Jay-Z and Diddy team up and donate a cool million
What if all these silly famous people started keeping tabs on how much money they gave to charity?
What if there were a scrolling light board in Times Square or right next to Mann's Chinese that posted the charitable donations of Tom Cruise, Jessica Alba, Verne Troyer, Hulk Hogan, Mick Jagger, Steven Segal, Adam Carolla, Paris Hilton, and all these other people about whom we all know more than we do about some of the people we call friends?
What if it were fashionable to make the list of greatest donors?
By all rights, I have no claim to these peoples' money. I buy their movies/games/shows, so I guess I feel it's worth $7.50 plus popcorn to watch them talk/cheat on/blow up each other. But if I knew that they evil double agent who just blew up half a town is in fact significantly funding the rebuilding of New Orleans or donating to the Red Cross/Crescent, I would respect them. I think that's worth something. I might even want to be like them, just a little. Isn't that what should make someone famous? Charity? Compassion? Being a good person? I couldn't tell you which team Manute Bol played for, but I respect and admire him for giving so much of his money to help Sudan. The guy boxed against The Fridge and even gave that money to help his people.
What if they gave a generosity rating? You take each celebrity's 501(c)3 donations (I doubt their manual labor is worth much at all) and add them up, divide it by their personal income, and you get a rating. You could watch the TV or movie awards and see them wearing a lapel pin that has four stripes and think "Wow, she gives 15-20% of her income to non-profits" or someone with two stripes and think "He gives 5-10% of his income" and on and on. What if Joan Rivers asked people how many stripes they were wearing? Flat out: "What good are you doing with all that money?"
Granted, it's not the most modest thing in the world, but until modesty is in fashion in the US, I say let's take our immodesty and combine it with our celebrity obsession and get some good done.
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2 comments:
what about doing things for the right reason? although you, nor most celebs, claim to be xian, what about the idea that you do your deeds of righteousness in secret and that they are reward enough?
i'm not picking on your idea, it's kinda neat. and may be the only way they would do it. but i think it would also be vulgar
Yeah, that would be nice-- if people were righteous and secret/modest about it.
But if it takes being vulgar to get people fed and protected, I've got no problem with knowing who's paying.
"Jennifer Garner has a new movie coming up, and to promote it, she has set up a homeless shelter in Chicago, where her new movie is set." ... vulgar, but effective.
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