Reminders: Steve Rude And Arifur Rahman Could Still Use Your Help

Steve Rude and Arifur Rahman are still seeking assistance from you in their times of need. It looks like Steve Rude had another pretty good day yesterday. The Beat, Comics Alliance, Robot 6 and ICv2.com are among those comics news-type organs that have devoted time to his story.

One of the things that tends to happen when someone says they need help is that there's blow-back in the form of "Why does this guy get help when nobody helps me with my problems? He had all the chances in the world and instead did X, Y, Z thing that didn't put him in all that great a position for this financial crisis." And so on. I've seen a little bit of that here. It's easy to understand the bitterness. Times are tough all over. If you have problems, and you probably do, it may be difficult to watch someone getting helped because they have a name and reputation that if they were yours might have helped you out immensely in avoiding your problems altogether.

When someone comes forward with a specific problem, particularly when they're offering to sell you something (as opposed to asking that you give them something), I'd suggest it's better to meet that person at their point of need in a non-judgmental way. At least that first time. No career counseling backwards or forwards. If there's a deeper, more systemic problem involved -- and I think it's important to report on these, too -- it usually comes out and at that point you're maybe not helping someone and it becomes an entirely different thing. But second-guessing someone's career or life choices in reactive fashion is a tough gig. When someone faces a problem, it's likely they have not led their entire life in virtuous preparation to conquer that problem. If a request rubs you the wrong way, I'd suggest just moving on. No harm or foul or dishonor in taking a pass.

Luckily, if you're oriented towards right and wrong that way, you couldn't do much better in terms of finding a cause to get behind than Arifur Rahman and his mother's kidney operation. Rahman's "crime" was to name a cat Muhammed in one of his cartoons, a creative choice for which he lost his job and was shoved in jail for several months in order, they say, to circumvent civic unrest. His mother supported her son while he was in jail, despite emotional and physical cost, and now faces an awful set of circumstances. It's a heartbreaking story, and you may be able to help.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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