Friday, April 29, 2011

Royal Wedding

I stumbled across a blog entry today that I wanted to share with you all. You should most definitely click on this link and read it straight from the source to see the photos and full effect the writer was going for.

http://www.millionsofmiles.com/2011/04/cost-of-royal-wedding-what-if.html

"The Cost of the Royal Wedding... What if?

Every time I've turned on the television or opened a news website for the last two months, news of the royal wedding is at the forefront. Yes- I'm eager to see a picture of the princess in her wedding gown- but the numbers I'm seeing associated with the cost of this wedding break my heart every time I hear them mentioned. Some media outlets are estimating that the total cost of the royal wedding will fall somewhere between 40 and 50 million dollars. Add on top of that the burden to British taxpayers for security and lost productivity for declaring the wedding day a national holiday and the numbers get into the BILLIONS of dollars.
What if...instead of a $434,000 dress...Every one of the 88 abandoned and severely special needs children at Sarah's Covenant Home in India got the life saving surgeries and therapies that they needed.
WHAT IF... instead of spending $800,000 on the royal flowers...... 320 houses were built for families displaced by the earthquake in Haiti.
WHAT IF... instead of the $80,000 cake ordered for the wedding......the financial burden was removed to bring 4 children home to eager and loving families...
WHAT IF... the $65,000 that will be used just to clean the streets for the royal wedding procession......was used instead to clean up these streets in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya.
WHAT IF... instead of a $600,000 luncheon hosted by Prince Charles......The remaining 144 un-sponsored children at Yezelalem Minch (Ethiopia) were sponsored for the next 12 years- or until most of them are adults- providing them with an education, nutrition and a safe place to grow up.
The point is- there are choices that we all make, myself included. The choices aren't always easy. The world tells us that we need bigger and better things and that we should find our self worth based on the amount of "stuff" that we can amass. The amount that we deal with on a daily basis may not equal the millions spent on the royal wedding, but the decision is the same: continue our lives of comfort, or make sacrifices to support the least of these."
I couldn't agree with her more. I too have found myself annoyed and burdened these past weeks as I heard about the cost of the royal wedding. But for me, my annoyance goes even further than just what better ways the money could be spent.....I can't help but notice that we Americans who have no real ties to the Royal family are consumed with this wedding. We've taken more of a collective notice to this one event than we have ever taken in world hunger, poverty, lack of education, abuse, or any of the other injustices that go on in our world every day. I hope you found this (hers not mine) blog to be inspiring and motivating. What are we doing to make a difference on a daily basis? How are we taking a stand against the injustices we see around us?

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