As you can see from my sidebar, I have joined the Navy team for the Valour-IT Fundraiser (with Neptunus Lex as my blogfather, how could I choose otherwise?). So, Dear Sailors and their supporters, let's get to work! We have some catching up to do!
I have written bunches of paragraphs about why Valour-IT is so important, and how valuable it can be to those who benefit from it. For example: Here, here, here, here, here, here.
But it all comes down to the fact that this is a way to give back a bit of what they've sacrificed for us.
Lex has written about compassion fatigue, and he's very right; it's there. But fatigue doesn't make a charitable need any smaller in scope or intensity. And frankly, compassion fatigue as an excuse just doesn't cut it when a wounded veteran is lying in a hospital bed with hand and arm injuries that leave him helpless, shut off from the world, and feeling less than a whole person.
We are all tired of the recent charitable-giving needs of the world, and tired of daily confronting the grimness of war and death and the devastation they both cause. But our men and women in uniform face it up close and personal--so that we don't have to. Do most of them just opt out with "fatigue" as we have the option of doing? Absolutely not! They get up every morning, pull on their gear and go back to face the beast of war. We sit safe at home and find we are challenged by having to be so compassionate these days... I don't know about you, but I don't think I like having to see it in those terms; I don't feel good about myself when I think of that comparison.
Let's look at the time side of things now. Bloggers, to write up a blurb about Valour-IT, you don't need to spend a lot of time in research. Just tell people what it is and provide a few links to motivational posts of others. But what if you don't have a blog? How much time does it take to photocopy a few flyers and put them in your car to place on the windshields of vehicles in a store parking lot that have "Support the Troops" stickers or magnets? One Valour-IT supporter wants to have business cards made with her name and Valour-IT's info so she can hand them to everyone she meets.
We say we can't afford to help, and for some of us who pinch every penny that might be true. And those with familial responsibilities or ridiculous work schedules can't spend the time to lead a fundraising campaign. But odds are there are still ways to help and still a few dollars here and there to be donated. Look yourself in the mirror: can you afford to spend the time or money? When you see the soldier standing next to you, can you afford not to?
As Blackfive says, "Let's be a part of something big." Hit that button up there on the right and give what you can. Our warriors already have.
