It’s always good when young people feel the need tosupport a worthy cause. It gives the older generation hope thatkids these days aren’t really floating through the cloudswithout a clue about what’s going on in the world.

But sometimes it’s necessary to check the reasoning behindan outpouring of support for something.

Enter “LiveStrong.” They’re everywhere. But incase you’ve been living in a hole for the past few months,they’re those yellow rubber band-looking bracelets that adornthe wrists of what are now millions of people all over the UnitedStates — especially young people. They’re imprintedwith the mantra “LiveStrong.”

Now, the goal behind these $1 pieces of rubber is a noble one.Six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong [a testicularcancer survivor] has teamed up with Nike to raise money for cancerresearch with all the proceeds from the sale of the bracelets. Nikefronted the money to manufacture them, and if someone chooses tobuy one, they can be sure their hard-earned cash is going to helpsave lives. The Lance Armstrong Foundation-Nike team has alreadysold 13 million bracelets and shows no sign of slowing down.

Armstrong’s Web site and Nike’s page dedicated tothe undertaking, www.wearyellow.com, contain numerous testimonialsabout why people wear the bracelets and what yellow means tothem.

The bracelets represent an exceptional cause, so what’sthe problem? Armstrong’s foundation Web site has beenbombarded with so many requests for bracelets that the page wherethey can be purchased was temporarily offline. They were for salein local bike shops and sporting good stores that could not holdonto them any longer than it took to put them on the shelves. For awhile it was impossible to find the bracelets. Well, almostimpossible.

Go to eBay and search for “LiveStrong” and thenumber of bracelets for sale on the Internet — not throughthe Lance Armstrong Foundation — is astounding. We searched,and came up with 1,724 results.

Here’s the problem: They are for sale for up to $20.People are buying these bracelets, sometimes in bulk, and sellingthem for profit — their own profit — on the Internet.And people are buying them.

When it is so necessary for someone to have one that he or shewill buy one on the Internet for $20, there is a problem. Even moresad: The eBay situation most likely isn’t the only one of itskind.

Young people supporting cancer research is wonderful. It’sa disease that has likely ravaged its horrible attack on at leastone person they love. But wanting to be in style bad enough thatyou’ll aid in a seedy scheme to make money is pathetic.

Ed Board wants to encourage young people, and anyone who choosesto sport the yellow bracelet, to do so for the right reasons.Cancer research isn’t a hard cause to back. People just mustbe certain they’ve thought about the difference they canmake, and then, by all means, they can jump on the bandwagon.

But we don’t mean the fashion bandwagon.