Just like the Harlem Shake meme that was hot for a second and then died faster than Michelle Bachman’s presidential bid, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge appears to have won the internet and is bordering dangerously on the saturation limit before we all get bored and move on. While it’s still fresh in most people’s minds, I want to share my frustrations from my perspective as a political hack.
For those not in the know, the Ice Bucket Challenge is a genius viral fundraising strategy that has raised over $22 million to date. The rules are simple; you record a video where you dump ice water on your head while calling out friends or family to complete the challenge within 24 hours. If you complete the challenge, i.e. get doused with ice water, you only donate $10 to ALS while you are on the hook for $100 if you decline the icy dip. Everyone has gotten on board, including Bill Gates, who probably spent more money just setting up a rig to dump ice water than most people actually donated.
Some critics have rightly charged that awareness is good, but filling the bucket rather than writing a check does not deserve the pat on the back it’s been getting. Others have called out the ALS challenge on the dreadful practice of wasting potable water, especially Californians who participated in the midst of a prolonged drought. I’d like to add my voice to the chorus of critics.
Put the bucket of ice water down and walk a precinct or volunteer to call voters this election cycle. Ok. That was cathartic, and if you’re still reading then I promise to tone down the self-righteous field operative rhetoric.
Here’s the deal. Whoever pitched the Ice Bucket Challenge deserves accolades for innovative fundraising and digital communications strategies. Moreover, they are making a profound positive change by engaging everyday people in fighting a debilitating disease. But whatever good the Ice Bucket Challenge is doing, it pales in comparison to the overwhelming and ongoing damage to scientific research by the GOP-led sequestration.
Here’s how sequestration hurts: it’s crippled the National Institutes of Health budget. According to the NIH, sequestration has forced $1.55 billion in cuts and that was just for 2013. The cuts have forced the NIH to issue approximately 640 fewer competitive research project grants. Those grants fund real, substantial research that is now indefinitely on hold. Sam Stein at the Huffington Post paints a bleaker picture where “the nation’s role as an international leader in scientific research is at risk.” Thanks to sequestration, the new status quo is reduced funding that will “have lasting damage, both economic and medical, as cures to diseases are left undiscovered and treatments left unearthed.”
Upset yet? Here’s how you can fix it. Ask your local candidates for Congress if they would vote to restore NIH funding and end the across the board austerity implemented by sequestration. If you don’t have a competitive local race or your member of Congress is solid on NIH funding, find a race in your state. Once you find the candidate that supports restoring NIH funding, volunteer. Walk a precinct and talk to voters, and challenge your friends to walk a precinct. Talk to your friends about how certain members of Congress (Republicans) are more willing to cut funding for life-saving research instead of ending tax breaks for oil companies and corporations that offshore profit.
Or, you know, you could just go back to thinking you made the world a better place by wasting clean water in a drought and raising awareness.
Dennis Raj is the Political Director for the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council.
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