By Myron Mathis
Columnist

It is irrefutable that greed is a pandemic to our culture, and something has to be done about it. As the Art Director of Adopt a Dream, I have put many hours into trying to achieve our goal of giving diseased and disabled children their one dream, one child at a time.
When in correspondence with a radio representative from Atlantic Records, I was told that they would send us some autographed memorabilia for our on-campus fundraiser, Adopt a Decade.

Months later we have no memorabilia, and that gentleman has his conscious to answer to.
“To be human is to spread love to the orphaned, impoverished, struggling and sick,” said Dr. Cornell West. There are two things that appall me about the human civilization: that those in an adequate position to help others  don’t; or if they do, it’s because there is an incentive attached to their deed.

It begins in our adolescent years, when we are encouraged to do community service work in high school for credit. But doesn’t that send a conflicting message to the youth? Shouldn’t they want to do community service out of the goodness of their heart, not for recognition?
One of our goals was to raise funds in order to get 16-year-old Lawrence, who is unable to play sports due to a mental disability, to meet a famous athlete.

I reached out to the NBA for help with Lawrence’s dream. The reply I received from this organization was a deferment to another email address I should contact about my inquiry. It seems that these big corporations make one go through multiple levels of red tape before you can actually accomplish something. Shouldn’t it be fairly easy to seek help when trying to provide a service for the impoverished or underprivileged? Let’s analyze this theory in the context of America’s upper crust.

Some wealthy people reach out to the poor primarily because they receive a tax cut for charitable donations. These are the people who can afford to help simply because they want to, but that is not why they do it.

If the wealthy were not only in it for tax breaks and others were not in it for the recognition, maybe we could place a little more faith into humanity.

So don’t be afraid to do a good deed, even if there isn’t a camera on you.