George Lucas is among the billionaires making a public pledge to give away at least half their wealth to charity. In a letter posted on The Giving Pledge website, Lucas writes:
My pledge is to the process; as long as I have the resources at my disposal, I will seek to raise the bar for future generations of students of all ages.
I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future – and the first step begins with the social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt – as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.
The “Giving Pledge,” spearheaded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, is intended to set an example of the importance of philanthropy.
I can just see the headlines on other nerd sites now:
“Lucas Still Obsessed with Money and Pandering to Children”
Not so much, actually. I don’t doubt it’s out there, but everything I’ve seen has been very positive.
I can imagine Oprah doing a show giving away gold bricks. “And you get a gold brick! And you get a gold brick! Everybody gets gold bricks!!!”