(RED) makes me see red...

I'm an aspiring hippy and revolutionary. I am predominately a ranter, but also feel like I do more than a lot of people I know. I am all about grassroots stuff, even if it is just signing online petitions and sending e-mails to my senators and representatives in Congress. On a global and national scale I feel like that is the most I can do at this point in my life, though the internal conflict this small effort causes is hard for me. I just have to trust that God uses any effort better than He can use no effort.

So I am always trying to find things to do on a global/national scale to help with poverty, injustice, hunger, etc. When I heard about the Product (RED) campaign which claims to give part of the revenue from any products with the Product (RED) logo towards raising awareness about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and also sending medication to sufferers of the disease - I jumped on it.

I heard about it one day, and went to the Gap and bought a shirt that said BO(RED) for myself and a shirt that read INSPI(RED) for my friend Candace, my revolutionary partner in crime at the time. I wore my shirt feeling awesome and glad that I could do something to help in the battle against AIDS and besides Bono backed it, and he's pretty much the biggest personality from the Western world trying to bring awareness to the sad state of affairs in Africa (and his music rocks...well the old stuff).

Then the weekend of May 17th my little revolutionary bubble got burst...TWICE. My friend Keith told me that the PRODUCT (RED) campaign was a hoax and that hardly any money was actually going to the cause it was suppose to, and I told him I was totally unaware of that (as my morale sank into the gutter). He then told me that it sucks that so many people like me had good intentions and got suckered into supporting a scam.

Then later that afternoon my friends' bishop from Uganda named Bishop Zac further pointed out the fallacy of my t-shirt. Everytime I've heard him talk he speaks about how the U.S. just doesn't "get it" when it comes to dealing with and aiding Africa. This time he was talking about capitalistic greed (seriously, I'm not just making that up, how perfect a topic for me to hear, you know?) in the U.S. He pointed at my shirt and noted that even a campaign that is suppose to be a charity is centered around capitalism. "You have to BUY something, so that you can HELP someone." At that moment as my morale was wallowing in the filth of the gutter, a car full of mobsters drove by and shot it full of lead with some tommy guns.

When I bought the shirt I didn't even think about that. I'm quick to jump on bandwagons if it sounds awesome. So I thought, AIDS medication for Africans, Bono supports it - sounds good.

But capitalism took one of its greatest critics (myself, duh), stuck me in the corner, patted me on the back congratulating me for my assistance in keeping the capitalistic death machine turning, and stuck a dunce cap on my head as it walked away laughing and smoking on a rolled up Benjamin.

I mean literally I was a "sucker for a cause".