Stop Saying Celebs Should ‘Donate More’ for Flint Water Crisis Relief [OPINION]
In response to the Flint water crisis, many celebrities from all across the country have been donating water and large sums of money to help. Some ungrateful locals are actually taking shots at those celebs because they "could do better." Those people need to GTFOH.
This article contains strong opinions that are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Banana 101.5, Townsquare Media, or their advertisers.
The Flint water crisis is a big time national news story. It's everywhere. Everyone here just wants it to be over. Unfortunately, we've got a long way to go before this nightmare ends, and for some of the children poisoned by Flint water -- the nightmare may never be over.
It's a story that's sad, disgusting, and infuriating all at the same time. Some people are channeling their feelings in productive and inspiring ways, while others have turned to the dark side... like full-on "Kylo Ren showing up 15 minutes late for the Darth Vader apparel BOGO sale at Hot Topic" dark side. Those hateful trolls are spraying their bile all over the goodwill being sent our way, and the bottom line is -- they're making us look like first class a-holes.
Celebrities have practically been tripping over each other to send money to help Flint in this time of need. The Game, Pearl Jam, Meek Mill, Mark Wahlberg, Diddy, Eminem, Big Sean, Cher, Madonna, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, and Judd Apatow are just a handful of the celebs who've shown generosity to the 810. Did they have to do that? No. Are there people being dicks about it? You better believe it.
Just read some of these comments people made on stories about celeb donations:
This is just a sampling of the negative comments about celeb donations to Flint water crisis relief. One post I saw earlier suggested that we "make" a certain wealthy (yet completely unconnected to Flint or the water crisis in any way) celebrity pay to fix the pipes. What kind of effing idea is that? Why is it their responsibility? None of these generous celebs owe Flint anything. They don't have to donate anything, but they did.
Now that Flint's problems finally have the attention and sympathy of the nation -- we're going to act like a bunch of petulant children that didn't get the toy they wanted? Come on. This type of behavior is not respectful, and it reflects poorly on those of us who do appreciate the help. Do we teach our children to say "is that all" after receiving a gift? No, we teach them to say "thank you" and smile. You haters would do well to grow up and mind the proverb, "never look a gift horse in the mouth."
It's worth noting that not everyone -- not even a majority of people, actually -- share the ungrateful view of the charity being showered upon Flint. In fact, most were incredibly thankful and took the aforementioned haters to task. Our deepest gratitude goes out to all that have helped Flint in this situation.