Are you just an Internet Activist?

I know this is an odd ques­tion for a Thursday morn­ing, but here is why I ask.

Every day there are many online ini­tia­tives started designed to help oth­ers. Topics rang­ing from hunger, AIDS Awareness, home­less­ness, child abuse or ani­mal abuse and of course Haiti. People are pas­sion­ate and work tire­lessly to pro­mote the pre­ven­tion of such sad occur­rences. I com­mend any­one who has made such efforts.

Now back to my ques­tion. While design­ing and main­tain­ing a web­site is hard work, how hands on are you with the topic you actively pro­mote?

Do you let the key­board do the work for you or do you actu­ally get out there and make direct con­tact with the cause.

Let’s take the issue of AIDS for instance. I knew a grand­mother rais­ing her grand­chil­dren. She was infected with the AIDS virus. She took some 50 plus med­ica­tions daily. Not only that her young grand­chil­dren had to vir­tu­ally care for her. The only indi­ca­tion though that she was an AIDS patient was a sign that she had on her front door.

She looked just like any­one else’s grand­mother even my own. If you are an online advo­cate for AIDS pre­ven­tion have you ever gone out and seen with your own eyes how AIDS really affects peo­ple? Not only the one with the dis­ease, but the fam­ily?

What about the issue of child abuse?

Have you ever vis­ited abused chil­dren? Been there to calm their fears when they expe­ri­ence night­mares from their abuse, offered them some words of com­fort, or been a voice for a lit­tle one who can’t speak out when they have been hurt?

What about the issue of hunger? Have you ever pro­vided a meal for a starv­ing per­son? Or do you feel like some­one else will take care of it?

Let’s bring it closer to home. Are you aware of sit­u­a­tions like a fam­ily mem­ber suf­fer­ing abuse, an elderly rel­a­tive for­got­ten in a nurs­ing home, or a neigh­bor with chil­dren strug­gling to make ends meet? Yet, do noth­ing.

I’m not say­ing let’s hop on our white horses and go save the world but these are just a few sit­u­a­tions that come to mind that typ­ify times that we can step from behind the com­puter and directly affect a change in some­ones life. So I ask you again: Are you just an Internet activist?

Thanks for read­ing,