The Most Important Cause Is The One That Helps Me

You've seen it before.  A celebrity finds a way to get airtime to tell us why we need to spend money and resources to develop a cure for some horrid disease.  And it's all very true and convincing that research needs to be done to eradicate some diseases.  What's interesting is how the celebrities only make such valiant efforts after the disease afflicts them personally, (or at least somebody very close to them).  It's understandable and perhaps a part of human nature, but don't they have any shame?  Why wasn't it just as  important to cure before they got it?  It's admirable that they are helping thousands of others, but weren't those people just as valuable before?  I won't single out any celebrities or diseases in particular.  (I didn't even include an obligatory picture of a celebrity).  But they should at least acknowledge what's behind their call to action.  I would respect them much more if they did so.  At least some celebrities take action on worldly causes without any prompting, but then, they probably don't have a deadly disease.

+ Atul

Comments

[chancelucky]

Atul,
I think in reality it works the other way around. The celebrity gets the disease or has someone close to them who has or has had it and they get approached by the foundation or the charity.

It also doesn't work that way. Angelina Jolie started working for UNICEF I think before she started adopting children from all around the world.

In another generation, Josephine Baker did the same thing, pre UN.

[Atul]

I haven't researched it enough to know the real story so thanks for making me see it the other way around. I understand the Jolie and Baker stories, but those are slightly different because they don't have to do with cures for diseases. Perhaps I should have been more specific on what I meant by "cause".

As for people like Christopher Reeves or Michael J. Fox, it would be interesting to know what really transpired, but I have a feeling that the celebrity pushes for a cure and then the foundation comes to them. I think it would be a tricky game to try to approach somebody that just got a disease to ask them to help you raise money when they have much more grave concerns in their heads.