A Farker’s son has a nasty form of brain cancer. They’re trying to raise money for treatment. Tons of details in the link in the previous sentence. The direct donation link (beware, has music embedded in some sort of Flash or MIDI thing. Get FlashBlock!).

The posters on that topic are interestingly divided. My rough estimate is that 60% of them said things like, “Man, that’s horrible, I donated (small amount), good luck.” 37% of them said things like, “Wow, that’s horrible, good luck, various things like being poor or unemployed or in massive debt prevent me from donating.” 3% of them said, “You’re running a scam! There is no kid! Instead of asking us for help, you should pull yourself up by your bootstraps, only the unworthy can afford medical care!” and other things in that vein.

What surprises me is that the number of people being unsympathetic is so low. We’re a fairly snarky and cynical bunch. But throughout history, communities have banded together to help out their members who have suffered something extreme. It’s just that this is now happening over the InterGoogleWebNet instead of in neighborhood organizations.

This makes sense, actually.  Most of the time, the only things you have in common with your immediate neighbors are that you live in reasonably close proximity and that you have roughly similar socioeconomic status.  I think it could be easier to build a community based on shared interests (Free Software, bolt-action rifles, quilting, golf, photography. . .) than one based on mere physical proximity.  I Could Be Wrong.