Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates Time Magazine People of the Year...

Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates Time Magazine's People of the Year...

Mixed feelings for me on these very dedicated folks being named...

Initially...Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono have been working for a very long time on the very important efforts to reduce and alleviate global poverty...it's effort worthy of recognition...
I think each of them recognizes that they will be remembered far more and better for their efforts to alleviate poverty than each of their efforts to accumulate their wealth...though U2's music efforts and Bill Gates' efforts to mass market the personal computer are very important efforts in and of themselves...and it's nice to see authentic leaders -- not propagandists and fear-mongers like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Kruschev, and Ayatullah Kohmein -- be named Persons of the Year...

But some disappointing praise for less worthy aspects of these folks' efforts...

As Nancy Gibbs writes in her cover article...

"2005 is the year they turned the corner, when Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest; now those countries can spend the money on health and schools rather than interest payments—and have no more excuses for not doing so."

I'm reading that line -- Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest -- and thinking...

You mean bully like all the bullying everyone is -- rightly -- trying to end in schools, right?...

You mean bully like liberal leaders like Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates and others are -- rightly -- critical of President Bush for being in his international policy?...

You mean bully like what all of us -- presumably -- tell our children that we don't want them to be towards their brothers and sisters and friends and other kids and students?...

Nancy saves herself and Bono with a later description of his work...

"Bono grasps that politicians don't much like being yelled at by activists who tell them no matter what they do, it's not enough. Bono knows it's never enough, but he also knows how to say so in a way that doesn't leave his audience feeling helpless. He invites everyone into the game, in a way that makes them think they are missing something if they hold back. 'After so many years in Washington,' says retired Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, whom Bono recruited to his cause, 'I had met enough well-known people to quickly figure out who was genuine and who was there for show. I knew as soon as I met Bono that he was genuine. He has absolutely nothing to gain personally as a result of his work. In fact, he has opened himself to criticism because he has been willing to work with anyone to find help for these children who have taken his heart.'"

Liberals, like conservatives, hate to be bullied...

And most people, really, hate being bullied, themselves...but don't have a problem with bullying others to get their way...

In kid-parents language it's called, "Do as I say, not as I do"...

And in simpler language its called hypocrisy...or a rationalization...

And, specifically...it means rationalizing all the bullying that rich liberals, conservatives, independents and others engage in as a part of amassing all that wealth in the first place...

Bono's not a bad guy, at all...he's actually a really great guy, actually...

But bullying and morally blackmailing politicians is one of the less graceful/more shameful parts of his legacy...not ones to be given higher praise...liberals just forget this, I'm learning, when their causes are at stake...and fight it, when the causes of others are at stake...

And that's why I love them...and conservatives, too...because when one threatens to bully on any particular issue...the other group will often step up to defend...though there are some issues where everyone wants to bully to get their way...and everyone loses as a consequence...

Poverty and international equity issues should be resolved as a matter of genuine, freely adopted conviction...I don't care, personally, how much guilt Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates have to wipe from their consciences...I don't want conservatives or independents or apolitical folks to be bullied into to working on poverty issues...because it doesn't build a sustainable future for poverty efforts...you can't bully forever...eventually people get wise to what an asshole you're being...and eventually, you lose track of the very relationship that was necessary to deal constructively with the issue that you said, at least, that you cared about...

And most importantly...because when you start bullying...you forget and start to take for granted the generosity that was the basis for folks' commitment to such issues...and once you do that enough...they'll start blowing you off...and you'll deserve it...

Self-governing people need to be able to make their own decisions...to come to their own conclusions...to make independent judgments...and that, more than anything else, is what we need more of, here and abroad...and what will build more and more equitably distributed wealth, here and abroad...

But Bono's ability to reach beyond conventional political lines is what distinguishes his work, in particular...and why I admire his work in ways that are different from how I admire the very important work of his colleagues on poverty alleviation, Bill and Melinda Gates...

Bill and Melinda do a terrific job of both giving and maintaining accountability for money spent on equity efforts...and Bill, in pariticular, has a reputation for mastering the more minute details of, say, malaria, which, along with AIDS and tuberculosis, is one of the more serious killers of people, internationally...

But Bono's strength, in particular, is his ability to bring folks like Jesse Helms and Pat Robertson into the fold...something that I admire very much, actually...and is much more supportive of a more genuinely liberal idea of broad-mindedness, independent thinking, and inclusion...an idea that is compromised -- unnecessarily, unfairly, and with a wrong-headed sense of priorities -- when folks like Bono bully and morally blackmail those who disagree with him...or are often just unaware of the issue, in all its depth and complexity, as well as advocates for a cause...

But it is nice to see people who care about a cause...and have put their money and their efforts where their mouth is...and have avoided more simplistic answers to complex problems...get recognition for their work...

Congrats to Bono and Bill and Melinda...and good luck with the work...

Love,
Ben