Jumpin' On The Bandwagon

livestrong
Originally uploaded by Audacity08.

I was watching Oprah yesterday and she had Lance Armstrong on as a guest. Everyone within camera range (and probably the entire studio audience) were wearing his yellow LiveStrong armbands. We have such a bandwagon mentality. Some may call it being "sheep-like" even. Even celebs are "doing it"

Have you seen these colorful wristbands that EVERYONE's wearing?

While all the proceeds for the yellow "Livestrong" wristbands sold at Nike and Discovery Channel stores were being donated to cancer research, only one-third of the proceeds for the camouflage-green "Support Our Troops" wristbands sold at 7-Eleven were being donated to the USO. I have since learned that 7-Eleven isn't the only business taking a substantial cut of the proceeds from the sale of so-called "awareness bracelets." As the varieties of these bracelets have proliferated during recent months, the charitable impulse that is their ostensible reason for existence has steadily declined.

For instance, a tsunami-relief bracelet costs $2, only half of which goes toward relieving problems caused by the recent massive tidal wave in southern Asia. But that's still better than the 10-percent cut that tsunami victims receive when you buy your bracelet on something called AwarenessDepot.com, where you can also purchase "USA" bracelets, "Jesus Loves You" bracelets, and "God Bless the Dead" bracelets.

Some people would argue that the point of awareness bracelets isn't to raise money for charity so much as it is to raise, well, awareness. The wristbands invite onlookers to take a moment to think about cancer victims, or American troops in Iraq, or any one of a variety of other groups who need help or who perform difficult work for which the rest of us should be grateful.

But over time, that goal has been subverted, too.