More than just posting

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Lately it seems like there has been an increase in tragedies happening in the US caused by either accidents or disturbed people with weapons. Whenever tragedy strikes I’ve noticed many people go to a social media as an outlet to talk about their feeling toward what has been happening but with the recent explosion in West, Tx and the shooting in MIT I found myself to be a little annoyed by the comments.

Although it is not bad to show our respect to those who lost their lives and support to those that were personally affected by it, I don’t see how a picture or a tweet can have thousands of likes YET no one is actually going out and doing anything about it. I have seen a total of two people mention going out to help out, one went to donate blood and the other was a former police agent who went to see if he could be of service. On my Facebook I have people from all over and even the people from Boston are just commenting about how terrible the situation is but not really using the situation to do something productive.

The explosion in West has been the closest thing to us so I understand why I have not seen more people trying to get involved but once it happen the report said 100 people were expected to be hospitalized and 70+ buildings were leveled I don’t understand why our first reaction was “let me send prayers through social media” rather than “what can I do to help these civilians”. I personally cannot donate blood due to my iron deficiency, however for times like these I have what I call my “donation box”, which I constantly fill. Basically what I do is I collect random things that I do not need (or things that people bought for me that I didn’t like) in a box and it ranges between a lot of different items along with clothes that I rarely use and I would be willing to give away and when something like this happens I get what these specific people are in need of and I send it in. When someone loses everything anything that you can give him or her will really make a difference so I encourage you guys to do the same and start a little box of your own. I am more than positive sending five or six items to someone (as insignificant as you think they may be) will mean so much more to them than having 1000+ likes on a picture sending them prayers. Keep them and their families in your prayers anyway but I just think it’s time to get up from behind the computer and actually give back.
 useful links :)
 To donate blood
Ways to directly help West in San Antonio