On doing more good

Okay, so this post over at Hey, Jenny Slater made me sad and proud and angry, that strange halfway point between wanting to cry and to punch something. To be honest, I didn't even click on all of the links, because I just don't feel like being that angry this morning. Besides, it's all stuff I've heard before, on TV, on the radio, on the Internet: people blaming the victims for wanting to ride out the storm, for being reluctant to leave their homes, for being too damn poor to evacuate. That stuff, I've heard. What was good for me to read was all of the hope that Doug talked about, and I think it's something that we need to keep in mind. There are people doing bad things in New Orleans, and there are people doing bad things in Washington, but there are also people doing good things all over the damn place. We are a country of people that are more good than not-good, and this is our opportunity to show it.

Here's what I'm going to do (or the beginning of it, at least), and I invite both of my readers to join me. Going through the natural comparison of things that I have to things that the people on the Gulf Coast no longer have, I realized exactly how much money I spend on incidentals - things like football tickets, which are precious, certainly, but not crucial. I realized that I might well give $300 to scalpers this season just to watch Georgia play at home, and that's just the regular season.

So here's what I'm going to do: as much as I love Sanford Stadium, I'm not going to see it this season. I'm pledging $50 of scalper money for every home game that I would normally watch from the discomfort of a corrugated aluminum seat, and instead, I'm going to watch that game from the air-conditioned comfort of the Georgia Theatre. And since football is more fun with friends, I hope y'all will join me. Here's our home schedule:

Sept. 3 - Boise State
Sept. 10 - South Carolina
Sept. 17 - Louisiana Monroe
Oct. 22 - Arkansas
Nov. 12 - Auburn
Nov. 19 - Kentucky
And I'll go ahead and pledge $50 each for the SEC championship and the national championship, in which Georgia will undoubtedly play, right? Right?

Throw down in the comments below or shoot me an e-mail at practically_harmless [ at ] yahoo [ dot ] com if you'd like to join me at the Georgia Theatre for football and charity. I might even buy the first round of beer. Fans of the opposing team are welcome - yes, even Auburn fans. And even if you can't make it to any of the games, there's no reason not to make a donation anyway. Some things are just more important.