Man, that’s scary!
No, really, it’s scary to think about what people can accomplish when they set aside their differences and just work together to accomplish good, wholesome goals.
And when you think of “good and wholesome,” of course you think of Stephen King.
OK, maybe not, but King, the king of horror, has exceeded his original plans to help out the needy of his home state of Maine and that is certainly good and wholesome.
You may remember 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.”
It was noted originally that King saw, “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.”
Well, it worked great.
An update on the effort this week noted: “King announced last month that his foundation would match up to $70,000 if listeners of the three Bangor-area radio stations he owns donated that amount, for a total of $140,000.
“Listeners donated $24,000, the Lerner Foundation pitched in $46,000 and the foundation kept its promise.
“An anonymous Californian then promised another $50,000, if King matched it. The Maine native agreed, bringing the total to over $240,000.”
That a quarter million bucks in help to people who will notice the difference.
True, it’s not meeting the entire need, but it is a step in the right direction and it is being made possible with the help of a lot of people, not just with one fat cat donation.
It’s not that Stephen King or any other celebrity needs to take up such an issue and solve it with a blank check, 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 everything.
But each of us can do something.
— Chuck Smith