Idol Gives Back…and other things.
Personal to Desert Songbird: Why, yes…someone is home! (For a few minutes anyway, hehe.) 
See, I’m even posting!
So, along with a whole bunch of people, I watched last week’s “Idol Gives Back” special shows. I have to admit, that although I do feel compassion for the plight of those less fortunate than I am, I am not often moved to tears when it is not people in my own little community. In fact, I am more apt to get upset over the mistreatment or misfortunes that befall our furry friends than other humans. I’m not sure why, I’m not a mean person, I’m just wired that way. This special though, really struck all three of us and in fact, all three of us found ourselves wiping tears away and I know I heard sniffling. Seeing the softer side of Simon was sort of touching too. We voted for the first time this season, to help do our part to help give a little.
Homelessness and hunger are a much larger problem in our country than most people realize. What’s almost worse is how many “working homeless” people there are. I was shocked to learn when I lived in Springfield, IL that in a town of approximately 100,000 people, 400 people (mostly women and children) had no place to call home and either bounced from home to home of friends/relatives or vyed for one of the limited spaces in the various homeless shelters available to help them. It’s disturbing to me that families, who have jobs, can’t afford to pay for a roof over their heads. It affected my heart profoundly when I met with the director of one of those shelters to find out how serious the problem was in what was then the town I called home. I also realized that until I met her, I didn’t see the face of homelessness, aside from the one or two people I’d seen while driving through the “downtown” area. I now know, that even though I can’t always see it, no matter where I go, there is a homelessness problem. Don’t even get me started on hunger and the statistics of how many kids go to school hungry…
I never thought that American Idol would ever make me really think…but it sure did last week. How did it affect you if you watched it? Something to think about for sure, eh?
May 1st, 2007 at 9:48 am
I thought it was trying to do too much at once. They raised a lot of money, but how much money is that for homelessness, famine, poor schooling etc around the world? I wish they had focused a bit more. It’s not as if Idol is going anywhere. Maybe they could make that their annual charity show–just think if they could get that many sponsors and raise that much money EVERY YEAR and they could choose a different charity.
My human as required to do community health as part of her internship. Portland has some great community health type places to work. They in fact are the west coast model. While it’s a rewarding experience to help that many people, it’s eye opening to how many people really have a need.