I got a Twitter direct message yesterday from @phillipbroberts. I’ve known Phil for eons and eons in social networking and dog years. Which actually translates to about 18 months if you’re using the more traditional Gregorian calendar
Phil has a 45 year old friend who needs a double lung transplant or is probably going to die in the not too distant future.
Is he elderly? No. Is he a heavy smoker? No. Is he unlucky? Yes.
His name is Chuck Campbell and he has COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). A disease that is slowly but surely reducing his lung capacity and making it more and more difficult for him to breathe. Currently his lung capacity is at about 20%.
Try pinching your nose and breathing through a straw for the next 20 minutes and you’ll get a rough idea of what that feels like.
That’s pretty bad I think you’ll agree, but what makes it far worse in my opinion is the fact that it’s MONEY, or rather the lack of it, that’s stopping Chuck getting to spend longer with his wife and 4 kids.
His health insurance won’t pay for the operation because he wasn’t covered. Hmm, where have I heard that before?
Seriously, what the fuck is that all about?
We have money to make our own weapons of mass destruction, but a guy that once served in the Marines to defend his country against such things, can be assigned to the scrap heap through a lack of cash.
Is there not something fundamentally wrong with a system where people are dying unnecessarily and huge multinational corporations are making billions of dollars in profits?
Should we just shrug our shoulders and say, “Such is life in a capitalist society”
And by the way, before anybody suggests I’m a communist or even a socialist for that matter, I’m not. I know I joke about being a pinko, commie bed-wetter from time to time, but I have no issue with companies making profits.
I do however, have a problem with corporate greed when other peoples lives are put at risk.
I tweeted about Chucks situation and asked for people to retweet (forward on) as I thought it was a damn site more worthwhile thing to share than:
“101 Things To Do With Maple Syrup. Or 102 If You Actually Eat The Stuff.”
How many people do you think did so?
Two. (Thanks Dena and Alan)
This is in no way an attack on my followers, far from it, I have some brilliant people follow me that I love interacting with.
Probably 80% of them weren’t online when I tweeted, and of the other 20% I’m guessing at least 10% never even saw my tweet. Everybody has their own shit to deal with, trust me, I realize that and I know I miss hundreds more tweets than I see.
And anyway, after the disasters of Haiti and Chile people are probably worn out by requests for help. I get that, I honestly do. In fact this headline is controversial simply because I want to get traffic to Chucks site.
Yep, I confess to writing an inflammatory headline just to get traffic.
LIFE COACH LIES – SHOCK HORROR!!!
I have no idea if you can help Chuck, but I hope you can.
Buying a ticket for his raffle at $50 a pop is not cheap for many people even if you can win a Florida Townhouse on a Golf Course and a Mercedes SLK, but if you can, do so, and if you can’t, please ask others to help. The odds by the way are a lot better than playing lotto.
There’s no need to send them here, you can tweet, Facebook or Stumble Chucks homepage if that’s preferable.
And let me sweeten the deal.
If you but a ticket and forward the confirmation I’ll send you not only a copy of the e-book version of How To Be Rich and Happy (recommended retail of $47), but if you live in the USA and are ok with media mail, a hardback version (signed if you want it) of Don’t Ask Stupid Questions that sells on Amazon at $14.99. I’m going to limit the hardback version to the first 10 people that contact me.
So there you have it, rant over and I’ll leave you in peace.
Oh and yeh, I think Twitter does give a shit, because Twitter is people and people on the whole really do give a shit.
PS If you love the brilliant Twitter icons in this post, they come courtesy of @gopalraju
Tim Brownson is a Certified Life Coach and has been unsticking people and helping them reach their true potential since 2005. If you would like to know how he can help you
Hi Tim,
For the sake of market research, I fell into that 10 percent who never saw your Tweet. I normally don’t open links that aren’t explained, but yours was hard to resist.
I lost my dad in January 2009. Before he was diagnosed with lung cancer, he spent several months on a waiting list, hoping for a lung. He had pulmonary fibrosis. I know exactly what Chuck and his family are going through. I hope there are enough Joe Schmoes like me who can contribute something to make it add up.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by TimBrownson: Does Twitter Give A Shit? http://su.pr/9ruwgE...
Tim, I didn’t see your tweet, I wasn’t on Twitter much yesterday. When I am on twitter I often look at your timeline to see if you’ve written anything worth retweeting. Most times I do and sometimes I don’t. You’re just like many other people, me included, in tweeting utter bilge. Don’t get me wrong, I love the bilge but with so much of it on Twitter good causes like this one get overlooked.
The truth is that even if I did see it, I wouldn’t have been able to donate, I simply don’t have the financial capacity to do it at the moment but I hope that will change soon.
I hope that your attempt to raise awareness is successful, just because it deserves to be, but also because of the fact you’ve offered something in return. Hopefully people who have wanted your book for a while will now have another compelling reason to buy it.
So, I can’t help you financially, but I will help with my site (it’s new, but you have to start somewhere). Anyone who buys your book in the name of this cause can have an in-post in-context anchored link from my site within a 150 word text supplied by them – as long as they’re not adult entertainment sites etc – there are limits to what I’d be prepared to promote, even in the name of good causes!
What do I get from it? It’ll alleviate some of the guilt I feel for not being able to donate. It’ll increase the awareness of my own site and that in turn will boost the worth of the outbound links – everyone wins. Hopefully the biggest winner will be Chuck.
What do you think Tim? Hopefully I’m not coming across as some mercenary attention ho! It’s a well intentioned and genuine offer.
Cheers
Dave
@ Jen – Sorry to hear about your dad, that must be still very raw. Thanks a lot for sharing.
@ Dave – No guilt needed mate. Seriously you can only do what you can do and I don’t want anybody causing themselves financial stress. I know you’re a great guy from personal experience and I’m more than happy to do that.
Tim and Everyone,
I can’t express my appreciation enough for your help. We have a long way to go in a very short time to get Chuck the money he needs for his transplant.
Thank you so much Tim for this wonderful blog post and your contribution to our cause, and I thank your wonderful followers for their help as well. From the bottom of my heart!
Thanks,
Phillip Roberts
[...] the good cause. Tim Brownson, Life Coach and Author published a post today provocatively entitled Does Twitter Give A shit? about Chuck Campbell a 45 year old father of four who in 2005 was diagnosed with Chronic [...]
This is a nice article. Thank you for the read.
Thanks Tim, and just to clarify, as I didn’t express my self very well above. The in context link and 150 word text is open to those who take up your offer (meaning they enter the raffle and get your book that way). Cheers. Dave.
I want to applaud you for making this a movement of your own. So often people in the position to help others do not do so. The very fact that you took the next step of tweeting it and writing a post shows that you care and will do what you can to help out.
Thank you for being a better person.
I’ve spent way more than $50 on total crap, so I figured at least this time it would go to a good cause – ticket purchased, post retweeted. I’ve already got both books, so no need to send. At least I felt like I did something worth while today. And that’s good enough for me. I sincerely hope Chuck raises a whole pile of money and that our health care system is fixed SOON so no one has to deal with this crap anymore.