Honoring Those Helping Others I just finished reading your July 10 “The Giving Back Awards” issue from cover to cover in one sitting, and all I can say is: Bravo ! Reading about all the “People Who Make America Great” made me once again feel hopeful and optimistic about our country. For so long all the news has been frightening, and I have totally given up reading newspapers. It is important for there to be investigative journalism, and I want to know that government abuses are being acknowledged in the press. At the same time, I want to hear about the positive things that people in our country are doing. Thank you for showing us that not everyone is concerned only with amassing as much money as possible with no compassion for the less fortunate.
Miriam Iverson Phoenix, Ariz.
While the mainstream media seem determined to focus on stories of the morally bankrupt, self-serving aspects of our culture, it is refreshing to see news-week devote a cover story to giving back to society. While the efforts of people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to give of their enormous fortunes to charitable organizations are to be lauded, the amounts of money involved are overwhelming and beyond the comprehension of most individuals. Your cover story exemplifies that it is truly up to the individual to implement change–no matter how small it may seem. Here’s hoping that this trend will create a movement that will lead historians to identify the 21st century as the era when fortunes both financial and emotional were given back to the world’s needy. Your coverage certainly inspired me. I would like to see this type of story appear as a regular installment in every issue.
Scott Lewis Bristow, Va.
Thank you for reminding us all of how many do so much for the rest of us. We were especially pleased with your recognition of Dr. Frederick Kaplan, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Our daughter, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva in 1985 at the age of 6, and we first met Dr. Kaplan a few years after that. Since then, he has seen Elizabeth in Philadelphia, in Portland and here in our home; has provided telephone and online guidance to us and to local doctors, and has sent handwritten notes to Elizabeth every year at Christmas. He is that rare combination of dedicated research scientist and caring personal physician who enters into the daily-living issues of his patients with compassion, understanding and practical advice. His patients consist, almost literally, of every single person who has been identified with FOP on five continents. He has taken the battle with this terrible, rare disease on behalf of all his patients as his lifework, with unbelievable progress. You couldn’t have chosen a more worthy recipient of this award.
Paul and Joan Bay Redmond, Wash.
Your “Giving Back” issue proves that positive news is not only not boring, but heartwarming and inspirational. The people honored represent a wide range of Americans, and their efforts to help others from many nations just might modify the negative perceptions of our country and its values. Please don’t wait a full year to do it again.
James V. O’Connor Lake Forest, Ill.
I absolutely loved the articles in your July 10 cover story. My mama and I read these stories together, and they really touched me. They taught me that what is really important is that your heart wants to help–whether it is one person or a whole country, whether it is in your hometown or far away from home. I am 10 years old and I am helping, too. I make cards and sell them to family and friends to help children in a small village in India get schooling and health care. So far I have raised almost $1,500 for my organization. I am helping eight children go to school. My goal is to help and support them each year all the way through college.
Saanya Hasan Ali Potomac, Md.
Thanks for a great issue: wonderful concept, terrific selections, excellent variety in the choices. We especially appreciate the New Orleans flavor in the choices, including nurse Ruby Jones (who stayed with her patients at a New Orleans hospital), anchor Soledad O’Brien (who came to New Orleans when everyone else was headed out) and preacher Rick Warren (who replaced the libraries of hundreds of our pastors who lost theirs). The simple fact is, I could give you a hundred other New Orleans heroes in a half hour, people who are champions in every sense of the word. Even as you left Southern Baptists out of the list of “Big Names in Katrina Relief” (mainly because the Southern Baptist Convention’s gifts came from so many scattered sources and not through one umbrella agency), it doesn’t really matter; we just rejoice that so much good is being done by so many.
Joe McKeever, Director of MissionsBaptist Association of Greater New Orleans New Orleans, La.
It is commendable that Brad Pitt has recently used some of his celebrity power to give back to those in need, but I cannot fathom not acknowledging a certain influential force in his altruism–his partner, Angelina Jolie. “The Celebrity” marginalizes Jolie and gives the impression that she has merely been along for the ride in Pitt’s solitary “strategies.” For several years Jolie has been giving an immense amount of time and energy to calling attention to the needs of people all around the world; not to mention her broad-ranging service as the UNHCR’s Goodwill ambassador. Why overlook Jolie’s ongoing efforts and the influence her passions surely have on him?
Kathryn Winters San Marcos, Calif.
Coming on the heels of the announcement that two of the richest men in the world are redirecting their wealth back to the society that gave rise to it, your “Giving Back Awards” are more than inspiring. They help us wake up to a quiet revolution going on right under our noses. Those from all walks of life who embrace this new impulse declare through their choices and their actions that what we do for others has greater value than what we do for ourselves. Could it be that the creative energies released through the surge in volunteerism, service learning and private disaster relief, for example, hold the promise for a transformed world?
Christopher Nye Sheffield, Mass.
Jonathan Alter’s Column on Karl Rove’s strategy on Iraq is right on the mark (“How to Beat ‘Cut and Run’,” July 10). The problem is that the Democrats keep falling into Rove’s web by trying to offer solutions to a problem they never created. The Republicans have repeated “cut and run” like a voodoo mantra. The Democrats need their own mantra. How about “You got us in; how are you going to get us out?”
Jere Donegan Bellingham, Wash.
While I appreciate that Karl Rove does in fact utilize the “slime machine” campaign approach Jonathan Alter discussed, it seems disingenuous to suggest this is a Republican-only strategy. Has Alter listened to Howard Dean lately or the Democratic congressional leaders? Come on, be fair–they all do it. Perhaps Alter’s disdain is based on the fact that Rove is much more successful at it.
Craig Chapman North Brunswick, N.J.
It is amazing that Karl Rove, like almost every other member of the Bush administration, has never served his country in uniform or been to war, yet criticizes those who have served with honor in battle and have become decorated war heroes. The true “cut and run” cowards are those in the Republican Party who “cut” out of service and “ran” with fear of serving. They believe in sending others to be wounded or killed, while they languish in safety behind the White House fences.
Sam Schoolsky Lake Charles, La.
Jonathan Alter misses the Republicans’ main political strength throughout the past six years. They simply script better sound bites than the Democrats. It requires no brain cells to understand “cut and run,” “flip-flop,” “You are either with us or against us,” etc. To understand the “Levin-Reed amendment” the Democrats are touting, or any number of other issues they support, one actually has to read and think. The Democrats don’t need a well-run campaign to win congressional seats this fall or to win the presidency in 2008. They need better slogans. And that’s a sad commentary on all of us.
Anne Krick Wheaton, Ill.
Jonathan Alter makes the point for the Republican Party when he writes, “Unless things improve dramatically on the ground in Iraq, Democrats have a powerful argument.” Since all reasonable Americans should want a successful conclusion for a safe and democratic Iraq, Alter’s admission to the possibility of improvement will have me voting for the Republican Party that is still working toward success, supports our military and sees a hopeful future for Iraq. The Demo-cratic Party sees only political benefits from our possible failure.
Lynden J. Wenger Alpharetta, Ga. A Political Feud
In “McCain’s Right Flank” (May 22), NEWSWEEK suggests that in order to win over conservatives John McCain needs to deal with “what looks like a personal feud” with me. This is not personal, this is political. McCain’s challenge is that he was elected senator promising to be a Reagan Republican, but since George W. Bush has been president, McCain has swerved left on a host of issues. He voted against every one of Bush’s major tax cuts (he did vote for the first one, before he voted against it); promised Arizonans he would respect the Second Amendment, then became a loud advocate of gun control; stopped the Republicans from protecting Bush’s conservative judges from abusive filibusters; changed his position on the economically damaging Kyoto treaty, and now supports campaign-finance reform, which he eloquently opposed before he became the poster child of the Keating Five scandal. In the party of Ronald Reagan, politics is about policy and principle, not personalities. It appears that from McCain’s side, however, this “feud” may be personal. In 2001, McCain unsuccessfully tried to have the Republican Party of Arizona cancel my keynote speech to their state party fund-raiser. NEWSWEEK’s article also errs in claiming that Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff helped build the K Street Project. They did not. The K Street Project was created in 1989 by Americans for Tax Reform to oppose congressional pressure on businesses and trade associations to make political contributions and hire congressional staff in return for access to congressional offices. We argue that business should support and hire those who share their principles, not try to buy access.
Grover Glenn Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform Washington, D.C.
In our profile of Brad Pitt (“15 People Who Make America Great”) we stated that Global Green USA has received more than 3,000 submissions for its sustainable-architecture competition. In fact, some 3,000 people pre-registered for the competition, but 126 design submissions were submitted. In our story about Pierre Omidyar, in the same article, we should have said that Omidyar donated millions of dollars to Grameen Foundation USA, not Grameen Bank. NEWSWEEK regrets the errors.
