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I have been following this story for a while, and it gives me pause. I've signed up to this site because this seems to be the most interesting conversation on the topic, at least in English. Kudos to this site for its apparently diverse group of serious thinkers.
On the one hand, it's sad to see a child suffer, and so everyone wants to help him be happy. On the other hand, I have to wonder how many cards the child really wanted. Probably 30 or so would have been enough, and if he knew tens of thousands of people were going to be trying to cheer him up, if he was able to think in his own best interest he would probably ask for cooler stuff, like video games, dvds, and cash. I have to think that he asked for cards largely out of his own child-like lack of imaginanation, as ironic as that phrase may strike you.
Now what's interesting to me, after we concede that we do in fact care for dying children, is what's going on with adults reacting "so strongly" to the sad (pathos but never the latin) situation. Many of the replies here and elsewhere have all but confessed that their involvement in this story takes the form of them feeling bad, therefore yielding to the ever so small request for a card. One card from you will change his life, brighten up his day? I understand how a child might, before the fact at least, believe this. But you, adults? Do you fear that your wishful thinking impulses permeate throughout your life, or is this instance an exception for you?
What I mean is, apply a little critical thinking, _especially_ when your emotions are strong. Remember that this sad situation existed before you knew about it, and so do thousands, if not millions of others. Millions of sad children are asking for equally cheap things for you to do for them. If only they were made into news stories by journalists. And while we're mentioning the medium, did you ever wonder why there was a story about a sad child at this particular time? The editor probably needed a story like this for some more practical reason. And children who can't afford treatment don't make it into stories like these nearly as often. Surely there are children worse off, for instance those children whose faces are deformed--why are we less sympathetic to them?
Do you worry that your support for this child has been too targeted to one child, and too cheap? I for one am donating a tithe of my income to help cure cancer. But then what about other diseases? It seems to never end.
So unless the point is to make yourself feel better, I really don't understand the "find" here that seems so viciously defended. Once you choose to think about things like this, a torrent of worse situations should come crashing down on you, making you some kind of triage doctor with only enough cash to save 0.000001% of the patients, less than that if you don't give up major parts of your expected standard of living (which is guiltily above the majority of the victims you emotionally want to take a bullet for). Bottom line, put yourself on the cross if that's your thing, or play the numbers game, but stopping so short as a card is really some form of emotional masturbation in my humble opinion, and I for one am more interested in the critical responses than the puppy-appreciation-like oos and awws.
Anyways, thanks for the opportunity to discuss this interesting topic. I look forward to more discussions on this site.
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This makes me think of lady Dianas death.
On November 09 2009 07:36 Japakazol wrote:
So sad. This is the kind of thing that really makes you realize that there is no benevolent man in the sky looking down on us all. The bitter irony is that times like this are when people paradoxically cling especially close to those ideas.
Yeah this, and the fact that 20% of the population of South Africa have AIDS...
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I teared up reading the OP
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On November 15 2009 17:45 old times sake wrote:
*snip*
I envy your articulation. These are my sentiments.
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Man after seeing both sides of the argument it really makes me think how this situation applies to everything that permeates our lives.
Its an absolute tragedy that people especailly so young and potentially gifted has to suffer this way. I see points from both the pros and the cons of sending cards for either attempting to help or attempting to ease ones own conscience. But does't this make you think of another side of this issue?
For example, this child has not done anything wrong and still suffers, but at the same time people who are seen as the "bad guys" die as well. Except this time few people would feel sorry for that particular loss of life. It makes me wonder if this kid had done something wrong, and then got cancer, would we feel any guilt toward him no matter how young he is?
I feel that I might get flamed for this because it makes an invalid comparision. But I just wanted to put this out there.
I still support the kid and will send him a card becuase I want to try my best to help people in general, despite my limitations. But after doing it, all I can think of is other potential scenarios and our reactions.
Anyways, I wonder what are your thoughts on that?
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On November 16 2009 15:35 SniperVul5 wrote:
Man after seeing both sides of the argument it really makes me think how this situation applies to everything that permeates our lives.
Its an absolute tragedy that people especailly so young and potentially gifted has to suffer this way. I see points from both the pros and the cons of sending cards for either attempting to help or attempting to ease ones own conscience. But does't this make you think of another side of this issue?
For example, this child has not done anything wrong and still suffers, but at the same time people who are seen as the "bad guys" die as well. Except this time few people would feel sorry for that particular loss of life. It makes me wonder if this kid had done something wrong, and then got cancer, would we feel any guilt toward him no matter how young he is?
I feel that I might get flamed for this because it makes an invalid comparision. But I just wanted to put this out there.
I still support the kid and will send him a card becuase I want to try my best to help people in general, despite my limitations. But after doing it, all I can think of is other potential scenarios and our reactions.
Anyways, I wonder what are your thoughts on that?
Thanks for writing back. I don't particularly favor the idea that his potential to be talented should color our support for him. To me, that principle leads to a kind of eugenics where we help children based on their potential, and leave inferiors to die. I believe this would fundamentally betray our impulses on the issue.
Likewise, you might take the situation of this boy, and say something like: would you let him die, if you knew he was going to become Hitler? Maybe you'd say yes, but then the next question would be, what if you were only 99% sure he would be Hitler? And so, down the line we could go.
I also have to question why a child's suffering matters more than someone a little older, because neither of these cases get any comparable attention. I suppose in the case of the older, you get the Republican idea that they are responsible adults, so it's on them. But that doesn't really hold because these children have responsible adults in charge of them, too. If a responsible adult falls short, you still care about innocent suffering, and so I think this would work with adults, too.
Your thoughts?
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http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html
"In 2006, about 9.7 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 4/5 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition."
Stalin was right about one thing, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." now that u guys sent that postcard to that poor soul, u guys wanna send another post-card to one of the 16,000 children that dies from hunger everyday?
Millions of people suffers and die around the world, can u say that anyone of those poor souls deserve that fate as well? then came along a news story about a boy that's living the last of his days and asked for christmas cards, all of the sudden people care about others suffering! you people disgusts me.
User was temp-banned for this post.
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On November 25 2009 05:14 Shizuru~ wrote:http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html"In 2006, about 9.7 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 4/5 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition." Stalin was right about one thing, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." now that u guys sent that postcard to that poor soul, u guys wanna send another post-card to one of the 16,000 children that dies from hunger everyday? Millions of people suffers and die around the world, can u say that anyone of those poor souls deserve that fate as well? then came along a news story about a boy that's living the last of his days and asked for christmas cards, all of the sudden people care about others suffering! you people disgusts me.
Red herring.
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On November 25 2009 05:14 Shizuru~ wrote:http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html"In 2006, about 9.7 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 4/5 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition." Stalin was right about one thing, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." now that u guys sent that postcard to that poor soul, u guys wanna send another post-card to one of the 16,000 children that dies from hunger everyday? Millions of people suffers and die around the world, can u say that anyone of those poor souls deserve that fate as well? then came along a news story about a boy that's living the last of his days and asked for christmas cards, all of the sudden people care about others suffering! you people disgusts me.
You totally missed the point of the entire thing. Way to go.
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I hope the research gets funded well. RIP Noah 
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On November 25 2009 05:14 Shizuru~ wrote:http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html"In 2006, about 9.7 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 4/5 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition." Stalin was right about one thing, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." now that u guys sent that postcard to that poor soul, u guys wanna send another post-card to one of the 16,000 children that dies from hunger everyday? Millions of people suffers and die around the world, can u say that anyone of those poor souls deserve that fate as well? then came along a news story about a boy that's living the last of his days and asked for christmas cards, all of the sudden people care about others suffering! you people disgusts me.
Because we can't send 16,000 postcards every day?
Read the thread, your exact point was already discussed and destroyed a few pages back.
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On November 25 2009 05:14 Shizuru~ wrote:http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html"In 2006, about 9.7 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 4/5 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition." Stalin was right about one thing, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." now that u guys sent that postcard to that poor soul, u guys wanna send another post-card to one of the 16,000 children that dies from hunger everyday? Millions of people suffers and die around the world, can u say that anyone of those poor souls deserve that fate as well? then came along a news story about a boy that's living the last of his days and asked for christmas cards, all of the sudden people care about others suffering! you people disgusts me.
Through that same logic, any nice act towards a person is invalid because they have not been nice to the rest of the world?
The poor kid died of cancer, and just so happened to get a following of people who wanted to go out of their way to make his passing a little easier, while giving the rest of the world a heartwarming story.
Instead of trying to pull negativity out of the situation, how about you stop and realize that there are people who care enough to spend a little time to make a complete stranger feel better.
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though I know most people won't like my point of view, I find these sort of things a waste of time. there are people dying and starving in so many countries. why not help them? instead of wasting your time and money to do something for somebody who is already going to die.
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Well, I think he got his wish 
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I am torn between two vastly different posts. On one hand I am tempted to say its sad the amount of people who came into this thread with the intention of derailing the topic completely.
But it would be nice to see people give to a cause that doesn't make the news.
On top of that, to say that an incident like this is proof that god does not exist is absurd. No different than making the assumption that it is proof for the fact.
I love the minds on teamliquid(the Myers Briggs personality test thread is a good example of what I mean by this), but I find many of you have difficulty escaping from the harsh realities of raw logic and sense to enable yourself to act like a human being. And don't say its a personality trait, because its also a choice. Some just don't need to choose to do it.
Sometimes you need to think about what is best for the situation, and not always the underlying reasoning and logic of a situation.
I hope the little boy has the Christmas of his dreams.
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I would make a joke but I would get banned. I don't want to get banned, I'm drunkish right now so I'll just ay that people die and that i hope this kid is happy before he dies. Everyone should be happy. Holiday cheer and such thats what I like about christmas season.
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Nevermind... May Noel RIP
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oh man this thread is full of emotions!!
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EPT
