You actually make some fairly sound points, duluth_rider. I love your dedication to the environment as I feel much the same way. I'm not going to bag on JHuskey here, but you're correct. People in America are so driven to succeed that I think we often forget that resources are limited. If I have more than I need, then someone somewhere in the world probably has less than they need. Since you're so in tuned to the environment, I'm sure I'll see your posts on some of the diet related threads and I look foreward to reading them.
As to your ability to rate my intelligence based on whether or not I have a LiveSTRONG wrist band on my arm, I think you've weeded out a few important variables. I think I know where you're coming from. It's not completely unlike the way I feel when I see people driving around with little American flags clipped onto their cars to show support for America. Support for America isn't a bad thing but I personally feel they'd do better to remember that those flags are supposed to be representative of things that America seems to have lost touch with. I'd rather see them reading the Constitution or posting a copy of it for others to read.
I have no doubt that Nike will profit from the sale of these wrist bands or from any of the other items they're marketing. And there is no question that they are using their association with Lance Armstrong to increase their profits. But I find that I do have choices. I could buy Adidas clothing and no wrist band and none of my dollars go to cancer or I can jump on the band wagon and feel that I've done a little something to perhaps reduce the suffering of one or two people. The whole cancer thing is a bonus for me. I'm an Armstrong fan and a fan of cycling in general. As such the band is more than a statement about the desire to donate to cancer research, it's also a statement about cycling and about Lance Armstrong.
I think you're dead on the money about how many silly little campaigns get started and millions of people latch onto them without having the slightest clue about the true motives behind many of them. But I will have to disagree with you concerning your contention that anyone wearing one of these bands is intellectually inferior to yourself. There are a number of factors involved in accurately assessing intelligence and a number of factors will determine whether or not each person will choose to buy or wear a wrist band.
As a final comment; thank you for your original post. You've stirred a bit of controversy in the thread and I think that's good for the thread as well as the people who visit here. It gets people thinking and involved. I can't agree with your overall conclusion but you shouldn't take the full load of everyone's objections by yourself. You do have a sound basis for your objections but not every program that attracts a lot of attention is necessarily a bad thing even when it helps large corporations to increase their profits.
