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Am I alone in being sick of seeing ads for white teeth or for ‘mom’s making $70 an hour at home’?   These and many others are misleading and have cost some folks a lot of money.  One would think that like magazine advertising, these ads would be relegated to ‘non-news’ websites, but they are not.  These ads are on CNN, USAToday, etc.

Don’t these websites who are supposed to present ‘just the facts’ have a duty to not have these less than legitimate ads on their websites?  Shouldn’t these folks only carry ads from real companies?  Wouldn’t these ads and illegitimate companies be fewer in numbers if legitimate websites did not show their ads on their websites?  Yes, I know that a lot of websites ‘lease’ their ad space to other companies that then sell the space to other companies.  But shouldn’t someone’s conscience be screaming in their ear, “don’t advertise scams!”?

Yes, as one of the many millions of folks unable to find a job, I know there are bigger problems out there in the world.  But….BUT, isn’t this example just one symptom of the bigger problem in this world?

What is that bigger problem, you might ask?

The bigger problem is, to steal Dave Ramsey’s phrase, is that too many of us are Bass.  We want the new shiny things.  We want the new cars, jewelry, houses, toys, etc. and damn anyone who gets in our way.  We all keep swimming toward the shiny things and we don’t care who we hurt in our pursuit of the next thing that will “truly make us happy”.  We don’t care that our neighbor may be having trouble putting food on the table.  We don’t care that our friend might be losing their home because someone who made a snap decision let them go from their job.  We don’t care that children are starving and need the breakfast that is served at school on Monday because it is the first meal they have eaten since their lunch on Friday.

WE DO NOT CARE!

I challenge all of you.  I am challenging myself.  Help one person every day.  Every single day, you need to help one person.  Be it as simple as opening the door for the woman pushing a stroller or the delivery guy with a full handcart, help one person every day.  If you hear about a job, post it on your blog, send it to everyone in your email address book.  With the huge number of us that are out of work, someone in your ‘circle’ knows someone that needs a job.  If you are lucky enough to have disposable income, donate money to a cause close to your heart.  If you don’t have money, donate your time.  One hour a week, that’s all.  If we all donated one hour of our time a week, this world would be a much better place.  Drop your change from McDonald’s or Panera into their charity box.  Leave a dollar in the flap of a box at the grocery store.  Help one person a day.

That is my challenge to everyone.  Help a person a day, don’t brag about it, just do it.  I recently ran out of gas and had to pull into a turn lane of a shopping center.  At least 75 cars passed me by, glaring because I was blocking a lane.  Two people, only two people stopped to ask if I needed help.  Now, I stop every time I see someone with a car in distress.  We normally do not help anyone but ourselves until it directly affects us.  I am guilty of this, very guilty, but I am trying to make amends.

Do it with me.  Help one person a day.  Tell everyone you know to help one person a day.  If we could get this off the ground, we would see a whole new world in just a year’s time.  It won’t hurt us to try.  It won’t cost you anything unless you have money to give.  Just making someone smile or saying thank you to someone you know is never told thank you is helping someone.

Help one person a day.  Let me know how it works out for you.