Greed Essay, Research Paper

The Best Way to Fix Greed

Neil Christie

Giving money to a charity really should be given from the heart,

not just to make people look better. Donating to the poor or the sick

should not be just for recognition of oneself. Giving should be done, not

to get a name in the newspaper or on a plaque, but to help those who are

less fortunate. In order to make the giving valuable, to the giver, they

should experience or witness the lives of the less fortunate or sick.

Community service is a very valuable way to get something out of life and

give something back.

Community service can help the more fortunate to understand and

appreciate the needs of the sick, the poor and the destroyed environment.

Volunteering in a hospital will help teach healthy people the

importance of life. Going into the hospital can help the volunteer learn

the value of life and how important every minute of life really is. For

instance, women and men who volunteer in an infant AIDS ward may learn to

take better care of themselves so that they will have healthy children

someday. Young people who volunteer in a geriatrics ward may realize the

importance of Mom and Dad, have more patience for old people and have much

to learn from the elderly.

Working without pay in a homeless shelter helps people learn that

being poor is not wrong. It is just an unfortunate way of life for some.

Volunteering in the shelters teaches us that we are all equal, whether we

have money or not. Homeless and poor people have families too: husbands,

wives, children, even pets. Getting to know people who have less helps us

remember that they have all the capabilities of a human being.

People can learn to appreciate the earth by getting involved in

organizations set up to help clean up the environment. For instance, two

years ago I went on a camping trip in Vermont. One of the activities was

canoeing. As we were going down the river, we saw lots of debris and

decided to clean it up. The life in and surrounding the water all benefited

from our clean-up efforts and we realized the importance of not littering.

More people should follow in these footsteps.

Community service helps the people who receive the service, our

land and the volunteers, as well. The people who receive service from

volunteers get to have a little bit of a better life and learn that people

actually care about them. The land becomes cleaner and the trees become

greener. The volunteers themselves learn everything and everyone is

valuable. They also learn that volunteering can actually be fun!