So I don’t normally participate in the twitter, tumblr or Facebook memes or “retweet/post this message” stuff. But the recent one on Facebook was to post a cartoon picture of something you enjoyed as a child in an “effort” to get the message about childhood abuse out there. I love cartoons. So I did it. I first put up Wonder Woman as my favorite super hero cartoon as a kid. But then this weekend, I changed it to the Humble Bumble (Abominable from Rudolph.) It was a toss-up between him and Yukon Cornelius. And then I thought about Scrooge McDuck too who was a childhood favorite of mine and also my brother. I am actually going to leave Humble Bumble up for December I think though :)
Humble Bumble
Now…I’m pretty sure people know this is a very real problem in the world that does need addressing in a serious manner. And I’m also pretty sure most people know that changing their profile picture on Facebook isn’t really going to change the world or effect this issue in any real way. But so what? Wearing a pink ribbon doesn’t really change breast cancer awareness anymore, or a rainbow sticker to show solidarity with any number of gay-awareness causes, or any of the gazillion different-colored ribbons to promote stuff that we have no idea about anymore because there are so many. But by doing it, if even the 1 person you run across who hasn’t heard or thought about it (you are probably on the moon in this case) does think about it, then you did a decent thing. And hurt nothing or no one in the process.
So I was kinda shocked at seeing the amount of people on twitter and tumblr (and even some on Facebook) who went on tirades about how stupid it was, how it wasn’t going to change anything, was a waste of time and resources, etc. Wow. People…settle the hell down. It takes less than a minute to google/bing/yahoo search your favorite childhood cartoon and change your profile picture. And they are cute. And it’s kind of fun to see what your friends put up. So I don’t think anyone chose to put a cartoon picture up over donating time or money to any cause. In fact, your insults and tirades probably took more time. So just listen to Frankie…relax.
I thought maybe for some people it hit a button. And they had been abused or knew someone who was so the whole thing touched a sore spot. And maybe that’s it. But I would assume any awareness brought to a problem is good awareness. And while you think changing pictures to cartoons is stupid, the story was picked up by a lot of national news agencies that would have otherwise been reporting on how many stitches Obama has in his lip (which IS back in the news today – awesome) or what athlete Kim Kardashian is doing now. So…maybe nothing came of it all. But you don’t know.
And while I think most campaigns produce nothing much beyond their initial punch, sometimes that initial punch gets a person(s) moving. Causes them to act. Certainly not everyone. But some, even a few, is a good thing. Each person is going to have their own hot button issues. The ones they do set aside time for to help with, or donate money to, or both and more. And maybe you didn’t know it was a hot button issue until you thought about it more, and read about it more.
I mean come on – all the “Donate $$ to Haiti” tweets that were going around and around and around for a week or so. Did you really ever think about Haiti before that? Did you donate your $5 and feel like you did something? And did you ever do anything after that 3 minute cycle? Donate your time? Or more money? Probably not. But you know – that $5 might have meant a lot anyway. So do you regret doing it? Was it a bad thing that you did it? Can’t imagine you think so.
Some of the tweets and posts on tumblr were downright mean too. And some of the people who wrote them are the so-called “big names” on twitter/tumblr (which is a rather ridiculous and humorous statement in itself.) If you are on twitter or tumblr, you know the people, you probably follow at least one of them, the ones that love to self promote on Favrd or whatever that site is called where you favorite your own tweets and hope others do too in a some weird attempt to be a big name on a site most people in the world have never heard of. Yeah – they were bashing the cartoons as being stupid and ridiculous. Ummm…ok.
Also – it’s Christmas. And while I know this whole cartoon Facebook hubabub had nothing to do with Christmas, it was done around Christmas-time plus it had to with kids who should love Christmas and be extra happy at Christmas-time. That is something I am a firm believer in. *I* love Christmas. And even after a rough year, I am determined to still love Christmas. So lock away your personal Grinch for a few weeks and partake of the happy spirit known as “holiday cheer”. Smile.
And if this horrible waste of time perpetrated by obvious pure evil beings caused even 1 person to say “Oh yeah, I want to donate some money or time to fighting such and such cause as my good deed during this holiday season.” then yay.
And if you don’t want to do it, OK. No big deal either. But what does it gain to bash the people that do?
In fact, here you go – why don’t you go and put this picture up for the rest of the year…
