Anyone who’s ever read much Stephen King knows how much the horror fiction author likes to use rock lyrics in his work. You know, like “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try real hard, you just might find, you get what you need.”
What King saw that the people in his home state need is help keeping the utilities on this winter.
So, he actually acted on the matter.
As the Associated Press reported: “Horror author Stephen King is stepping up to help struggling Maine residents buy heating oil.
“The state is facing deep cuts to a federal heating oil assistance program.
“The Maine native announced Tuesday that his foundation will work with the three radio stations he owns in the Bangor area to raise $140,000 to buy heating oil for low-income residents.
“He’s asking listeners to donate $70,000, and the foundation will double it.”
That’s right.
He’s asking others to get involved.
This is where King is hitting the nail on the head.
He sees, “there is a ‘great need’ for heating oil assistance as the price goes up and federal funding goes down.
“The federal government told the Maine State Housing Authority that it should expect to receive $23 million in heating oil assistance this winter, down from $55.6 million last winter.”
So, being real about the whole thing, what King is planning won’t take care of the whole situation.
And, to be accurate, not all of the money he’s raising comes from him.
But what he’s doing is taking a step in the right direction.
And that is the real point.
It’s not that Stephen King or any other celebrity needs to take up such an issue and solve it with a check blank, because it’s more important for them to get more people involved in meeting their neighbors’ needs.
What is crucial is that we, as a people, start seeing that we need to help solve these problems, and that we take up the responsibility to help, too.
There’s a story told in an old Spencer Tracy movie “The Seventh Cross” where an old man who’s helping Tracy’s character escape from Nazi Germany tells about what happened when ants got in the deli’s sugar bowl.
By the end of the day, the bowl was empty, with each little ant doing his part.
And, the man grins, “they can’t kill all the ants, can they?”
Neither we, nor Stephen King, can do anything.
But each of us can do something.
— Chuck Smith