Posted by : Unknown Monday, November 04, 2013

The other day I finally got around to doing something I've wanted to do for years; I donated to my high school's annual giving fund. Sounds trivial - $25 for every year I wanted to contribute and couldn't, just a drop in the metaphorical bucket - but it was huge for me.

My high school gave me much more than education, it gave me opportunity and an abundance experiences. And since these all contributed to me being in a place to receive countless blessings, I've wanted to reach back and help give another student a chance.

But greed has been in the way. Let me explain. Although I've been blessed, I still live on a tight budget. And with the government freezing pay for almost four years, the cost of living skyrocketing and a bank that refused to budge on my mortgage despite all of this, I haven't been in the position to contribute to anything except corporations. So you see, it's not my greed that got in the way, but the greed of those who already have it all.

Recently, I was able to free up some funds by finally getting the bank to modify my home loan. I don't want to go too much into the process I had to go through to do this, but just know the way big banks treat customers who are trying to do the right thing is shameful. But anyway, words can't explain how great it felt to accomplish the modification - to take money out of corporate America's pocket and invest into something worthwhile, a young life.

When will corporate America stop with the lies and admit people will help themselves (and others) when put in a fair position to do so? My best answer is, when it's no longer profitable. Sad, but true.

2 Responses so far.

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.
  2. i think the issue lies with our inability to recognize greed in all of its manifestations, minuscule to grandiose. we are all guilty of it, and our acceptance of it and participation in it in our daily lives leads to it being pervasive enough to be considered an epidemic.

    we have homes in sizes that we don't need. we drive we don't need to. we have smart phones, laptops and tablets. we eat far too much food. we have children with little regard to the long term impact that that decision has on something as small and tangible as our food supply. we take shit we don't need. all the time. and we justify it.i have 16 pairs of shoes, and a rationale behind each one.

    the things i named above, while forms of greed, do not reach the magnitude (and because of that, not nearly as damaging) of the greed you speak of in your post. but i think that's where it starts. the corporations take more than they need, in part because we as a populace engender a societal culture where we need more than we need.

    do you remember when TV used to stop? you could watch it to a certain point, the national anthem would play, a bald eagle would fly, and then a test screen. could you imagine if TV stopped today? people would go absolutely apeshit. because we need more than we need. now, we need a 24 hour information cycle. and, as a journalist, you know better than most the damage that has done to media.

    they justify it just was we justify it. they mostly have the benefit of being so far removed from seeing the damage that it causes.

    we are closer to the damage that our small scale greed causes, and that often does little to deter our avarice.

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