Goodbye, Avery....

[jcwu]

Countless children die each day. We learned this past weekend at Feed My Starving Children's Mobile Pack event that 18,000 children die each day because of hunger. Eighteen Thousand. That number boggles my mind. Makes my heart weep, that so many children each day to not rise to see the sun again. As sad as it may be, it's still 18,000 faceless children, no names. A staggering figure, but just a figure, nevertheless.

I don't know if any of you had been following Avery's progress - born on 11/11/11, she was positively diagnosed with SMA on 4/6/12. Yesterday she passed away at the tender age of not-quite-6-months.

Goodbye, Avery. And thank you for all the work you did in spreading awareness about SMA.

 

[twocorgis]

I certainly share your concern, but I also see the beginnings of another train wreck thread...

 

[dreadnut]

Doesn't have to be a trainwreck if we do something positive instead of trying to place blame. Hats off to this organization for taking action.

Man, Avery's story is a tear-jerker too. Gotta give her folks a lot of credit for doing what they are in the midst of their grief.

 

[jcwu]

My apologies... I suppose I wasn't thinking straight when I posted. My heart was a total wreck. Though I'm still not 100% sure how the thread could turn into a train wreck...

I wasn't trying to start anything political - my main point was that while the 18,000 children dying each day breaks my heart, it's still just a number. But Avery's story puts a face to the passing, with a family behind it, and it hit that much harder. I had just finished reading about it when I posted. I suppose I should have waited a bit so I could explain myself better.

 

[davismanLV]

While I share your concern for the horror of starvation, I don't know how it relates to a child born with an incurable disease. Both are tragic, but are they related? Or are you just lumping all the bad things in one thread?

I worked a banquet this morning at Mandalay Bay, sponsored by a large corporation. We set the thing up for 80 people. Freshly made food and hand crafted agua frescas, juice, coffee.... for 80. 20 people showed up.

The amount of food that was wasted made me ill. Especially in this case.

What a mess.....

 

[jcwu]

While I share your concern for the horror of starvation, I don't know how it relates to a child born with an incurable disease. Both are tragic, but are they related? Or are you just lumping all the bad things in one thread?

I guess I was trying to say that the horror of starvation, while terrifying, it's usually still just a number. 18,000 die, but that's a number. With Avery, her death hit me a lot harder because there was a face and a story and a family that I got to know through their blog.

Like I said, I probably shouldn't have posted. Wasn't thinking straight. Hard to think straight at that moment. Shouldn't post when emotional...

 

[davismanLV]

It's okay to post. And it's okay to be emotional. These are gut wrenching issues. With me it's the other way around. A child dying of an incurable disease that's always fatal (at least at this time in the world) is terribly sad. But we're kinda helpless in that situation.

18,000 is a number, yes... but it's a HUGE number and starvation is something that we can do something about. It's fixable. So THAT is the one which makes me the most upset. I was on a RANT at work today about the number of kids and even adults who don't have enough to eat and here we are throwing tons of good food away.

Sad state of affairs. However the celebrity chefs of my restaurant promote Share Our Strength, which is dedicated to ending childhood hunger..... and if you want to know more you can check them out--->> http://www.strength.org/

 

[fronobulax]

The reason that I as a moderator am watching this closely is that when a problem is identified and the discussion gets into why the problem occurs and who has the responsibility to "fix" it or how to fix it then the discussion tends to get political. So far the line has not been crossed but we all know that could be nothing but a temporary condition.

 

[dreadnut]

jcwu: No need to apologize; other threads with subjects not nearly as important as this one have been terribly disconnected and veered. I know, because I've posted some of them myself! :lol:

You'd be pretty cold if this stuff didn't break your heart. But then it can also drive you crazy if you let it. I'm reminded of a great quote I heard on M*A*S*H* one time, someone said to Hawkeye Pierce "You can't possibly fix everything that's wrong in the world!" He replied, "No, but I can clean up my little corner of it!"

 

[spiderman]

Davisman
Don't know about the food & health code in Sin City, but when the Minnesota Electron Microscope Society used to have their annual meeting at the old St. Paul Science Museum, we took any uneaten food to a shelter a few blocks away. I don't expect servers to have a voice in this, but perhaps a suggestion to management might work.
Of course if you guys can scavenge that is fine too, servers aren't exactly in the 1%. Maybe you can save up for more Guilds that way :lol:

Harmony H-173 bought in 1960 (retired), Alvarez AC60S 2008, Eastman AC320ce 2009 "Hybrid", Guild D25M 1974, Martin Grand J35E 2009, Martin D12-20 1970, Martin OM-21 2009, Martin 00-15M Custom (full body gloss, wide neck) 2011, Voyage-air VAOM-06 2010
"I'm glad there are a lot of guitar players pursuing technique as diligently as they possibly can, because it leaves this whole other area open to people like me."
Richard Thompson

 

[dreadnut]

Another thing you can do as an individual is sponsor a child through an organization such as World Vision. We've been sponsoring a boy in Ethiopia for years. My mom sponsored a girl in the Philippines, and against all odds, I got to meet her when I was stationed there!

 

[adorshki]

Like I said, I probably shouldn't have posted. Wasn't thinking straight. Hard to think straight at that moment. Shouldn't post when emotional...

"Better to have flubbed a post, than never to have posted at all" :wink:
Like Frono said, it ain't who siad something first, it's what people do with it afterward.
Originally for example, I thought you were still kind of haunted by all the "edibility" talk over in the "Cannibal Shrimp" thread..thinking about potential untapped resources...
Anyway, if you can't talk about it to your friends, who can you talk about it to? :wink: