"Don't Forget About Us When The Camera's Go Off"

[Jodi Butler]

I'm not even sure how I can express what I feel right now in words. But I'm going to try.

It's been a few hours now since the Livestream event for Help Haiti Heal and I am still on a high. I have never been more proud to be a Harry Potter fan, a geek, or an activist. True, I have not done a ton when it comes to activism, but it is always close to my heart. This is the first Harry Potter event that I really put my heart and soul into, that I took a front seat in. Or at least, as much of a front seat as I could. And I just feel so proud, so alive and like I want to do more. I think I've got the "bug". Not to say that I wasn't a proud HPA member or anything like that before, but I think today I realized the good we can really do in the world.

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. I've been really swallowed up with my school work since the holidays ended and haven't really thought about much since myself. Until Haiti. My heart shattered for the people, and I wanted to do something, but I just didn't know what. And then Melissa Anelli and Matt Magacimo and probably others that I'm forgetting started tweeting about a huge fandom event happening Saturday - today - and I just knew that it had to do with Haiti. So I saved the money I had been thinking about donating for the Red Cross just in case. And if it wasn't, I could still donate it later. And then it was announced and I was immediately excited. Even if I couldn't really tell anyone at school or at home. (Well, I did, but they didn't understand my excitement) It was like I knew this was going to be huge. Or maybe I was just so excited about another fandom event. I don't know. But it was a turn around for me. I was starting to sink down into misery because of the huge load of work my instructors had put on me, and like I said, I wasn't thinking about anyone but myself. I had sunk into the Muggle Mindset. And this has pulled me right out of that, and I feel like dancing in the rain. If only it were raining.

I think the thing that I found most inspiring from today was when the man from Partners in Health came on, and was talking about how it was affecting the people. It brought me to tears. And then his son came on. He said what so many people have been thinking - don't forget about the Haitans when the camera's are off. I want to just repeat that. And add - don't forget about the campaign just because the telethon is over. Like Andrew and Melissa and countless others said today - the campaign will be continuing on. There is still a lot of time to donate. If you have the means, please, do. Every little bit really does help. We got to $31,000 in six hours, just think how much more we can get in a week!

The Weapon We Have is Love!

http://www.thehpalliance.org/haiti/

[Jodi Butler]

Yeah it really is. And then stuff like this comes around and it's really really humbling when we (or I should say "I" guess) realize how unimportant our stuff is, and how important *this* kind of thing is.

[Elin]

You definitely weren't, and that little boy teared my eyes too!

It's silly how much energy we put on apparently unimportant stuff, isn't it?

[Jodi Butler]

I saw that, Max! Thank you so much! It made my day. :)

Thanks Sally. :) I'm glad that I'm not the only one who was pulled out of the Muggle Mindset.

[Max C]

Thanks so much for this, Jodi. I put a quick excerpt on the main Ning page (thehpalliance.org) just to let you know :-)

[Elin]

What a lovely post! I understand how you feel entirely, because it's very much the same for me. The problems in my everyday life don't seem as important anymore. There are those who have a really hard time over there, to say the least!

[Jodi Butler]

Thank you so much! I think I ended up getting across what I wanted to get across. :)

[Emma S.]

I really don't know what else to say other than that this is a truly lovely post. :)