Notre Dame Cathedral is engulfed in flames 
It’s been there since the 14th Century. Fire crews are trying to save as many priceless art works as possible right now. This is tragic
It’s been the sort of day that if I look at this I’m going to cry. But I know I’ll lose it when I get home tonight. My heart is breaking.
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Aww 
I understand It’s very hard to watch any coverage right now
But of course now I’m pissed off that they raised 1B for restoration of church that belongs to one of the richest entities in the world while places like Flint MI still doesn’t have drinking water.
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Priorities.
Yes, if you look at it that way, it’s a demonstration of the world’s basic lack of fairness and its skewed priorities.
Flint, Michigan’s drinking water, ebola outbreaks in the Congo, opioid epidemics, the catastrophe in Syria, a typhoon in Mozambique, climate change — the list goes on and on and on. All these issues are deserving of more attention, resources and commitment to doing something.
My wife had a bumper sticker on her Jeep that said “No more homeless pets.” While in a parking lot, someone used a Sharpie to scribble out the words “homeless pets” and replace them with “homeless people.” They even left a note on her window chastising her for caring more about animals than people.
This was ironic given that my wife was doing her graduate studies in social work and, at the time, was working on her practicum and volunteering extra hours at the city’s largest (human) homeless shelter.
It’s sometimes best, I think, to avoid the temptation of conflating different issues that should probably remain separate. Gathering all the world’s problems into one big pile makes them overwhelming. Dividing them up, tackling them one at a time, and realizing they’re not mutually exclusive makes small victories possible.
Yes, absolutely, the ongoing drinking water problem in Flint should be solved. but it doesn’t keep me from being happy and grateful that big corporations, of all things, care enough about Notre Dame to throw their weight and money into repairing it. Now if we can get them to care as much about other problems, I’d be even more happy.
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Can you say “tax deductible donation?”
But it’s also their money. I have no particular interest in what other people do with their money.
I am happy Notre Dame will quite possibly be rebuilt. Given the current state of such structures the world over (the UK’s Westminster being another among the many) about the only way to get “the people” involved is for some catastrophe to happen. Otherwise, woe to the politician that spends the money “on a building” when all these other crises need more attention.
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I have a major problem with the whole Flint water issue. It’s been going on far too long. If only there were rich people in this country to help. 
But, that’s another story.
People can do whatever they want with their money and usually do. Including us. But … and it’s a big BUT… bestowing accolades and hero status to people dripping in money because they did something decent with it is beyond disgusting in my book. They should always be doing something good with what they have been blessed with. These Billionaires donated what would be the equivalent of a buck to you or me… if that. It’s a mere drop in the bucket.
So again … it’s great they are doing something good. They should. They are rich beyond words.
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I don’t envy the rich for what they have (though I do wish I was just rich enough not to have to work.) I also don’t particularly believe they are responsible for “fixing” all of society’s ills unless they are personally, and unequivocally, the cause of those ills. With a charity endeavor, you don’t flip off the guy that just handed you 100million dollars. You thank him loudly, profusely and publicly. That is why they do it. And maybe their vanity will be tickled enough to hand you more.
Robert Heinlein put it more succinctly,
“Never appeal to a man’s better nature. He may not have one.
Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.”