"Color Me Rad 5K" - Are You Insane?

Hey, I dig colour as much as the next guy. I'm an artist, so you've gotta give it to me on this one. I adore colour, vibrancy, hue, saturation and whatnot, but what's the deal with this Colour Me Rad event that's been going around?

I've never been to one of these events and probably never will considering the event's shady background. It's a 5K run full of youngsters (mainly consisting of hyper and mildly-intoxicated youths around my age) that run around like rabid chimpanzees while being bombarded by streams of colour. Whoa. Hold on a second. This festivity seems awfully familiar. It feels like, oh I don't know, a bastardization of the Hindu festivity called Holi.

The organization promotes the event by claiming that it will make you happy and improve your life as a result. I mean hell, if I was asked to pay $50 to run around with a bunch of overly enthusiastic, uninformed, materialistic, and spoiled hippies, I'd be happy too--actually no I take that back. I'd be f***** depressed!

If only I could stop there. It'd make my life so much easier, but no! It doesn't end there. Apparently, Colour Me Rad is an openly for-profit organization, so the companies that are sponsoring the event are getting something in return. Word's been going around that over 90% of the funds CMR raises goes to everybody BUT the cause it so prominently supports.

I have my reasons to not support this event and these reasons are entirely unique, I assure you. Many people have scrutinized Colour Me Rad, but all for the wrong reasons.

I'm totally sold to the fact that it "brings people together" and "brightens up the spirit". These are great things attached to the backwash of this 5K that we desperately need in our society but is this how we're going to do it? If there's spirit that needs raising it's in Syria where youths of the same age are being slaughtered every day by the hundreds. Don't give me that, "Oh it's people like you that are bringing all the negativity into the society." < - This accusation is pointless, without logic, and a reflection of denial - the trait all guilty ones exhibit. It is also highly inefficient to try to bring change into a society that is going downhill for reasons no one wants to admit, then expect to make better a society that desperately needs help.

It's time we all woke up!