Musactivism

Well, I found out about the site just as everybody else did—by watching a man named Matt confess that he had killed a man by driving drunk, and he was going to plead guilty and pay the price. And so I went to the website and checked it out. And there was Matthew Cordle, 22, starting right out by saying, “I killed a man.”

Then, his pixilated face appears, and he tells the story—he struggles with depression every day, and sometimes he drinks just to get out of his head. So on 22 June of this year, he was out drinking with friends, go shitfaced-drunk, and was driving on the wrong side of the highway, causing a direct collision. Vincent Canzani, 61, the driver of the other car, lost his life.

Half way through the video, Cordle introduces himself and shows his face unpixilated. And he admits that he consulted attorneys, who told him that they could manipulate the system enough to get him either a reduced sentence or off the hook completely. But Cordle says no, and then writes his promise on the little promise cards that the website provides, “I will take full responsibility for what I’ve done.”

So why is he doing this? First, in order not to disgrace the memory of the man he killed. And second, so that he can beg everyone—don’t drink and drive.

Well, the video got over two and a half million hits on YouTube, one of which was I, and then the news came out.

Cordle pleaded not guilty.

Because of a technicality. It turns out that in order to get a random judge, Cordle needed to plead not guilty initially. Later, he could change his plea—and he promised he would.

And in fact he did, on September 18. And here’s what CNN reports:

Cordle will be sentenced October 10. Ron O'Brien, the attorney who is prosecuting the case, told CNN that Cordle faces a maximum sentence of 8½ years in prison for his charges.

All right—that’s Cordle. Now—what’s the deal with the website, becauseIsaidIwould.com?

It was set up by Alex Sheen, as a tribute to his father, who died of cancer, and who had a particular talent—he kept his word. And so Alex gave up his day job, and started doing various projects. He decided to send fifty kids with cancer to Disneyland—instead, he was able to send one hundred kids. Then there was the decision to walk across his home state of Ohio. Why? As a tribute to the three victims of Ariel Castro—who had been held in captivity and sexually abused for ten years. And then there were the two guys he ran into, who were actually walking across the United States, to raise awareness of human trafficking. According to their Facebook page, the two—Shannon Sprowal and Jay Atlas—are today in Colorado, but expect to get into New Mexico tomorrow. Here’s the link to their page.

Alex hit on the idea of promise cards—here are some samples:

So here’s the deal—you make a promise, you write it down, and you give it to someone who will care for it. Then, after you’ve fulfilled your promise, you ask for your card back, as a reminder that you are a person of your word.

Alex, by the way, will send you ten promise cards free; alternatively, you can print your own from the site.

Well, I made a promise, and I feel bad about not keeping it. I said that I would play an hour of Bach suites and ask for donations to four wonderful charities, which the philosopher Peter Singer has identified as the most efficient and effective. And best of all, by contributing to these charities, you can make a tremendous difference. Here’s what Singer has to say:

However, it is also possible to make extremely effective donations towards the world's poorest people. Because they have so little money, every dollar you give can make a tremendous difference — especially if spent on the world's most efficient aid programs. Read on to see just how much you could achieve and how little it would really cost you. 

And here are the charities:

Against Malaria Foundation. Why? More than a million people die each year of malaria, 70% of them are kids under 5. A 3$ net can prevent the disease—and 100% of your money goes to the nets. Best of all, you can see where your nets are distributed. Here’s the website: http://www.againstmalaria.com

Schistosomiasis Control Initiative. The initiative aims to control and then eliminate the parasitical disease schistosomiasis, which afflicts more than 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Untreated, schistosomiasis leads to kidney, liver, and spleen damage; 76 cents will provide a dose of the drug needed to treat and cure. Here’s the website: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto

Deworm The World. 600 million kids around the world need to be dewormed; less than fifty cents is all it takes to treat one kid. This organization has treated 40 million children in 27 countries. Best, treating kids leads to significantly improved school attendance—a nice added benefit. Here’s the website:   http://www.dewormtheworld.org

Project Healthy Children. The project aims to confront malnutrition by food fortification, essentially supplying the vitamins that you and I take for granted. But a child goes blind every minute—80% of them because of vitamin deficiency. Zinc deficiency kills 800,000 children a year; Vitamin A deficiency kills 2.5 million children under age 5 every year. Here’s the website:  http://projecthealthychildren.org  

And here’s the promise I made in that blog post of 30 June 2013.

I’ll play Bach suites once a week in the café where I am spending so profligately my money. I’ll put up a little sign announcing the charity of the week, and ask for donations.

Let’s call it musactivism….