I Know The Names
Feb. 24th, 2009 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwritesI realize I'm risking the flamey ire of the internets for this, but honestly? Flames tend not to bother me and I feel like saying it.
I'm all for a community gathering around to help members who are hurting because of bad luck and bad situations, and I have no problems with giving where I can. Even if it's just offering some services or my time when I don't have money.
But lately, on the internet, I've seen some calls for support for people who, while their situations are deserving, made me wonder if they themselves are, or why it is that they get people blogging and posting on their behalf.
I won't say any specifics, but there's no one call for "Help [Insert Person]" that's pushed my buttons. Well, there is one, but only because I tend to resent anyone who turns to charity not because it's their last resort, but because they'd rather continue living a certain way without having to face hard realities.
Sometimes I want to say, "Hey, look, there are at least ten people on my f-list who could use a leg up, too. People who have kids and just lost their job and may not have a house or a car or healthcare anymore if they've managed to hold on to them this time. People who's circumstances are just as bad."
Trust me, I can tell you some hard luck stories. I can tell you that the two best friends my fiancee and I have are both out of work. His best friend, who we'll call Miss J, and her husband are both unemployed right now, and having to move somewhere else because the prospects for employment where they live are just so bad that they can't stay. The house they're planning to abandon (because they have no choice) is so devalued that the bank may not even want it back. This is after her father also got laid off.
I can tell you about people who right now, are making choices between food and medication. I can tell you about specific people that I know who just won't have a car, who aren't sure if they'll have their jobs, who are biting their nails wondering what bill they'll have to not pay this month.
Everyone's hurting, and it seems sometimes that the people who get help from the community at large get it not because they're the worst off or even because they've somehow been big contributors who did good deeds for others, but because they managed to have friends in the right places, that they ran in the right clique so that their buddies were big name bloggers and figures in certain scenes.
Some part of me wants to ask where's the fundraising for the people who haven't hobnobbed at every convention from here to WisCon, where's the donation and charity drive for the writers who aren't published yet, for those who are struggling to get published - but because they couldn't afford flights and hotel rooms and all the expenses of going to conventions and writer's workshops, because they couldn't risk taking the time off work, because they couldn't hang out with the cool kids, nobody's calling for donations on their behalf.
It just seems like some people are getting help because they're the popular kids on the scene, but the not so popular kids - the single moms with two kids and crushing debt who've just lost their job or taken a severe pay cut, the young couple who find themselves unemployed, uninsured, and uncertain, the people who are trying to deal with health issues while trying to keep what little of a job they have - those folks are being told, "Eh, that's what comes with being an artist. Suck it up. Writing/(insert artform) is tough".
Yet when somebody with Friend In High Places faces the same difficulties, suddenly, it's a community tragedy. Somehow, if nobody knows your name, your problems are somehow less worthy of consideration.
Well, I know their names. I know who they are, I know that they're hurting. And maybe the cool kids and Big Name People have forgotten them, but I haven't.
So to all of you out there who are fighting tooth and nail, who are shaking and crying and not sleeping, who hurt but can't go to a doctor, who skip meals and rob Peter to pay the electricity bill, and who are trying to write, sing, paint, draw, dance, and create through all of it - even when agents and publishers are telling you that your chances just got slimmer and your cut is going to be smaller and that when it comes time for someone to take the hit, it's going to be you, not them - to all of you - I know your name. I won't forget you. And whenever I can, I'll do my best to help you in whatever way I can, with whatever I have at my command, however meager.
Maybe I'm unemployed right now, but I'm lucky in so many ways, and if I can pass that luck on, I will.
I'm all for a community gathering around to help members who are hurting because of bad luck and bad situations, and I have no problems with giving where I can. Even if it's just offering some services or my time when I don't have money.
But lately, on the internet, I've seen some calls for support for people who, while their situations are deserving, made me wonder if they themselves are, or why it is that they get people blogging and posting on their behalf.
I won't say any specifics, but there's no one call for "Help [Insert Person]" that's pushed my buttons. Well, there is one, but only because I tend to resent anyone who turns to charity not because it's their last resort, but because they'd rather continue living a certain way without having to face hard realities.
Sometimes I want to say, "Hey, look, there are at least ten people on my f-list who could use a leg up, too. People who have kids and just lost their job and may not have a house or a car or healthcare anymore if they've managed to hold on to them this time. People who's circumstances are just as bad."
Trust me, I can tell you some hard luck stories. I can tell you that the two best friends my fiancee and I have are both out of work. His best friend, who we'll call Miss J, and her husband are both unemployed right now, and having to move somewhere else because the prospects for employment where they live are just so bad that they can't stay. The house they're planning to abandon (because they have no choice) is so devalued that the bank may not even want it back. This is after her father also got laid off.
I can tell you about people who right now, are making choices between food and medication. I can tell you about specific people that I know who just won't have a car, who aren't sure if they'll have their jobs, who are biting their nails wondering what bill they'll have to not pay this month.
Everyone's hurting, and it seems sometimes that the people who get help from the community at large get it not because they're the worst off or even because they've somehow been big contributors who did good deeds for others, but because they managed to have friends in the right places, that they ran in the right clique so that their buddies were big name bloggers and figures in certain scenes.
Some part of me wants to ask where's the fundraising for the people who haven't hobnobbed at every convention from here to WisCon, where's the donation and charity drive for the writers who aren't published yet, for those who are struggling to get published - but because they couldn't afford flights and hotel rooms and all the expenses of going to conventions and writer's workshops, because they couldn't risk taking the time off work, because they couldn't hang out with the cool kids, nobody's calling for donations on their behalf.
It just seems like some people are getting help because they're the popular kids on the scene, but the not so popular kids - the single moms with two kids and crushing debt who've just lost their job or taken a severe pay cut, the young couple who find themselves unemployed, uninsured, and uncertain, the people who are trying to deal with health issues while trying to keep what little of a job they have - those folks are being told, "Eh, that's what comes with being an artist. Suck it up. Writing/(insert artform) is tough".
Yet when somebody with Friend In High Places faces the same difficulties, suddenly, it's a community tragedy. Somehow, if nobody knows your name, your problems are somehow less worthy of consideration.
Well, I know their names. I know who they are, I know that they're hurting. And maybe the cool kids and Big Name People have forgotten them, but I haven't.
So to all of you out there who are fighting tooth and nail, who are shaking and crying and not sleeping, who hurt but can't go to a doctor, who skip meals and rob Peter to pay the electricity bill, and who are trying to write, sing, paint, draw, dance, and create through all of it - even when agents and publishers are telling you that your chances just got slimmer and your cut is going to be smaller and that when it comes time for someone to take the hit, it's going to be you, not them - to all of you - I know your name. I won't forget you. And whenever I can, I'll do my best to help you in whatever way I can, with whatever I have at my command, however meager.
Maybe I'm unemployed right now, but I'm lucky in so many ways, and if I can pass that luck on, I will.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 05:13 pm (UTC)Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 11:39 pm (UTC)