#depressing realities

[yutaya]

When I was in college one year, my roommate and I each bought a box of melon ice pops. She would eat one of hers when she wanted a pick-me-up, and ran out after a couple of months. I would eat one of mine when i was happy and carefree, and my box still had extra at the end of the year.

[michellesiobhan]

Merely having a gun in one’s home increases the likelihood that someone living there will commit suicide by a factor of two to ten, depending on age and how the gun is stored.

The gun toll we're ignoring: suicide (The Boston Globe)

[meginreallife-blog]

“I think the Fair Trade-certified FLO model is not relevant at all and kind of never has been, because they were doing something different than they were selling to the consumer. … That’s exactly why I left TransFair [now Fair Trade USA]. They’re selling a different thing than they’re producing.”

-Peter Guiliano, Counter Culture Coffee

[imaginarymoshi]

why do we treat each other so terribly? i just don't understand.

not just on a personal level- not holding the door for someone, intentionally ignoring a text, saying something snide and unnecessary- but on an international scale as well. people are dying of starvation, of dehydration, of diseases that have been eradicated before we were even thought of, and we do nothing. we convince ourselves we can't do anything, that the problem is too large for our fragile hands to handle. we let it carry on, the fighting, the poverty, the pleas for help, all because we said to ourselves "i can't fix that."

just let that simmer for a bit. think about it. when you're done thinking, do something. anything. anything that YOU think you can handle. donate money through kiva. volunteer abroad. research an issue you've heard about. just do something.