April 4, 2019
I wrote the following quite some time ago, in response to my many friends who consider the Clintons as crooks and liars, and are either great fans of our current president or are willing to let slide the facts of his many lies, probable criminality, and openly lecherous behavior. I happen to think that comparisons to the Clinton are off base. If you don't, you are welcome to your opinion. But a close examination of the facts of the last two decades would help. You might find it interesting if you haven't done it.
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
#### _”. . . But does it have to be a Clinton?”_
Full disclosure: I have written this as if I were in Bill Clinton’s shoes. I am not, and will never be big enough to fill them. I have great respect for what he has done, even though he has, like all of us, shown his clay feet more often than I would like. He has also shown great efficacy, compassion and ability in all of the public work he has undertaken.
He and his wife, our current Democrat candidate for President Hillary Clinton, have served this country well for 3 to 4 decades. That they have become wealthy while doing it seems to bother many people greatly, whereas it seems to bother them hardly at all that Donald Trump became wealthy by spending other peoples’ money and causing a great deal of pain on his way up the ladder of success. I read the following article in the New Yorker, and took the last sentence to heart. Why ask that question, “But does it have to be a Clinton?”
People of a journalistic bent can not seem to stop asking that kind of question. It’s as if the Clintons, in their headlong rush over the years to do public service, somehow are unqualified to reap any reward. They should be more humble somehow, and self exile to the shadows, divesting themselves of friends and connections made over those 40 years and giving away all but the amount of money needed to provide a modest roof and 3 meals a day.
We lavish admiration on billionaire entrepreneurs and scathingly chastise the Clintons for being moderately well off, and showy.There must be something wrong with their business and political dealings. Where there’s smoke there’s fire! Who else has their own personal email server! And why is she so aloof all the time, never revealing how she feels?
So, here it is. My poor attempt to put a human face on the Clinton family, even though I know none of them personally. Read it or not. I had fun imagining it. And who knows, maybe you might see things through a clearer filter.
Joel Charles
--------- An imagined personal comment from Bill Clinton: Totally made up (my apologies to the Clinton family) ————
I wanted to contribute to world peace, understanding and the health and welfare of our world’s citizens. I am not extraordinarily wealthy, but I have held a very high public office and am very well respected in international circles. I have a large number of wealthy and influential friends.
I decided, after leaving the public office I held for eight years, that the goals mentioned above could be accomplished by connecting people who could connect the dots to achieve that end. I did not have any personal ambition directed toward world dominance or great wealth, I just wanted to do what I knew I could do with what I had.
I established a Global Initiative, thinking to keep myself busy doing as many and as large projects as I could manage, and to help as many people out of suffering as I could. I explained in detail to my friends and old colleagues what I intend to do, and they were eager to help. I realized that some might be eager because they expected something in the way of influence for their goals as well as mine, but I explained to them that those goals might not be my goals, and I could decide not to help them if it conflicted with my goals or those of my native country.
In sixteen years the Initiative has done great things, and many contributions in cash made the foundation I established grow into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Initiative helped found and fund thousands of small and large programs that in the long run have improved the health of the areas involved, and the overall well being of the world population. All told, the changes and assistance provided are not much in the total scheme of things, but they are global, and the effects and implementation of the Initiative caused world financial leaders to further cooperate with it’s efforts, and even learn to come up with their own, based on it’s model.
Meanwhile, in my own land, whose poor citizens have also benefited greatly by the assistance provided by the initiative in relieving their burden of poverty, people who are not poor and are uninformed of what the Initiative does for our own people began to develop a feeling of mistrust of me and my family, who have participated in the work of the foundation and the Initiative.
I and members of my family have been fortunate enough to have been in positions of power in my country. As such we were and are much in demand to speak to well funded organizations, such as banks, investment houses, trade unions, governmental bodies both at home and abroad. When we do these speaking engagements, much like other persons in demand because of their interesting or useful experience in world government or their association with a foundation or an Initiative or initiatives of their own, or businesses of their own, we charge a fee. That fee is commensurate with the market in which people whose talent and time is similar to ours make similar commitments to speak to assemblies of members of such entities. Quite often the market for this type of service, speaking about one’s own experience in life or business or government, is very lucrative. Other people at our level of influence have become millionaires.
My daily life, and that of my family, does not require the expenditure of large amounts of money on personal upkeep and lavish housing. I have a large home in an exclusive area, and our immediate family lives quite comfortably, if not lavishly. We travel extensively, often for the above mentioned speaking engagements, but also on the business of the Initiative, and the foundation. I and my family report our income yearly to the U. S. Internal Revenue service, and those figures are routinely available to anyone with the resources and desire to see them.
For some reason, or reasons unknown to me and my family, the facts mentioned above lead people to believe that I and my family are international criminals, operating against the best interest of our home country, The United States of America. I personally have been careless in my private relationships with people at times, and sometimes, out of a desire for privacy, have been less than candid with inquiries both from the government of my country and the press. However, my dealings with the foundation and with the financiers of the world have been as open as possible, and it is surprising, no, dismaying, that the degree of distrust in both me and my family has grown so much over forty years of public service.
It is apparent to me that we are being held, by both the press and my former, and my wife’s current political opponents, to a much higher standard than that of said opponents. I am mystified that how much good I can do, and have done, is so completely and thoroughly misunderstood and misrepresented. I have agreed to and am thoroughly divesting myself of control of the foundation and the Initiative. It is my view that, once started, such an initiative will continue to function on its own, and continue the good work that its people have done over the years of its existence. I love my country, and only desire that it continue to prosper in this century and beyond. God Bless America.
--------------------End imagined letter------------------------
Here is the New Yorker article:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/bill-clintons-goodbye-to-c-g-i?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(96)&CNDID=39840825&spMailingID=9572806&spUserID=MTMzMTg0NjY4MTg0S0&spJobID=1001927311&spReportId=MTAwMTkyNzMxMQS2
