Posted on 01/24/2010 9:47:19 PM PST by traumer
It all began with a stop at a red light.
Kevin Salwen, a writer and entrepreneur in Atlanta, was driving his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, back from a sleepover in 2006. While waiting at a traffic light, they saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other.
“Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal,” Hannah protested. The light changed and they drove on, but Hannah was too young to be reasonable. She pestered her parents about inequity, insisting that she wanted to do something.
“What do you want to do?” her mom responded. “Sell our house?”
Warning! Never suggest a grand gesture to an idealistic teenager. Hannah seized upon the idea of selling the luxurious family home and donating half the proceeds to charity, while using the other half to buy a more modest replacement home.
Eventually, that’s what the family did. The project — crazy, impetuous and utterly inspiring — is chronicled in a book by father and daughter scheduled to be published next month: “The Power of Half.” It’s a book that, frankly, I’d be nervous about leaving around where my own teenage kids might find it. An impressionable child reads this, and the next thing you know your whole family is out on the street.
At a time of enormous needs in Haiti and elsewhere, when so many Americans are trying to help Haitians by sending everything from text messages to shoes, the Salwens offer an example of a family that came together to make a difference — for themselves as much as the people they were trying to help
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As long as kids want to support liberal causes, then the N.Y. Times and liberals are all in favor of this.
If this girl had thought that the family should downsize and give money to Christian charities, or to pro-life causes, for example, would we see such a nice puff piece in the N.Y. Times????????
And the children shall lead. The smartest people in the world are teenage girls. We would do well to emulate them in all ways. (sarcasm)
WINNER WINNER WINNER
Sounds like Hannah may have a future as 0bama’s Housing Czar.
Too bad her parents didn’t teach her better.
Taking someone else's wealth??? Where did you see anything about taking someone else's wealth??? This girl had the idea, but her family agreed with her and voluntarily decided to sell their house and give half the proceeds to charity. How does one family's voluntary decision to downsize their lifestyle & donate the 'excess' to charity have ANYTHING to do with Lenin or Obama?
Aren't we supposed to be encouraging private charity???
She’s going to be such a good little socialist.
If you took ALL of the money away from the wealthy and gave it to the poor, ten years later the ex-wealthy would be wealthy again and the recipients would be broke.
Everyone has an FN book.
I don’t have a book.
I need to write a book about how there are way to many morons writing books.
Liberals, jihadists, their useful infidels, “activists”, “grief counselors”. food fascists, et al ad nauseum..
While our kids are Grown and Gone; what we did [to pan-handlers]should still be valid.
Upon seeing a “will work for food” sign-totter [near a Truck Stop} I’d roll down the car window and offer to buy him a Shave, Shower and Haircut at that Truck-Stop, I’d offer to fund his use of their laundromat. THEN I’d offer to by him a meal AFTER his “clean-up”... the caveat was WE’D stay at the Truck Stop WITH HIM for the duration. I offered to pay for the Services Needed ONLY AFTER I saw them preformed.
NONE took me up on the offer!
I learned this trick from my childhood Barber. He would offer a free cut, shave and shower {to panhandlers}. He did it for his entire career, and had less than 2 takers per decade.
While our kids are Grown and Gone; what we did [to pan-handlers]should still be valid.
Upon seeing a “will work for food” sign-totter [near a Truck Stop} I’d roll down the car window and offer to buy him a Shave, Shower and Haircut at that Truck-Stop, I’d offer to fund his use of their laundromat. THEN I’d offer to by him a meal AFTER his “clean-up”... the caveat was WE’D stay at the Truck Stop WITH HIM for the duration. I offered to pay for the Services Needed ONLY AFTER I saw them preformed.
NONE took me up on the offer!
I learned this trick from my childhood Barber. He would offer a free cut, shave and shower {to panhandlers}. He did it for his entire career, and had less than 2 takers per decade.
“If that man had a less nice car, that man could have a meal.”
“Well, sweetie, if THAT man hadn’t pissed away every opportunity in his life, including the free education he was given, and crapped on everyone who ever tried to help him, including his family, he MIGHT have an even nicer car than THAT man! THEN which one would you want to help?”
One wonders what would have happened if the daughter had had to give up her cell phone, texting, computers, car, new clothes, jewelry. . .or half of it. . .to feed folks who by and large are mentally ill or addicts.
I don’t know, maybe the book addresses that.
I don’t want the mentally ill hungry. I just don’t see handouts as a permanent solution. There needs to be some sort of benevolent detainment, not a snake pit, to keep them in an environment where perhaps some can heal.
A Parable:
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.
Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a
boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, ‘How is your friend Audrey doing?’
She replied, ‘Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.’
Her wise father asked his daughter, ‘Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.’
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, ‘That’s a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!’
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party.’
He wanted money.
Said, "No."
"Well, that's cold!"
"I donate a considerable sum every year to the Salvation Army. You know where they are." All true. SA is my favorite charity. I donated to the Haitian tragedy through SA.
I could live without articles that ask what I could live without.
I agree with you. This isn’t socialism, this is charity. Making a charitable donation generally involves giving up something of your own, even if it just reduces your savings. This family decided that doing good was of more value to them than owning a bigger home. A personal choice, not theft by taxation. More power to them.
Sure, as long as you give away fruits of your own labor.
Where did you see anything about taking someone else's wealth??? This girl had the idea, but her family agreed with her and voluntarily decided to sell their house and give half the proceeds to charity.
The girl had the idea to take the wealth that her parents (and hot she) earned, and spend it. The fact that her parents went along doesn't change the daughter's original intent to take the house and sell it. The daughter should be welcome to share only her own labor's gains, not what her parents saved up for their retirement or for her education.
How does one family's voluntary decision to downsize their lifestyle & donate the 'excess' to charity have ANYTHING to do with Lenin [...]
The word "voluntary" does not always mean what it is supposed to mean. It all depends on what the alternatives are. And the word "excess" is indeed right out of vocabulary of great revolutionaries of 20th century; they loved to define "excess" for others.
you just described liberalism.
I recently asked my friend’s little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be president some day.
Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, “If you were president what would be the first thing you would do?”
She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.”
Her parents beamed.
“Wow... what a worthy goal.” I told her, “But you don’t have to wait until you’re president to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where homeless guys hang out, and you can give them the $50, you earned, to use toward food and a new house.”
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”
I said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”
Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.
Don’t give to panhandlers. They learn to associate people with food. A fed bear is a dead bear!
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