America: Land of the indifferent?
Shane Pastor, '13 | Staff Reporter
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Opinion
I am a huge football fan, but instead of watching the conference championship games this past weekend, I opted to watch something a little more inspirational; ABC's series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In this episode, Dolores Powell and her four children received the gift of a lifetime when their home on the West Side of Buffalo was renovated. Growing up in Buffalo myself, I was well aware of what I would see.
It was such an awesome feeling seeing my city shine under a national spotlight, and Makeover designer Paige Hemmis said she couldn't have been more impressed by the generousity the city of Buffalo gave the crew throughout the week. "Everyone stopped what they were doing and helped us for that week. It is going to shine such a wonderful light on Buffalo, and I hope it really does because that's how we feel about it," Hemmis said. While the people of Buffalo were doing their part, I thought about what others were doing to help the less fortunate.
According to an article published by Associated Content on Jan. 8, charitable donations continue to decline as the economic crisis continues. However, throughout the holiday season, I couldn't help but notice the amount of careless spending by shoppers, who seemed to have an infinite amount of cash to dump into making Christmas more about gifts than spending time with loved ones. It's called American selfishness, and I'm pretty sure everyone has been guilty of it in some time during their life.
The American Red Cross press released an article stating that contributions from new donors have dropped nearly 30 percent. In an article published by the New York Times, the state of Connecticut alone gets nearly 600 new applications a month to use the states' emergency food pantry. Many organizations have been forced to cut donations due to low amounts of supplies.
But no matter how bad the economic crisis, the "City of Good Neighbors" always pulls their own weight. According to the Food Bank of Western New York, the organization collects nearly 12 million pounds of food per year. Pretty remarkable numbers for Buffalo, ranked the second poorest city in 2009.
So no matter how bad you think you are suffering economically, especially students of this school, remember there is always someone who has it worse than you. I don't know what has happened to this country, but the fact that we need to add tax breaks as an incentive to make donations to people in need is pretty pathetic. Maybe instead of buying self-twirling spaghetti forks or Barack Obama playing cards, we could donate it to the people of Haiti who have lost everything. I know if I were in their shoes, or lack of them, I would want someone there for me.
It was such an awesome feeling seeing my city shine under a national spotlight, and Makeover designer Paige Hemmis said she couldn't have been more impressed by the generousity the city of Buffalo gave the crew throughout the week. "Everyone stopped what they were doing and helped us for that week. It is going to shine such a wonderful light on Buffalo, and I hope it really does because that's how we feel about it," Hemmis said. While the people of Buffalo were doing their part, I thought about what others were doing to help the less fortunate.
According to an article published by Associated Content on Jan. 8, charitable donations continue to decline as the economic crisis continues. However, throughout the holiday season, I couldn't help but notice the amount of careless spending by shoppers, who seemed to have an infinite amount of cash to dump into making Christmas more about gifts than spending time with loved ones. It's called American selfishness, and I'm pretty sure everyone has been guilty of it in some time during their life.
The American Red Cross press released an article stating that contributions from new donors have dropped nearly 30 percent. In an article published by the New York Times, the state of Connecticut alone gets nearly 600 new applications a month to use the states' emergency food pantry. Many organizations have been forced to cut donations due to low amounts of supplies.
But no matter how bad the economic crisis, the "City of Good Neighbors" always pulls their own weight. According to the Food Bank of Western New York, the organization collects nearly 12 million pounds of food per year. Pretty remarkable numbers for Buffalo, ranked the second poorest city in 2009.
So no matter how bad you think you are suffering economically, especially students of this school, remember there is always someone who has it worse than you. I don't know what has happened to this country, but the fact that we need to add tax breaks as an incentive to make donations to people in need is pretty pathetic. Maybe instead of buying self-twirling spaghetti forks or Barack Obama playing cards, we could donate it to the people of Haiti who have lost everything. I know if I were in their shoes, or lack of them, I would want someone there for me.