Things we have a deep need to assist or support.
Outside of my obvious conjunction, I try to contribute annually to an organization working to find the cure for cancer.
Why a cure and not treatment?
I personally believe that there is too much money already corrupting this process. Call me cynical but I believe that the major players in this drama have rigged the game. I believe that the money is in "treating" cancer.
Not curing it. There are those who see the financial benefit in treatment...finding a cure isn't in their best interests.
That would bring their gravy train to a tablecloth-staining end. Entire University departments and research corporates would lose their funding. They are not concerned with finding the cure...let's treat the disease and all make a superb living doing so.
Or so thinks me.
Of course I would think this way. I am to this point a cancer survivor so my bias is clear. The means to treat my cancer has been in use for 30 years. Nothing new...nothing innovative...so in my case, billions have been given and spent for what...?
Blindly giving money and time for something may make us feel better about ourselves but I think we need, from time to time, to check in on the progress of that thing.
There will always be those who work or give to something simply because they think it's doing some good...regardless of the reality.
But there is always an exception...there is always someone who sees a cause or an effort and steps up to help because they know their immediate action will have immediate results.
And they don't always have to be aligned with that particular cause.
Just over a year ago, we purchased a Jeep Grand Cherokee for The HeliOS Project. It was mostly due to one particular donor that we were able to do so.
It was something we badly needed at the time and we were (and still are) exceptionally grateful.
But it didn't take long to find out that our "great deal" wasn't so great.
Problems, and I mean large, expensive problems began to manifest themselves. The bottom end of the motor developed an ominous knock. The transmission started to slip and the steering box became unstable.
When the vehicle became unsafe and unreliable, we took it back to the person who sold it to us and for almost a year, that person provided us a loaner car to do our work. He began looking for something to replace the jeep...and he was doing so out of his own pocket.
But it never happened. He was happy to "loan" us a running vehicle and seemingly forgot his promise to get us another. As the date on the state inspection sticker came closer and closer to expiration, I got a bit nervous.
I foresaw a problem looming...and one that we were in no position to fix.
That's when Adam Schneckloth stepped in.
Adam doesn't have any real affiliation with The HeliOS Project, The Linux Community or FOSS in general. He works in the mortgage industry and is pretty much an everyday kind of guy.
Except for one thing...
He steps in to help when he believes the cause is right.
It was, in a phrase..."a find".
And after hearing of our problem, Adam Schneckloth gave us the Explorer.
No tax receipts
No caveats
No conditions.
He signed over the title and solved a huge problem for us.
Of course, Adam is someone who will help anyone or anything in need of his help.
Some will think this a bit sappy, but bear with me...it accentuates what kind of a man Adam Schneckloth is.
He and his co-workers were out behind his building taking a smoke break this last year. They commented to themselves that they were hearing a "bleating" sound. That wouldn't be uncommon. Behind their office building was a large expanse of undeveloped forest with its array of wildlife.
Between civilization and that forest was a large concrete irrigation ditch. it was 4 feet deep and shaped in a "V". While the others in his group dismissed the sound, Adam went to investigate.He jumped down into the concrete ditch and walked toward the sound. About 200 feet from his building was a small, and obviously helpless fawn. She had tried to jump the ditch and failed to negotiate the jump. The V-shape of the ditch would not allow her to escape.
Adam approached the fawn, gathered it into his arms and crawled on his backside to solid ground. Some of his friends had followed to find Adam and when they caught up with him, they found him holding that fawn.
With the mother nowhere in site, Adam set the animal free on the forest side of the ditch and watched it scamper and disappear into the trees.
So sappy? Maybe, but then again, how many of us would ignore the sounds of the forest, even though one of them might have been a sounding call for help...?
Or how many of us would give of themselves something worth thousands of dollars simply because we know it would be the right thing to do.
Adam Schneckloth did, and we are eternally grateful.
All-Righty then,
10 comments:
This is a great story. The world needs more people like Adam Schneckloth.
Enjoy the Explorer. I owned the '95 and now own a '98. It's a fantastic truck/SUV!
I think your scepticism of cancer research is unfounded. Think of it. Anyone who finds a cure for cancer will be the most famous person, or persons, in the world.
Selling a cure for cancer will make the whole world your client. Forever, as one in 4 persons will develop cancer at some point in their life. And trust me, doctors and researchers really care for their patients.
And all those researcher get cancer themselves. They know they will benefit themselves from any cure found.
However, the problem is that cancer is first not one disease, but very many. Second, cancer is a complement of aging. Curing cancer is the first step in curing old age.
We often think of cancer as a kind of germ that we just have to eradicate. But cancer is more like crime in society.
So you can think of curing cancer as curing crime in society. We all know from history and personal experience that there is realistically no single "silver bullet" to cure crime once and for all. All we know points into the same direction for cancer.
Second, cancer is a complement of aging. Curing cancer is the first step in curing old age.
Tell that to my Brother who just lost his 3 year old son to Leukemia.
I tend to agree with the author, although I think our opinions verge on conspiracy theory. Logic tells me that if someone did come up with a cure, little could be done to suppress it.
Then again. the powerful Pharma wields a lot of power. I can see where their dollars could focus the research.
Good analogy with crime , the problem is a similar level of difficulty. Cancer is a consequence of DNA damage in a multicellular organism. DNA damage results from cells living and dividing. Multicellular aliens would probably get cancer even if they had otherwise completely different biology on all levels.
If you cure all infectious disease then we would mostly die of cancer - if we do not die of wearing out(or aging). Aging is often accelerated or caused by the body's refusal to allow cells to dived as a method of reducing the risk of cancer. Death at 20 from cancer or 60 form a worn out heart? Evolution optimises to the highest overall lifespan but the fundamental problems can only be fixed by continual intelligently directed maintenance.
We will never eliminate cancer this is a physical impossibility - but as time goes on we are working to slow progression limit spread and "clear" more types more effectively and with less damage to the body. I know form history that, frustrating slow and painful as the progress may be, progress builds on progress towards a better solution.
A note on big Pharma, it is not that they suppress other peoples research but that fundamentally their methods of research are not suited to finding a real solution. They search for chemicals that will treat a problem blindly. The usual method is a vast iterative search with a test system, basically the scientific equivalent of the bogo sort. They are very bad at treating some kinds of disease due to this, although it has been successful many times on simpler diseases - the just do not want to give it up. It is not a conspiracy just good old incompetence and a healthy helping of "company policy" (see the first hit for 'Monkeys and Company Policies - How a Company Policy Begins' on google).
Good analogy with crime , the problem is a similar level of difficulty. Cancer is a consequence of DNA damage in a multicellular organism. DNA damage results from cells living and dividing. Multicellular aliens would probably get cancer even if they had otherwise completely different biology on all levels.
If you cure all infectious disease then we would mostly die of cancer - if we do not die of wearing out(or aging). Aging is often accelerated or caused by the body's refusal to allow cells to dived as a method of reducing the risk of cancer. Death at 20 from cancer or 60 form a worn out heart? Evolution optimises to the highest overall lifespan but the fundamental problems can only be fixed by continual intelligently directed maintenance.
We will never eliminate cancer this is a physical impossibility - but as time goes on we are working to slow progression limit spread and "clear" more types more effectively and with less damage to the body. I know form history that, frustrating slow and painful as the progress may be, progress builds on progress towards a better solution.
John w
A note on big Pharma, it is not that they suppress other peoples research but that fundamentally their methods of research are not suited to finding a real solution. They search for chemicals that will treat a problem blindly. The usual method is a vast iterative search with a test system, basically the scientific equivalent of the bogo sort. They are very bad at treating some kinds of disease due to this, although it has been successful many times on simpler diseases - they just do not want to give it up. It is not a conspiracy just good old incompetence and a healthy helping of "company policy" (see the first hit for 'Monkeys and Company Policies - How a Company Policy Begins' on google).
I was touched by the generosity and empathy this man displays. That fawn would surely have died in that environment.
My sincere thanks to Adam and all people like him.
Well, if I lived in Austin, I know where I would go for a mortgage!
Amen, as a supporter of multiple causes myself I've had to learn to separate the fact from fiction, the politics from reality.
Because of the vast amounts of money flowing to and from government these days, everything has become a political football.
Those of us down in the trenches often get caught up in supporting false causes that only line the pockets of an organization or bureaucracy without actually doing much good.
My father-in-law recently died from cancer and I was inspired to send some support to a particular organization. I came to find out that this organization was funneling money to Planned Parenthood for purposes other than curing cancer!
Regardless as to how you feel about that organization its a fact that they are politically controversial and they support a lot of things I do not support. Not where I want my donations to go!
You can also check organizations based on their spending habits. Some charities eat up all of your money in administration. Here is a sample report from the BBB on a good charity that only spends 10% on administration: http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/human-services/catholic-charities-usa-in-alexandria-va-1049
If you look at the pie chart you'll see Programs: 84% Fund Raising: 5% Administrative: 10%
If a charity spends all of its money on Administrative or Fund Raising it is a red flag. You can also use Charity Navigator to find more info: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10656
Weeding out the good from the bad can be uninspiring and downright impossible at times. You really only learn that a charity has gone bad when it becomes too late. By then you have already extended your generosity to the organization and the feelings of betrayal stick in your mind forever.
Many feel so disgusted, that they tell everyone they know about their ordeal which only continues the unfortunate cycle of making people feel less giving and tarnishing the trust factor..
This unfortunately also makes it very difficult for "new charities" with good causes and no reputation to break into the charitable giving world. The bad has stuck in our societies head, spread, and many have just given up.
Government restrictions and cutbacks are also hurting many non-profit community programs. It seems like society trusts the major charity organizations and billions are donated each year to these huge non-profit organizations and no one even knows where the money actually goes.
To sum it up, be careful when you donate, but don't be too careful that you don't donate at all. There are some great causes for you to support and they truly need all the help they can get.
If a charity spends all of its money on Administrative or Fund Raising it is a red flag. You can also use Charity Navigator to find more info: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10656
Weeding out the good from the bad can be uninspiring and downright impossible at times. You really only learn that a charity has gone bad when it becomes too late. By then you have already extended your generosity to the organization and the feelings of betrayal stick in your mind forever.
Many feel so disgusted, that they tell everyone they know about their ordeal which only continues the unfortunate cycle of making people feel less giving and tarnishing the trust factor..
thnx for sharing great article
One thought to one of the two above posts above mine is that if you REALLY want to know an organization, its fallbacks, problems & where the money goes, go volunteer for a local chapter in your area?
Nothing beats experiencing the organization than to be a part of it. Now there are good places online to find the basic & general reports with executive summaries of what the organization is about, what they're general philopshy is, etc.
But I personally feel nothing beats personal experience. Nothing.
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