The Best Little Whorehouse in Heaven

Dolly Parton is dead.

Dump eulogized her on his personal social media platform/con game. It’s like Stalin memorializing Corrie ten Boom. Ugly, surreal, grossly lacking self awareness.

Dolly grew up poor in the rural South. It would have been easy for her to be overwhelmed by those circumstances, to settle in and become another victim of American castism. Instead she charted her own way, against the odds I imagine, and launched a global entertainment career.

It would have been easy then for her to abandon her origins, her family, her people and just focus on herself.

She didn’t.

Instead she used her power to support:

Literacy projects for children across the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia. Economic activities that brought jobs to her otherwise economically depressed home region AIDS charities Red Cross Funded a new hospital Support for caring for pet dogs by bringing them indoors Preserving the bald eagle Fundraising for victims of the Smoky Mountain fires of 2016 Financial support of Vanderbilt University’s programs aimed at curing youth leukemia More money for hospitals Vocal and unwavering support of LGB and T people and same sex marriage Funded development of the Moderna COVID vaccine Inter religious tolerance

So few people who make a fortune use it to really make others’ lives better, in a deliberately thoughtful way (not just writing checks).

Thank you Dolly, and may more of your peers follow your lead.