Give Til it Hurts?

othing
brings peo-
ple together
more than tragedy.
And in America,
nothing opens up a
wallet quicker,
either.
While the U.S.
HARRY
government has
KIRSBAUM pledged $350 mil-
lion to tsunami
Columnist
relief efforts, the
amount could be overshadowed by
private contributions among regular
and not-so-regular citizens.
More than $600,000 was raised dur-
ing a half-day local telethon in Detroit
on Jan. 7. Another local station is rais-
ing money for the Sri Lankan town of
Galle, where about 30,000 of its resi-
dents are homeless.
NBC and its sister cable networks
will air a benefit television special on
Saturday, Jan. 15, featuring celebrities
and musical performances, but some
stars have been donating more than
their time.
Hollywood star Sandra Bullock
donated $1 million for tsunami relief
to the American Red Cross last week,
matching her donation to the organi-
zation more than three years ago after
the Sept. 11 attack. Leonardo
DiCaprio made a large contribution to
UNICEF.
The NBA ,is pitching in, too.
While most teams sold wristbands or
shared proceeds from the sale of
programs or concessions, some players
reached out, too.
Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and
five other NBA stars donated $1,000 a
point in a game last week to UNICEF.
The idea was the brainchild of Am
Tellem, an agent who represents the
seven players. Tellem said he would
match the highest score and hoped to
raise $250,000.
They raised $194,000.
While the intention was there,
I couldn't help but do some number
crunching.
Bryant, who my mother called-a
weasel, donated $27,000 or $1,000
per point in Friday's game against
Houston. He's making $26.1 million
in salary and endorsements, and

Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is

hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com

scored just under 2,100 points in 87
games during last years NBA season.
That comes to $12,428.57 a point,
which means he's giving up about 8
percent of his salary for one game.
To put that figure into perspective,
your waitress will give a bus boy 10
percent of her tips after her shift is
done. But she gets to keep her $2.10-
an-hour salary.
D
_ uring his "Talking Points Memo"
on The O'Reilly Factor last week, Bill
O'Reilly spoke of the money raised
during a national telethon for the vic-
tims of 9-11. He spoke of how the
American Red Cross had misappropri- ,
ated those funds, and how he would
be watching with similar interest as
Americans donated for tsunami relief.
"A national TV telethon will raise
millions and The Factor will be watch-
ing to see if the money gets to the
tsunami victims.
"If it does not, there will be trouble,"
he said. "If former presidents George
Bush and Bill Clinton go on TV and
ask you to give, then they had better
be involved all the way down the line.
"Now I don't expect them to audit
the books,. but if problems are brought
to their attention, they must help solve
those problems," he said. "We want
the telethon to be a big success and we
applaud the time and generosity of
George Bush and Bill Clinton. But
with power comes responsibility. And
we expect all the telethon people to
understand that."
All right, I admit that the quote has
been doctored. I replaced "George
Clooney and the other stars" with
"George Bush and Bill Clinton."
O'Reilly had a problem with Clooney
because he didn't appear on The Factor
to defend himself in 2001. If O'Reilly
is as fair and balanced as he claims,
then why shouldn't the former presi-
dents be held to the same standard?
After all, they are asking for
donations on behalf of
usafreedomcorps.gov. The former pres-
idents want you to give money to any
of the 80 charitable organizations listed
on the Web site — organizations like
the American Leprosy Missions, Helen
Keller International and the Vietnam
Veterans of America Foundation.
Expecting the former presidents to
watch over those 80 organizations —
wouldn't that be ridiculous? After all,
they're retired. Clooney is still a very
rich working stiff.

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