There are some people who believe that there's only one thing deader than charity in America, and it's education. Then there are people who believe that America's purple majesty is erected by a combination of hard work and generous hand outs, and who aren't sure that "deader" is even a word. I'm proud to say that I'm one of these people and, from what I can tell, so is Dan Brown.

For those of you who can't read, Dan Brown is the fabulously wealthy author of the best-selling erotic thriller The DaVinci Code. Well, not only is he the biggest thing to hit publishing since Shel Silverstein, it turns out he's a generous believer in the importance of education -- he recently donated a whopping 2.2 million dollars to his alma mater. That's "former high school" in Greek.

I'd like to be the first to congratulate Brown on his largesse, but considering all of the glad-handing ass-lickers in the book business, I'd speculate I'll have to settle for being one voice in a back-slapping chorus. Dan Brown's gift will do one heck of a lot more for the poor students of his beloved Phillips Exeter Academy than purchase the "computers" and "other high tech equipment" for which it's intended. It'll do more than the students' fabulously wealthy and connected parents or Exeter's mind-boggling half billion dollar endowment can do. It will say, "I believe in you, and I wrote The DaVinci Code."

Truly, no Exeter child will be left behind.

And to those who suggest that Brown's 2.2 million dollar gift, which was symbolic to Exeter at best, would have been much more meaningfully spent in any of this nation's crumbling and impoverished public schools, I say: "You mean the ones with the blacks in them? Gross."

Analogcabin @ 3:40 PM
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