Re: Kenny--still out of touch

[snoopy1@pig.net]

It reminds me of something that happened years ago between Kenny Rogers and 
Harry Chapin.  Harry--who by his own admission, was nicknamed "Gapin' 
Chapin"--was petitioning (some might more accurately call it "pestering") 
Kenny to help fight world hunger.  Kenny handed him a check for several 
million dollars "just to shut him up".  Harry accepted the check, and said 
thank you.

Then he said, "Now, what are you going to DO?"  He realized that the money 
was only a piece of what he wanted, he was really looking for a commitment, 
a day to day effort to make a real difference on a long term basis.

Harry disliked the "event mentality" believing firmly that real change came 
from day to day work, not through one spectacular event.

So while the public gesture is nice, and will certainly be helpful, I 
believe that people might be more effective by doing some of the things 
suggested, like volunteering at the Red Cross on an ongoing basis, adopting 
orphaned pets, helping support local rescue workers, (one child raised 
several thousand dollars to get bulletproof vests for the K-9 police dogs 
in one city after reading how many of them were wounded protecting their 
human masters),or--as requested by one of the NYC firemen--going to the 
services for some of the rescue workers killed in the attack, as their 
family and co-workers need to have tangible support at an extraordinarily 
difficult time.  Perhaps donating frequent flyer miles to families of the 
missing or dead so they can gather together, or any number of ways you can 
help right from home.

The ways are many, but the idea is simple--as Harry said, "When in doubt, 
do something."

Oh, by the way--Kenny Rogers became heavily involved in the World Hunger 
Year project, and remains committed to it today.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle

At 04:56 PM 10/2/01 -0400, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>Maybe I'm way off base here, but was anyone else less than moved by Kenny's
>gesture toward the Sept. 11 tragedy. In case you missed it, he donated
>$5,000 and is pledging $50 for every assist.
>
>Far be it from me to tell someone how to spend their money, but this guy
>makes $7 million a year. He joked about "selling one of his cars" during the
>lockout. Doesn't his gesture seem a little, I don't know... hollow? I mean,
>this is a guy who could really do something substantial, yet this comes
>across kind of cheap. Am I wrong?
>
>I watched staff where I work-people who make a tiny fraction of what Kenny
>makes-donate thousands of dollars. One man here gave a check for $1,000-a
>huge sum for him and his family. That's about 1/50th of his annual salary.
>Kenny's $5,000 donation is 1/1,400th of his. Even if Kenny dishes out 500
>assists (highly unlikely) we're still only talking about 1/233rd of his
>salary.
>
>The people here raised $12,000 in a week's time, and these are average,
>working people with families at home. Many baseball teams-entire
>organizations-donated a day's pay. That included the traveling secretary as
>well as the Ken Griffey Jr.'s of the world. Hundreds of thousands of
>dollars.
>
>I don't know, it just didn't sit well with me. Maybe it's my bias against
>Kenny showing through, but it seemed much more like a grandstand move than
>any kind of substantial show of support.
>
>Mark