Part of today's Filanthropy Friday probably cannot be considered philanthropy, but I consider it to be charity.
I don't often get political on my blog, but I don't think I hide my political feelings (way, far out left).
My political persuasion aside, I do understand (part) of the other side - specifically those who are fiscally conservative. Most of these people are extremely intelligent, well-educated and not lacking in compassion (as my side might have you think).
In watching some of the Republican debates and primaries I have found one candidate who I find interesting - Jon Huntsman. He has no stinking chance in pail of poopy diapers to be the Republican nominee (which is why I consider my $10 donation to his campaign to be "charity"), but at least he believes in science. Whereas, three of the candidates still running for the Republican nomination, including the governor of the State where I live, do not believe in evolution.
I do not (and cannot) understand why some of these very intelligent, well-educated and compassionate fiscally conservative Republicans (some of them very good friends and family members) can align themselves with candidates who believe the Earth is less than ten thousand years old and than men walked around with dinosaurs (this is just one of the isssues that I find fascinatingly shocking).
I understand having faith, but I don't believe that faith and science are mutually exclusive. I think you can have both.
In my extensive (wikipedia) research of Jon Huntsman I found out that his father, Jon Huntsman Sr., was a business man and philanthropist (kind of like me - except he has business schools and hospitals named after him). Jon Huntsman, Sr. has given over 1.2 billion to the homeless, ill and underprivileged (so I'm guessing his son probably doesn't need my $10 for his campaign) and in 2008 he was awarded the Medal of Honor for Cancer Philanthropy by the American Cancer Society. One of Jon Huntsman, Sr.'s most notable accomplishments is the founding (and funding) of the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
The Huntsman Cancer Institute is dedicated to finding cures for cancer using genetics (there's science again) while also being a leading cancer specialty hospital. In addition to the $10 I donated to Jon Huntsman, Jr.'s campaign, I also donated $10 to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.
hahahaha! You are so awesome. I really do hope we get to meet one day.
ReplyDeleteI think it's probably hard to garner support from a significant segment of the party without claiming to believe XYZ, so I suspect it's mostly political. I didn't know that about Huntsman. Cool. He grabbed my attention though because of his work in China and more recently because of the distasteful Paul ad picturing Huntsman's adopted kids. Interesting post! I love filanthropy fridays!
ReplyDeleteNice work. You gave $10 to a billionaire. Money well spent. i am sure that will change his life. Good grief -- you really need to start calling me every morning to get instructions for your day because, clearly, being self-directed isn't working out for you. I could have told you that "donating money to billionaires" isn't really going to change the world.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Your fiscally wise friend, Liz
PS: I gave exactly $0 to billionaires today. I did, however, throw a rock at a homeless guy when I was driving past him in my new car.
PS: my grandfather hunted dinosaurs. Sadly he was really unsuccessful at it and became dinosaur dung in 1915.
ReplyDelete