Pink Ribbons and Red Dresses

[neadods]

First, the advertisement:

The American Heart Assn. is sponsoring Go Red for Women to raise awareness for heart disease in women. They are encouraging women to wear red this Friday, there is information for action, for personal health, and a store. You can also sign up for a free red dress pin.

Second, the morose philosophizing:

Of course there's a pin. Everything is either a pin, ribbon, or rubber bracelet these days. And yet despite Think Before You Pink and the Wash Post article about students wearing rubber bracelets as a fad item instead of a mission statement, at least the makers and the runners of the campaign are doing something to raise awareness. And that's never bad. So I have signed up for a red dress pin; I will look through my closet for something scarlet.

But...

How many causes are too many? What is the line between aiding a cause and just making meaningless gestures? Considering my recent family history, I'm tempted to jump on the Go Red campaign in a big way. But I'm wrestling with the charity equivalent of my costuming dilemma of a week ago - the idea that I should be doing some certain pre-determined amount of effort in order to show myself worthy to some external scorekeeper. (I did, by the way, buy two more dresses and a bodice.) I don't want Go Red to take over from the women's rights or religious freedom or Team Wench charities I'm already working for, and then there is the charity that I kinda sorta wanted to bring into Team Wench and THEN there's the scholarship that my parents are trying to fully fund.

What do I owe them all?

I know the answer is "what you're willing to give" but sometimes that doesn't seem enough.

Comments

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I know the answer is "what you're willing to give" but sometimes that doesn't seem enough.

I know it probably doesn't help much, but... If it were really enough, there wouldn't be any charities any more. We wouldn't need them. They'd be done.

If that's not what you mean by "enough," then you have to ask "enough for what?"

[neadods.livejournal.com]

then you have to ask "enough for what?"

And that's kind of a biggie question. I don't even know how to even define the terms of "goal to reach" and "enough" for Really Big Stuff like Go Red or Breast Cancer. And as far as NARAL and ACLU are concerned, there is no such thing as enough - so far, my participation seems to be limited to throwing out requests for even more money for unspecified purposes.

(I'm starting to agree with Mo, who dropped Southern Poverty Law Center "because they pissed away my donation by spending it on letters begging me for more.")

Yet on the other hand, I can do things like, oh, advertise the cause in my LJ. But is that "enough"?

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

Advertising the cause in my LJ got me at least a couple of hundred dollars worth fo donations last year.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Yet on the other hand, I can do things like, oh, advertise the cause in my LJ. But is that "enough"?

Maybe a more constructive question is "is it helping?" Wanting it to be "enough" -- especially if we can't answer "enough for what?" -- is more likely to lead to burnout and frustration than anything else.

That's how people trap themselves into thinking what they do doesn't count. It does. If one person gets a meal, a coat, job training, legal assistance, whatever, even if it's just becuase you wrote a check or cleared out something "extra"? It counts.