Carleton University; Department of Idiocy

So the Student's Union at Ottawa's Carleton University, have decided to stop supporting Cystic Fibrosis with their annual 'Shinerama' fundraiser, "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men." (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/11/25/ot-081125-shinerama.html).

The entire student union, sans 1 representative decided to vote against the charity, and to find a new recipient for their fundraising dollars.

The Shinerama drive, where students spend a week shining shoes or cars for donations, has been an institution at Carleton for nearly 25 years.

While I am all for being racially and gender inclusive, it seems to me using politics to choose a charity is rather despicable.  The last time I checked, Cystic Fibrosis was a fatal genetic disease, for which their is currently no cure.  But I guess it's alright to cut them off from funding, because, you know, they are mainly all just white men.

HELLO?  Am I the only one that sees the idiocy in this line of thinking?

According to the student council motion that passed this week, orientation week "strives to be inclusive" and "all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve their diverse communities."

I fail to see the logic in this statement.  Does this mean that I should not feel that raising money for breast cancer research is not serving my community, because I am not a woman?  Should I feel that my community is not being served by people who fundraise for sickle cell anemia since it affects mainly black women, and I am not black nor a woman?

I sincerely hope that the students of Carleton who disagree with this policy demand changes in their student union representation, and continue to raise money without official support from their University.  

I feel badly for these students, as it is likely they will be considered guilty of idiocy, purely by association to their student council.

I can only hope that the Cystic Fibrosis foundation will receive additional donations from people who were outraged by this callous decision.

Remember that a disease causes heartache for everyone regardless of the victims appearance.  

Keep Giving.

Rainn