to illustrate that theory was that someone fainted on the street, and a crowd of people gathered around taht person, unless someone from the crowd acted and started checking to see if that person was OK, telling people to call an ambulance etc., everyone would just stay put waiting for someone else to do something, not sure whether the situation was serious etc.

If you wanna donate to a charity, just do a background check on it, and try to avoid religious ones.

Now I should stop beign a hypocrite, go out, and do something!