Help me help myself

I've been busy with life but had to put this entry in about the latest craze hitting feminists blogs called SEND ME TO A (WOMEN'S CONFERENCE/VACATION) BECAUSE I CAN'T AFFORD IT MYSELF. Let's take a look so we can all see how this craze is blazing through the internets.

I first saw it at Having Read the fine Print. Here's a portion of her post:

Also AMC AMC I wann go to AMC and so do these wonderful people
Fabulosa MujerHermana Resist (donations can be made through her pay pal email: csdistro@gmail.comPlease Professor Black Woman
Black Amazon(me)
The Primary Contradiction
Wonderful BFP also wants to go to the US Social forum.

This same list gets duplicated in a number of other blogs which I won't bother looking for since I don't have time. I noticed that BlackAmazon did receive enough donations to attend and said Thanks! then told everyone to donate elsewhere. Right before the campaign for donations began, there were some angry posts by BlackAmazon who was all indignant about how she was being treated in the feminist blogosphere. I thought it was pretty slick the way she drove up traffic and support then slipped the message in that she and others want to go to a conference and to please donate! And by golly, it seemed to work for her.

Now Heart now has a campaign going asking for donations to send her to some conference in Sante Fe. Before asking for the donations online, she had set up childcare for her kids, a place to stay while at the conference, and a ride to and from the airport. All she needed from everyone was money to make this all happen because no matter how she crunched the numbers she couldn't afford it what with life and all going on around her. I think that a person who works that hard to organize all facets of the trip aside from the money must feel pretty confident that the internets will take care of the rest and I am sure that they will. She must have seen how willing everyone was to donate money earlier in the week to a single pregnant woman who urgently needed help which she highlighted in her blog and thought, "hey, if it was that easy for her, let me give it a try and see if it will be that easy for me." The difference, of course, being that the single pregnant woman urgently needed help whereas Heart just feels like taking a little trip out of town. (don't we all?)

Here's a portion from Heart:

I’ve crunched the numbers every which way, upside down and right-side up– I don’t have enough money to get myself there and back. I do have babysitting all lined up, I’ve got the days off, I’ve got a place to stay, I’ve got a ride from the airport and back to the airport. But I’ve plain had too many financial emergencies and crises over the past couple of months (including my well pump breaking down. :/)
I promise that if I can get myself there, I will write my fingers to the bone reporting everything that happens in detail.

Goody, she's going to blog all about her vacation for us!

While there do seem to be enough gullible parties to support this new craze, I want to put it out there that more than one person thinks that you're taking advantage of the kindness of others by this self-promotion in order to get yourself something you want that you cannot afford on your own, that you most likely do not really need, while real poverty and real need exists all around us.

But go and live it up wimmin. The rest of us can wait.