And get off Jack’s lawn! :rolleyes:
Jack-If you have such contempt for Facebook, WHY do you use it!?
I don’t have contempt for Facebook; I have contempt for 95% of humanity (the other five percent are my friends).
It’s ridiculously hot here today. I spent part of the day driving in my un-airconditioned car. A bucket of ice water was starting to sound pretty good by the time I was nearing home. But it would have required one more stop, to buy ice, and that wasn’t going to happen.
Eh, I like it. I’m not a fan of the expensive Walks, as they cost a hell of a lot of money to put on, and always make me think, “why not just give that money to the cause?” But I get it. The idea is to make some sort of spectacle of yourself to draw attention and get money. This seems to be doing it, using the human traits of mild sadism and dares. If I had designed it, it would be, “I challenge you to donate money, and in order to challenge someone else, you have to dump a bucket of ice water on your head.” Seems more logical.
And of course, it goes without saying that those in fragile health really shouldn’t be dumping ice water on their head. But it’s not going to harm a healthy person.
It’s a good use for a fad.
I did it. (Although my mother was absolutely convinced I was going to trigger a seizure, despite the fact that I repeatedly reassured her I had researched this extensively, and that the Epilepsy Foundation was actively endorsing it!)
I don’t know anyone online who would challenge me to do such a thing, and that fact is not an accident. If someone asked me, I would ignore them. My charitable donations are my own business.
I have enjoyed seeing various minor celebrities ice themselves and then call out other minor celebrities to do the same, and I’m guessing that being relatively rich, these people are (in addition to horsing around) also donating considerably more than $25 to the ALS people.
I also should say that this has been much less intrusive and irritating than whatever that godawful annoying gishwes thing was a week or so ago. Whatever they were raising money for, it can’t be worth that much irritation.
All of it, or just part of it?
And until I read this thread, I thought ALS was an island in Denmark… Als (island) - Wikipedia
This. There is also the potential that we are teaching folks that humiliation for money is a good thing, because you know, more money for charity. At some point, we need to evaluate if the means are worth the ends on this sort of thing. I fear that we have already gone too far down the rabbit hole of ‘I want something in exchange for giving my money to a good cause’.
I answered Yes and did it. Frankly I was suspicious of the whole point, since it seemed as if the efforts to support finding a cure for ALS would benefit much more by actual cash donations than by any “awareness” raised by the bucket of icewater thing. However, it seemed harmless and I was challenged so I figured -eh, what the hell.
But I have found it interesting and rather gratifying to see many people doing it and virally aligning behind a common cause rather than supporting the cause by clicking “like” from the comfort of their easy chair. I view the complainers and “what good will it do” folks as a bunch of killjoys.
I also donated money, by the way, as did my wife after she completed her own icebucket dousing.
I had a morbid thought for a B-movie after reading this recent article.
What if the “ice bucket challenge” was actually the “ice bucket curse” and anyone who performed the challenge would die of drowning within 15 days.:eek:
I sat in a Dump tank for charity. Brrrr. Good cause tho.
Paul Bissonette topped them all. (Oh and yes, he donated. The guy is known for his charitable activites involving the homeless, so it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise)
I bet that 50 percent of people pour water over their head just to jump on the bandwagon. Makes it look like they coughed up the money but in reality they are not giving at all.
I am a pessimist.
No I would not do this.
Lou Gehrig. Stephen Hawking.
I would too. But people are idiots. I read a story where someone heard that in Japan, milk bottle caps were being recycled into penny-ante objects, like combs, ball point pens, chopsticks, and rulers, and sold, with the profits going to pay for vaccines for children. Someone in the US got the idea to collect soda bottle caps here, without bothering to find out if they are made of the same kind of plastic, and collected something like a literal ton of them, and then wasn’t sure where to send them, so he was just going to send them, unsolicited, to the organization in Japan that promotes the collections in Japan. He needed money for postage, so he appealed to people for donations, and got thousands of dollars in a short time.
I had a bad feeling that if he had simply asked for people to send money, so he could donate it to this charity in Japan that provides vaccines for children, he would have gotten squat.
As far as I know, he sent the caps, and they probably got thrown away, because I’m betting they were a different kind of plastic.
I like Charlie Sheen’s approach. He dumped a bucket filled with $10,000 in cash over his head then donated the money to ALS research. “Ice melts,” he said. “But this will actually help people.” He then challenged Chuck Lorre, Jon Cryer, and Ashton Kutcher to match him.
Postscript: I lied.
That is, I already voted “No, I wouldn’t,” and I’ve already explained why I think this is silly and gimmicky.
But my wife and son wanted to do it, so I took part last night. After telling all of you I wouldn’t do the ice bucket challenge, I did in fact get a bucket of ice water dumped on me.
I’m so ashamed.
I’m evidently not Trinopus, but it raises the awareness of the people in the wheelchair and of those pushing them. Knowing that something is hard isn’t quite the same as knowing how hard it is. As my brother put it after his first day of Civilian Service* “I would like to see the people who declared some of those sidewalks ‘accesible’ push a chair with a 90kg man on it up those ramps! My left eyetooth, accesible!”
A lot of so-called accesible locations look a lot less accesible when seen from a chair or while on crutches. There are countries where many if not most doors need each hand to operate a lock independently: try that with a broken hand, or simply when you’re too short to reach the highest one. Something intended as a child safety leaves a short adult equally unable to get out.
- Alternative for military service. In his case, he spent several months working for a local charity that assists people with brain damage and their families.