Charity Mugging

Whenever I would see charity muggers on the street, you know those college kids in windbreakers from Greenpeace or Children International begging for signatures or money, I would be so grateful that despite all the crappy jobs I have had, I've never sunk that low. And then several Saturdays ago, I became one.
Standing on a street corner in Philadelphia, I found myself asking people if they had a minute for air quality. Most of them did not. I was there for an interview with an advocacy/research group that will remain nameless. For six hours I was expected to schmooze and act very concerned about environmental issues. The charity mugging was essential, because should I be hired, I would spend an entire summer doing just that.
The longer the interviews and public speaking activities went on, the more uncomfortable I felt. Here I was talking about environmental racism and homelessness with priviledged white kids, Liberal white guilt at its most blatant. One of the advantages of living in New York (or disadvantages) is the exposure I've gotten to all levels of society. I don't know many other places where you have public housing projects in close proximity to one-bedroom condos worth more than half a million dollars. And like the confusing jumble that the citizens of New York often find themselves in, the issues that concern them can not be neatly seperated into neat categories. It's naive to say, but it's true: it's all connected. "Fixing" the world is a messy job; you can't be afraid to get your hands dirty.