Apologies here if I get less than giddy over millions of extra dollars coming in because people dump water on their heads. I have two problems with it.RTWT.
First, I lost one of my best friends to this evil thing. I saw the deterioration of the body, the continuing sharpness of the mind and the total dissolution of hope. His name was John Rountree, and he has been gone for almost three years now. He was 65. I see film clips of Pete Frates. He is 29.
One could be the other, right down to the hesitant steps, then the slurred speech and soon the motorized wheelchair with the computer serving as the voice. ALS plays no favorites with age. It plays no favorites, period.
If, at this time next year, or a few years down the line, there is an ALS breakthrough and it is traceable, even minutely, to the money raised through this Internet furor, I will write 17 columns praising the human spirit and its current technological driver.
But at the moment, pouring water on our heads, or each other's, seems a slightly distasteful disconnect to the reality of ALS.
Certainly and hopefully, it is not the intention of people such as LeBron James or Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer or Jimmy Fallon — or the thousands of other celebrity types who have done this and got huge Internet attention — to further their own brand.
Still, I wish more had said, when challenged, that pouring water on heads, with its accompanying attention-grabbing and frivolity, didn't quite mesh with the cause. ALS isn't the least bit funny.
A few did, including the president of the United States.
The good news is that the money will keep the researchers researching. The bad news is that $13 million probably doesn't buy as many test tubes as it used to...
Plus, some bonus video from CNN:
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