Warren Buffet has now joined my A-List of Modern Day Heroes. He has announced he will be donating 85% of his $44 billion to charity, mostly by way of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates, by the way, are the founding members of my list. This list of heroes I have is something new - for me anyway - and Cher just joined, too, for her donations to give our soldiers decent head gear to wear in combat. And a few weeks ago I wrote about Angelina Jolie's commitment to giving, which I admire. Oprah goes off and on my list. Yes, she does some incredible things with her wealth and power. But sometimes it seems a little too self-serving for my liking. I don't know - I like what she does but I don't like her.
I have some local heroes, too, and non-celebrity ones. My friends Carla & Mark are heroes to me, for leaving the known and moving to a poverty-stricken country with plans to help the children there.
People who go out of their way to notice a need in the world, and then do something to mend the situation - these are the true heroes in our world.
I'll add more heroes as I come across them. In the meantime I get dizzy thinking about all the good that can be done now that two of the richest people in the entire history of the world are going to be working together to do good.
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2 comments:
Rats, you stole my next blog post! What I loved about the article I read was that Buffet stated that "he wasn't cut out to be a philanthropist like the Gates." He said he loved doing what he did and just wouldn't have the patience for the work and learning that would be involved in doing what the Gates were already doing so well. So rather than hang on to the $$$$ he hands it off to someone who definitely knows what to do with it!
Right now the Gates are getting tons of international press, but he's also a huge advocate for reforming American education. One of my big peeves is overly large schools, something he is also convinced does very little to further the education of most of the students in America. Hooray!
And you bring up a point about heroes...what is a hero? I admire Jolie's stance on many areas, but I don't necessarily admire her. Her past antics, not to mention her relationship with Brad Pitt, are pretty offensive to me.
So I personally have a hard time saying anyone is my hero, because they inevitably do something that appalls me. I'm much more inclined to admire an aspect of a person or their actions, rather than the person themselves.
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