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4chan Gives 90-Year-Old Vet a Great Birthday
Hugh Pickens writes "Members of 4chan aren't known for doing things that are cute and heart-warming and when they decide to go after someone, it's typically to subject them to ridicule. But not this time. Someone at 4chan decided that the Internet should get together and wish 90-year-old WWII veteran William J. Lashua a happy birthday, and soon Lashua's local branch of the American Legion was deluged by birthday calls from people as far away as Sweden. The account someone set up for Mr. Lashua's birthday on Facebook had 3,956 'likes' and over 500 comments, most of which wished him a happy birthday and thanked him for his military service. It's not clear how 4chan originally came across a photo of Lashua, but a member of the site posted a snapshot of a flyer that was on the bulletin board at a store in Ashburnham, Massachusetts asking for guests to attend the nonagenarian's birthday on at the American Legion hall and the post took off. In contrast to their usual behavior, 4chan members 'were giving him nice phone calls and sending him nice notes' and discouraging those who wanted to do something stupid or mean. 'They were all being.. well, shucks, awful nice.'"
It is nice of these people to take time to acknowledge the birthday and contributions of this veteran. However this is just one man who they took time for, they could have directed their efforts in a more wide-reaching manner. After all, we do still have many WWII (and other war) veterans who are worthy of praise, thanks, and acknowledgment.
If they really want to help the veterans, my first suggestion would be to look into helping the Veterans Administration (VA). The various resources of the VA - especially their hospitals - are scattered around our country and often stretched thin. Regardless of your position on government-funded, government-aided, or government-provided health care, the VA is the hospital of choice for a great number of great people. If you want to thank and help our veterans, your local VA can direct you to ways that you can do that. You could volunteer to help veterans get to their appointments, you could advocate for better resources for the hospitals, or do any number of other things. I wouldn't be surprised if your local VA would even appreciate volunteers to come and visit with the hospitalized family-less vets.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Holocaust deniers treat the whole thing like a religion - they've already decided what they believe to be true, and even if you invented a time machine and took them on a tour of the Nazi extermination camps, finishing off with a few months in Auschwitz in the early-mid 1940s they still wouldn't believe you.
However tempting talk of violence is, it'll have exactly the same effect as it has on religion - it makes the belief stronger, and will be (ab)used by the victim as evidence of them being right.