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….

A Little, and a Long Way

OK—this is profoundly embarrassing. I am sitting in a café, which is where I spend a lot of my time. There are two reasons for the hours I spend here: the first is a need for people, since writing can be a solitary profession; the second is that I’m too lazy to make my own food.

I am therefore wasting huge sums of money, something that nobody but the shop owner could condone. And the worst thing? Though I am barely making enough money to keep afloat—as is Mr. Fernández—we are in the richest 4.0% of the world.

I know this because I went to a site called givingwhatwecan.org and entered a (probably too high) estimate of our combined incomes after taxes. And there, right on the page, was the button for “how rich am I?”

The sum I entered was 50,000 USD. OK, what happens when I put in 100,000 USD? “You are in the richest 0.15% of the world’s population,” was the answer. And 1,000,000 USD? Less that 0.1%.

The site is absolutely fascinating, as was the talk by the philosopher Peter Singer, which you can see below. I live perfectly well on $30,000 a year; I am 56; I am willing to donate 10% of my income; I will “retire” at age 65. OK, so I went to another page to see what effect I could have. And guess what? In the 9 years of giving, I would have saved 11 lives, I would have saved 491 years of healthy life, and I would have produced 9,000 years of school attendance.

But wait—suppose I retired at age 85? How would the world fare?

Total you would earn: 870,000 

Total you would donate: 87,000

Lives you could save: 35

Years of healthy life you could save: 1,582

Years of school attendance you'd produce: 29,000

That’s the graphic that popped up at me.

How is it possible? Singer has the explanation:

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. 

 OK—so now you know what you’re worth, relative to the world population; as well, you know the effect of contributing whatever percent of your income you’ve chosen; now, where should your money go?

And it’s an important question, because the right charity can be a hundred times more effective than another, less effective one. So which charity gives you the biggest bang for the buck?

Here again, Singer sails through with the answer. He recommends four charities that are the most effective. Here are the four.

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  

Singer came up with the idea of asking people to pledge 10% of their income until the day they retire. Here’s the pledge:

The Pledge to Give

I recognize that I can use part of my income to do a significant amount of good in the developing world. Since I can live well enough on a smaller income, I pledge that from today until the day I retire, I shall give at least ten percent of what I earn to whichever organizations can most effectively use it to help people in developing countries. I make this pledge freely, openly, and without regret.

As well, he came up with the idea of forming chapters of people who are working together to practice effective charity. So far, there are 10 chapters, 317 members, and $126,300,000 pledged.

OK—this is what I’m gonna do. Every day, I’m going to put my change into a piggy bank, which I will empty when full. I’ll take it to the bank, and get it changed; then, I’ll send a quarter of that amount to each one of the four charities.

Second strategy, 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.

Singer makes two further points—the materialist rat race of working to make money to spend money on stuff that doesn’t make us feel better but does mean we have to go back to work the next day is ridiculous. But oddly, giving money to a worthy cause does make us feel better. So shouldn’t we change trains?

Second, in terms of human impact, the money you donate may be the most important thing—by far—you’ll ever do in your life.