I just saw an ad for the Make a Wish Foundation, featuring a woman who had a serious illness as a child, got her wish fulfilled by the charity, and went on to heal.
And I just started thinking, that’s not supposed to happen. The whole thing is about granting the last wishes of dying kids, not to give some sick kid a vacation. This kid gamed the system. Or maybe the screening process isn’t rigorous enough.
I was pissed off that this kid got her final wish granted, and then lived on to presumably have more wishes.
When my best friend called me in tears to tell me that her father had been diagnosed with lung cancer my first thought was “Gee…ya think?!” Both her parents were heavy smokers ever since I’ve known them (so, like, forever) and they both smoked in the house. My best friend is a nurse, and all I could think was “You didn’t see that coming?!” I felt awful for thinking that but still managed to hopefully say all the supportive things one has to say…
Rather mundane, but…I know a simple fellow who opens the sliding door to throw bird/squirrel food out on the deck. The birds and squirrels scatter. He ALWAYS says, “I hope they come back!” :rolleyes: NO! You’ve scared them off for good, they are right now over the hills and far away and we will never see another squirrel in need of a peanut, nor a flashy pair of red cardinals - nay, we will never see a junco or sparrow - ever again. The deck will be a wasteland, covered with snow for the next six months…
The kid gamed nothing. If anybody gamed anything, it was the parents. And I would probably blame the Make-a-Wish Foundation before I blamed the parents. MAWF has complete control to whom they choose to provide benefits. And if they didn’t do their due diligence and didn’t confirm that the little leech actually had a fatal ailment, then that’s on them (and their donors).
I agree with the OP. After the wish is granted, the kid should be killed. Imagine how all the other dead kids feel if some kid gets their wish and then lives to remember it.
If this is about things that we thought or said that would’ve been inappropriate, then I have one. I was a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding recently. At the rehearsal dinner, someone wanted the bridesmaids and groomsmen to share secrets about the bride and groom with everyone. All I could think was, “Well, at the bachelorette party, the bride said that she wants to stop using birth control without telling the groom, that the two of them will be miserable, that the groom punched a hole in the wall while they were arguing recently, and that sharing something she liked about the groom was just a band-aid to their problems.” I don’t think those are the type of secrets they wanted to be shared.
That is correct. My sister was the recipient of a wish from the MAWF when she had cancer as a teenager. It was the second time she had the same cancer and she had a 50/50 chance. So, not terminal or for sure fatal. She survived, thankfully, and has been in remission for 10 years. Some kids don’t survive. How would you anticipate which ones will make it or not?
My contribution: I feel very guilty and like a horrible person thinking it, but sometimes when some woman tells me she’s ‘finally pregnant’ after trying for, like, three months, and she’s telling me when she’s only a few weeks along, I have a flash of ‘I hope she miscarries so she learns a lesson’. And then I feel like the worst person in the world.
(For background, my husband and I have been trying for years and have had three losses and no live births.)
They always tell kids that the key to success is to study hard and not put their hopes in pipe dreams like being a professional athlete. Just once, I want to hear about someone who studied their ass off for years or decades, gets a brain injury and loses any having an intellectual career, and regrets that he would have done much better if he just blew off school and spent more time on the basketball court with his friends.
People also express disbelief that Hitler, Pol Pot, or any number of other dictators could have done what they did. I can understand it just fine. The only thing that separates me from them is ambition and lack of clearly defined goals.
A news reporter on the radio just mentioned that there is a serial arsonist setting fire to places in Los Angeles. A cop type person came on and said some bullshit about how sad it is because this is a time to be celebrating.
The first thing that popped in my head was, “Well duh, dipshit, what do you think the aronist is doing? He’s celebrating by setting all those pretty pretty fires.”
There’s a commercial on tv for some depression medication; they say, “Who does depression hurt? Everyone. Where does depression hurt? Everywhere.” It sounds so much like a cheerleading line that my husband and I always respond back to the commercial when it comes on - “Who does depression hurt?” “EVERYONE!” “Where does depression hurt?” “EVERYWHERE!” (With optional clapping and high kicks.)
Maybe the kid used his wish to wish he’d get better?
Bet all the terminally ill kids that wished they could go to Disney World are in the afterlife now smacking their forheads wondering why they didn’t think of that.
