Telathons

I hate to admit it but 'Live Earth' kind of turned me off. I tried to watch it. But something about it bothered me. I only watched a few minutes of a performer on stage in Rio. All her bandmates had slogans on their tee shirts about ending hunger, poverty, child abuse and other worthy goals. She herself had a white dress on with the word Darfour across her chest and something, i don't remember what, written in black letters down her white dress. I won't tell you where her peace sign was, because if you didn't see it you wouldn't believe it.

Try as I might, I couldn't be moved. In fact it all seemed distasteful. Kind of like they were trivializing important issues. Turning what should be fury and righteous anger into a fashion 'tee'.

Try as I might, I couldn't get away from the idea that I was watching a new kind of telathon. I don't like telathons. Jerry Lewis sets my teeth on edge and the idea of calling youngsters with disabilities 'Jerry's kids' is out and out offensive. It may raise money but at what cost?

Try as I might, I couldnt understand how a concert with all it's inherent waste was thought to be a way of bringing the issue forward. I saw energy just burning on that stage. And not from the performers - from the lights and the sounds and the cameras.

So I sat on my couch wondering when they were going to bring planet earth out in a wheelchair with an oxygen mask placed over the hole in the ozone. When was Jerry going to cry big Jerry tears for the fate of poor fledgling earth? When was poster child 'Earth' going to pull at our heartstrings by slowly wheeling off stage, stopping to cough up exhaust? I knew it must come at some point, but I clicked away. I've seen enough of these to know no real good can come from this.

I'm sure the intent was for something different than what I felt.

But what the earth needs is action, not emotion.

Is change, not theatrics.

Is to be viewed seriously, not as a cause for pity.

As a disabled person, Mother Nature is my mom too. I care for her. But as a disabled person I don't want her to be made the object of charity rather than the recipient of respect. It only took a few hours in a wheelchair to learn that. And with a bit of respect, just a bit, we wouldn't need 'Live Earth' because we'd already have one.