LIVING WITH MCL

As a result of several comments I received regarding my recent post referencing Steve Kirsch , I feel compelled to offer some clarification. My intention was not to cast dispersions on Steve in particular. Steve has donated and been active in many philanthropic endeavors. The post was meant to cast a wide berth, and include everyone who has reached a particular stature in life, i.e. Steve Case (AOL), Sergey Brin (Google), Larry Ellison (Oracle) etc. and the vast majority of our elected representatives, who have the resources to make a REAL difference in the world, but IMO, choose to act only selfishly, without considering the plight of others, or don't act at all. I was referring to everyone who waits to put their resources to valuable use only for things that benefit themselves directly. Everyone who waits for a catastrophic event to spring into action. Everyone who needs to be embarrassed [chided] into acting before they are willing to help. We have become....[snip] Like I said i...

I came across this interesting article in this months San Francisco magazine . It's about Steve Kirsch , a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who founded several companies, including Infoseek, and his committed efforts, in time and money, to finding a cure for Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia , a disease he was diagnosed with in July of 2007. The article also mentions several other high profile entrepreneurs, who have made similar commitments after being diagnosed with deadly diseases, including Steve Case (AOL), Sergey Brin (Google) and Larry Ellison (Oracle). Now while I admire these individuals for what they have accomplished in their lives, and their efforts to fight their disease, for me it raises much larger questions. Why does it take a disaster or the diagnosis of a deadly disease to make people spring into action? And why are the efforts of these individuals only directed towards their particular diseases? In my opinion, it just isn't enough these individuals are trying to d...