makehope: BonOprah: Philanthropy's Royalty

Drop that stone! Before you take out a window in the BonOprah glass house, ok glass castle, consider this. What if uniname celebs like Bono and Oprah actually do some good? Answer: they do. So what's with all this angst, what is it that upsets us so?

DO we feel the level of good is not commensurate with their star status? that they don't live up to their their goodness hype, their goodness potential? Do we expect miracles feeling that any less from a Bono is just window dressing, cheap pub? Oh and Heaven forbid they make a misstep, Bono cravatless at the White House lunching with Republicans, whoa I think even The Edge got freaked out about that one and who can forget or yet forgive Oprah's free car, now you pay the tax fiasco! I could sense some pushback at Oprah's latest Her Favorite Giveaway Ever!, take $1000 and do some good. Whatya' mean nothin' for me, no free schwag? no free car? And then the sniping at Bank of America for their branded debit cards -- yeah they are in it for the publicity, duh! I'm not immune, at first it had me even thinking Harpo is a Cheapo! why not $100,000 cards! And don't get me started on big business.

Well when I depolarized and read a couple stories in our local paper about the good things that had already happened with those debit cards, it got me thinking. Funny thing is the $1000 turned into more. Oprah was right again she was giving out seeds and we were looking for trees!

How fast we seem to drop to the lower common denominator. We all do it! We are bombarded with so much stuff, most of it bad so we self inoculate, we polarize. At least I am better than them, better not to try at all than to fail miserably, publicly. That is NOT the mantra of America, at least it wasn't. Gotcha media, politics and society leave little room for humanness, especially that whole imperfection part! We have developed a valid fear of looking bad, especially if it happens to be during our 15 minutes!

So we make snap judgments -- black OR white, good OR bad, us OR them, what's in it for us? what's in it for them? Nothing left in the middle, in fact moderates (not just politically) are oft characterized as limp noodles who have yet to come down on THE RIGHT side of this or that issue. Some say we are losing the middle class, actually I think we are losing the class in the middle!

What if we gave the Bonos and the Oprahs a chance. I know many of us do -- but far too many just poo poo and criticize aimlessly. Yeah call me a shill as I sit here typing on my wish they had a red MAC dressed in my ONE tee shirt and sporting my no longer white hot cool LIVESTRONG bracelet. I've got my reasons!

You know there is one thing that both the uninamers and the twonamers like Lance Armstrong share with the rest of us mere mortals ...1440! Thats the number of minutes in a day, the great equalizer. Sure Bono may spend his 1440 in Nice or jointly tethered with Oprah to an uber cool red iPod. But truth is they could be doing something else far more apathetic or pernicious like a reality show and let's face it their time while not more valuable than ours is undoubtedly more inscrutably scheduled.

I'll bet it's not easy being rich or famous -- ask 'em!

So what is the path forward? Actually I suggest a peaceful retreat to the middle. Can we chill in the middle and think a little! Maybe just maybe 50% of the folks aren't 100% wrong! Can't we all just get along...a little! What if we let BonOprah inspire us to do some good, to make a difference. It doesn't have to change the world but....

it just might.

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makehope

thoughts from a passionate fundraiser

November 10, 2006

BonOprah: Philanthropy's Royalty

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