Three and a half weeks of 2010 have past. The year is getting into full gear. Some of us have already cast our New Year's resolutions aside for a plate of cupcakes and a seat in front of the television. But don't worry; we're getting exercise via nail biting. Wait a minute; weren't we supposed to stop doing that this year too?
Pop culture commentators have debated the correct way of saying 2010. They have waxed on about the benefits of saying twenty-ten versus two-thousand-ten and vice versa. Hey, content is needed so websites can sell ads. Advertising revenue is down, though. They might want to rethink their material.
The Black Eyed Peas are continuing to get a feeling. Lady Gaga is still causing some to look at her agog. Heidi Montag has transmogrified herself from gal next store into... well let's just say less of a gal next door. American health care reform sits beneath the sword of Damocles. It may well be sliced and diced beyond recognition. Hold on, that can't be right. Seems the folks who are responsible for fixing health care in the U.S. haven't fully read the bill that's supposed to fix it. You've got to read to recognize.
Anyway, I could keep going on and on. By going on and on, it would seem like I'm making the point that not much has changed, so far, from 2009. But pessimism is so autumn of 2008, when the world financial system was melting down and we were getting ready to grow vegetables patches in our backyard in order to survive.
What am I saying here? Are things improving or going to hell in an overpriced, designer handbag made in China? If things aren't shaping up, as we had hoped, who will stop the rain? Who I ask? Who? Tell me. I've got to know. Is Jack Bauer on the way? Please answer me now. I've got a tuna-pita-pocket in the microwave that I picked up at the organic food store and "Two and a Half Men" is about to come on.
A funny thing happened on the way to writing this column. I saw the telethon, "Hope for Haiti Now," on MTV, a bunch of other TV channels and the Internet. There were more stars and celebrities working the phones and performing than the Shrine Auditorium could hold for one of those self-congratulatory, awards shows. Well, not really. But lots of big names were there to help.
Reportedly, George Clooney -who single females tell me is their husband- organized the telethon to help the Haitian people recover from a horrific earthquake and its extremely painful water, food and shelter deprived aftermath. One look at Haiti tells us all to stop complaining about our lives and be thankful. Be thankful and do something.
Now, George Clooney is not my idea of a dreamboat. I don't swoon when I see him. I do, though, like some of his movies. Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock or Kate Beckinsale is more my cup of pulchritudinous tea, but I digress.
However, Clooney has reminded us that what it takes to do something positive, in the world, is for one person to have an idea -a vision- and back it with getting others to help turn that idea into a reality. Seemingly, that's what happened with "Hope for Haiti Now".
Will a one night telethon cure the destruction wrought on the already impoverished island nation of Haiti? Of course not. As many residents of Mexico City could tell you, they still remember the 1985 earthquake there and the horrific trials and tribulations of its aftermath. Aid and the outpouring of world sentiment went a long way, but healing and rebuilding is a process.
Clooney, et al proved the saying, "If it is to be it's up to me". Fixing the ills of the world does not rest on the shoulders of the "they". You've heard of the "they" haven't you? A problem exists in the world and someone offers innocently, "They will have to do something about it".
Newsflash! We are they. There is no group that is going to rectify the world's ills apart from us. And while many of us lament a decline in popular culture as reflected on television and the Internet -and I've been one of them- along comes this telethon to remind us to shut up and do something.
Communications technology, as all technology, is a human crafted gift. It can be employed as a valuable tool or denigrated and weaponized. This telethon for Haiti shows that television and the Internet can be utilized to deliver quality artistic content to the world, for the benefit of those in need. In this case, desperate need. Hope for Haiti is hope for the world. If is to be, it is up to us.
Our job is to focus on what we can do to effectuate positive change within ourselves and in the world. Now!
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