Current Events Watch

Philanthropic wordsmiths, take note! This is cool. John Breen, a computer programmer from Indiana who operates the Poverty.com website, has now also developed an online game that teaches vocabulary … and helps to fight world hunger at the same time.

It’s fun, it’s free, and it feeds. Not to mention that you’ll also pick up a few new words along the way with which to impress friends and family.

FreeRice.com is quickly becoming quite popular. Breen said the idea came to him one day in his kitchen while he was sitting with his two teenage sons, preparing for the SAT, when he decided, as he said, “to do something on the computer to help my son learn vocabulary words.”

It’s a simple multiple-choice game. You’re presented with a word and four possible definitions from which to choose. Get it right, and 20 grains of rice are donated to the U.N. World Food Programme. The U.N. then distributes the rice worldwide.

Pfffft, you say. Twenty grains? Well, pfffft yourself. They do add up. And quickly. The game is quite an addictive pastime, and before you know it, you’ll find that you have earned several thousands of grains to help feed some starving kid or family somewhere, and every little bit really does count.

Consider the fact that FreeRice.com is up to more than 8.2 billion grains of rice since Breen launched the site just this past October. That is more than enough to feed 325,000 people, according to the spokesperson for the World Food Programme.

Given my addictive personality, I’ve no doubt fed an entire village already. I can’t stop playing the game. Okay, so I have way too much free time on my hands, but at least I spend it well. Sometimes.

freerice.com, free rice, world hunger, word games, john breen, world food programme

“There but for the grace of God go I.” Traveling preacher man John Bradford’s modified sixteenth-century quote has over the subsequent centuries, for whatever reason, become the catchphrase of choice when waxing philosophical, humble and compassionate about the misfortune of others. Sincerity, of course, is optional. I’m sure John really meant it, though, watching his fellow execution-bound inmate being taken away to meet his Maker.

He was simply thankful that, well, he wasn’t that poor bastard! Of course, ultimately, despite the grace of God, there John went, too. Burned at the stake. Yikes.

These days, most people generally utter such drive-by platitudes from airbag-laden, DVD player-equipped, OnStar-optioned SUVs, while passing a homeless person on the street. Or maybe when they hear about the plight of the sick and uninsured, the cold and hungry (still harping about yesterday’s post, sorry, but Bush pisses me off), in some random story they may have channel-surfed through on their satellite-fed digital HDTVs … there are just so many poor people for which to be thankful that they are not! So sad, too bad.

I was one of those sympathetic people. I thought I cared, even though I’ll admit that I did avoid eye contact with the guy at the corner of 47th and Oak on the Country Club Plaza (KC plug there … it might come in handy later, read on) holding the Hungry - Need Food cardboard sign, just thinking to myself, “Come on, light, turn green already! I’m running late for my dinner reservation!”

That was secondary, of course, to my compassion for the poor guy and his misfortune. If memory serves, I think my first thought was that obligatory “there but for the grace of God blah blah blah” thing. Yeah, I’m sure that was it, because I am a caring person, after all. I should have probably really spent a bit more time pondering how true that is, before moving on to more important things, like whether to order the tater skins or the onion blossom appetizer.

Because, you know what? Despite the grace of God, there go I now, too. Possibly to the street corner with the cardboard sign-wielding guy. I’m not there yet, but it’s getting close. Not being dramatic or bemoaning my situation but, yeah, I may have to eventually make eye contact with the guy after all, maybe partner up for the sign-holding events and such. Take turns or something. (Hence the KC plug link for the Plaza above … 47th & Oak. If you’re in town, look us up, and thanks for your support!) Poverty sucks.

Here’s the deal, though. I’ve been blessed with the best of fortune, but the rags to riches story we all love sometimes has a nasty plot twist. Believe me, I know, because here I am getting all raggedy. Still, when I sometimes feel like wallowing in my most terrible misfortune (boo hoo), I am reminded, as I was yesterday, that it’s true, I guess, that things really could be worse. Thanks, Oprah! (Okay, give me a break, I love my Oprah. I’m gay, remember?) The guests booked on yesterday’s show were people who are dying. It was kind of creepy in a way, actually, now that I think about it.

But, even if I ultimately have to hook up with Harold at the street corner (I don’t know his real name, but he looks like a Harold) in a couple of months, scheduling sign-holding shifts, at least I’ll still be around to hold that sign. Computer science professor Randy Pausch most likely won’t be passing by, though. He’ll probably be dead. He’s dying, he knows it, and yet he’s determined to be a Tigger and not an Eeyore in these, his final days. Quite an inspiration. You’ll have to watch the video at the end to get the Pooh reference.

If you’re not familiar with Professor Pausch, he’s the 46-year-old husband, and father of three small children, dying of pancreatic cancer. He’s down to the last few weeks, doctors can do nothing more. When he participated in the Last Lecture series at his university, he suddenly became something of a celebrity. These exercises are apparently not uncommon at various universities across the country, the challenge being for the professors to deliver the lecture they would present if it was to be their last, reflecting upon their personal journeys and lessons learned. In Professor Pausch’s situation, the rules here of course hit very close to home.

There have been snippets all over the Internet from his Last Lecture, the full thing being over an hour long. If you do want to watch his lecture (including all of the introductions, just like being there, only not!) here’s a link.

This video from Oprah’s show yesterday, though, pretty much sums it up. He was on, and gave a reprise of his original lecture. Watch the video. It’s true, things could be worse, no matter how bad things might seem. Even a street-corner beggar can hear rich guy Professor’s story and say, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Of course, Randy Pausch can also consider our charred friend Brother John B, who originally imparted such wisdom, and probably think the same. I doubt really if it could get much worse than that. Burned alive at the stake sets the bad luck bar pretty high.

randy pausch, cancer, pancreatic cancer, last lecture, oprah, homelessness, poverty