Friday, June 15, 2007

Charity

A lot's being made of Michael Moore's supposed anonymous donation of $12,000 to the guy who runs Moorewatch.com (a very anti-Moore website), Jim Kenefick to aid in his wife's medical bills. Of course, the anti-Moore crowd are taking him to task, calling it nothing more than a publicity move coinciding with the release of his latest film, Sicko. And that's exactly what it was. You can read the story directly from Kenefick here.

Whether Moore got publicity from it or not, my question is, who cares? Is a good deed only worthy if it's done with complete anonymity? Was Warren Buffet's massive donation to the Gates Foundation a big crock of shit because he held a press conference to announce the move? Of course not. Even Kenefick admits that at the end of the post I linked to above. Moore helped the guy. I'm sure Moore, who'd been working on Sicko for quite some time, saw Kenefick's predicament and though, wow, the guy who hates me is in a situation that completely illustrates the point of my movie. That's ironic.

Then Moore cut the guy a check for $12,000.

That's pretty damn generous. Publicity or not. If you found out someone who was constantly badmouthing you on the Internet was in financial need, would you send him/her a check?

I seriously doubt it. I'm not sure I would.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can question Moore's motivation for why he sent the money but in the end, you're absolutely right, he did give Kenefick the cash he needed for his wife's care. And Kenefick did accept the money -- when he found out the identity of his benefactor he could have taken a stand and refused it, or paid it back or some other gesture. But the simple fact is regardless of motivation or agenda, one man helped another and the other graciously accepted.

If everyone who had disagreements could act so agreeable when it came to our basic humanity, we'd all be better off.

Granny Snark said...

Would I do it? Yep, if I had the money and if the person was truly in need, as the case was here. It's called treating people like you want to be treated, instead of treating them like they treat you. Lotta people don't believe that way, I realize, and I've been told more than once that my philosophy is whacked. But that's okay, I'm the only one who has to live with myself.

And on that subject, I'm finding that I'm an ornery pain-in-the-ass roommate. But that's another story.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't feed the problem and I wouldn't spread the dysfunction, you know, but I wouldn't send any money. I'd let karma do its work.

Anonymous said...

PJ! Where's your blog? Why do I get a "not found" message? What did I miss?!?

Falling on a bruise said...

He didn't have to do it and nobody would of expected him to, but he did and possibly saved her life.
Apart from a bit of hurt pride for Mr Kenefick, everyone wins.

fringes said...

If I had the money and the jerk's family was in real need, I would.

Natsthename said...

Would I do it? Probably not, but I'd feel guilty. I'm Catholic like that.

ANd I agree with your point. And, wow, you didn't even call Moore, "fat." (and none of the commentors did, either. Amazing!)

Deadman said...

If my bank account was as fat as Michael Moore's ass (Hi, Nat! ;o)>) I probably would only because it was for his wife and they would be in my sights given the circumstances. If it was for him, probably not.

Granny Snark said...

Danger Doll, I deleted it because I got burned out on blogging. Someone swooped in and snagged my blog name, and then for some reason, gave it up so I snagged it back. But go ahead and de-link me for now because I doubt I'll go back to posting again.

Sour Grapes said...

Jeff, The case would have illustrated Moore's point regardless of his gift. It didn't need to cost him 12 grand just to make a point.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't give money to someone I hated, but I don't feel that strongly about anyone.

@PJ: how are we supposed to talk to you now, leave messages with your boy? You better not fall completely out of touch. In the meantime, there's Twitter, and you might want to think about a tumblelog with Tumblr, for all those interesting discoveries you'd like to blog about but somehow can't be arsed.

Anonymous said...

My mom lives in northern Michigan and knows Michael Moore, he has visited their Rotary club and donated money to them..it is a small town, and he is from all accounts that I hear..a genuine nice guy.

He even showed the film today in Bellaire - a real teeny town - to benefit the Antrim County Democrats. I think it is cool that he does give back to his community and doesn't appear to be too big for his britches.

gekko said...

Is a good deed only worthy if it's done with complete anonymity?

Entire religious philosophies are built around that notion, so I can see people arguing that the only good deed is an anonymous one. It feeds the idea that one does not do good for the good of it, but for the notoriety of it when one publicizes it. Which somehow tarnishes the goodness of the deed. Soils it.

Wotever. I'm more inclined to think good is as good does, and if one hand ends up washing the other in the process, who the fuck cares? So long as good comes of it.

Granny Snark said...

Hey Krissy, my dad lives in Traverse City and my sister and niece live in Bellaire! We're practically related!

Granny Snark said...

Grapey asked, "how are we supposed to talk to you now, leave messages with your boy? You better not fall completely out of touch. In the meantime, there's Twitter, and you might want to think about a tumblelog with Tumblr, for all those interesting discoveries you'd like to blog about but somehow can't be arsed."

Goodness no, I won't fall out of touch and you're already twittered with me on Twitter multiple times.

Wait, that sounded dirty.

I don't really have an interest in tumblelogging or whatever else you call it. See the thing is, I'm thoroughly enjoying not having a blog. Getting the most out of summer, hanging out at the pool, fiddling with my flowers, riding my bike. Blogging interfered with my RL too much and it just sort of got on my nerves. But I'm still around so you needn't pine away over my memory. :-D

Anonymous said...

Hey PJ, Mom works in Bellaire, wouldn't it be a small world if she knew your niece....

Anonymous said...

PJ:

(Oh, wait. Um...HIYA, JEFF! Didn't mean to be rude there, buddy...)

So, PJ: I felt exactly the same and so I stopped for a bit, also. I thought it would be permanent, especially after the withdrawals of the first week A.B. (After Blog) subsided. That was when I deleted everything and smiled while I did it. Reviewed the experience, got some perspective, enjoyed some sunshine, and then worked the blog back into my RL, in contrast to what I had been doing, which was working my RL into my blogging. So...I really do know what you mean. Not that it matters or anything, really...well, you know...

Ooooh, lookit! Something shiny!

Granny Snark said...

Thanks for your thoughts, DD. I enjoyed a lot of things about blogging but at the end, it just became tedious. And as my blog pals all know, this is the third or fourth time I've said "No blogging! No more!" and then deleted my blog, only to come back. Not sayin' that'll happen this time because as I mentioned, I don't miss it. But never say never, right?

Now, back to Jeff's regularly scheduled programming ...

Deadman said...

Only thing you might want to say never to is that smoking thing.

Hope that's going well for you, PJ.

Kos said...

PJ, Krissy is actually an old friend from way back in my Mystic Lake days!

Anonymous said...

And getting older by the day!! Scary thought that now our kids are old enough to go to good ole MLC...miss that place...

I saw Meatballs is out on DVD now...tempting to get, and not show to Travis.