Eight Bucks

Scott Hardie | September 25, 2006
Bill Cosby suggests that everyone in America give $8 towards building a national slavery museum. (link) It would require one in ten Americans to donate, but presumably it could work, and hey, they take Paypal. (link)

Would you give eight dollars for this cause? Would one in ten members of this community give eight dollars?

More to the point: Do you think it's a worthwhile cause? If you don't think slavery has an invisible influence on our culture, consider that it's one source of the word "buck" as used in the very title of this discussion.

John E Gunter | September 25, 2006
It would depend on whether they're building the museum as an academic record of the time or as a political statement of the time. Once again, I think it's important to remember what has happened in history, but I don't think we need to continue to push the hatred from either side while remembering it.

Sure you can be outraged by what happened during that time, but we need to use this kind of thing to heal old wounds, not re-open old ones or open new ones. So, if the museum will be a historical record, I'm all for it.

So now I gotta research what they plan on doing to see if I agree enough to donate.

Jackie Mason | September 26, 2006
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Kris Weberg | September 26, 2006
Uh, Scott....no it isn't,

Scott Hardie | September 26, 2006
Yeah, yeah. Wikipedia and Snopes say it isn't, but I've heard two dozen other sources say it is, which means it's treated that way in society even if it's not true. Everybody who knows of the word "niggardly" knows it has nothing to do with race, but you still don't hear them use it.

Kris Weberg | September 26, 2006
And most people, when polled, think creationism and not evolution is true, that Iraq was directly involved with 9/11, and that we only use 10% of our brains.

A faulty consensus isn't an excuse to give up on the facts, it's an impetus to do one's part in educating others about them.

Amy Austin | September 26, 2006
Yeah, yeah. Wikipedia and Snopes say it isn't, but I've heard two dozen other sources say it is, which means it's treated that way in society even if it's not true. Everybody who knows of the word "niggardly" knows it has nothing to do with race, but you still don't hear them use it.

Hmm... I'm afraid I don't see this as a parallel analogy, either.

Scott Hardie | September 26, 2006
Oy. I wrote the original comment knowing that "buck" doesn't actually derive from slavery but that many people think it does. As such, I tried to choose my words carefully to acknowledge that difference of belief, so that I wouldn't get pointed out on it and have the discussion turn semantic. :-) Apparently I should have chosen more carefully still, such as "connotation" instead of "source." I regret the confusion.

John E Gunter | September 26, 2006
I had forgotten about the deer skin link, but I agree with you Scott that I think people today relate it to racism, even if it's not really where it's from.

Amy Austin | September 26, 2006
Sorry, Scott -- I understand now. Personally, I never thought that about bucks (or niggardly, for that matter), so I didn't get that comparison. I understand now that you were being facetious... (like I said before, sometimes it's hard with you -- your sense of humor is far more understated than my own ;-p)

Jackie Mason | September 26, 2006
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Amy Austin | September 26, 2006
DITTO on that, Jackie, ditto on that -- good for you and Will! Whenever the CCF came around each year, I would pick a handful causes (with low overheads... it's nice that they give you the percentages spent by each charity on administrative costs, so you can see just how much of your dollars are going to the actual cause itself, and not just some mailers or other stuff)... and, of course (if you couldn't already guess it), the animal causes are always my top-pick favorites. :-)

Scott Hardie | September 27, 2006
Giving cash doesn't seem particularly helpful to me, despite my habit of occasionally linking to the Red Cross on this site after a disaster. It feels like a cop-out solution if you're too busy or too lazy to pitch in.

On the other hand, actual community service isn't easy. I spent a semester in college volunteering my Saturday mornings at a homeless kitchen. I was the black sheep among the staff because I wouldn't participate in the prayer circle before we opened the doors, but the real reason I gave up on it is because the doors opened at seven in the goddamn morning. I want to help the homeless in my community and all, but do I have to get up at 5am every Saturday to do it? Is there no middle ground between that sacrifice and merely sending a few bucks to Bill Cosby and calling it a day? I guess I should look harder.

You're totally right, Jackie, about the worthiness of organizations devoted to the present and future rather than the past. I had never thought about it like that before.

Jackie Mason | September 27, 2006
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