Bipartisan plea for philanthropy

Earlier I posted about the Powerbook picture that was featured on the White House website yesterday. The photo was taken before a Romeo & Juliet performance given by the Shakespeare Festival/LA's Will Power to Youth program. The Powerbook shared the spotlight with First Lady Laura Bush, who was there to present SFLA with an award.

Will Power to Youth is an "arts-based employment program for youth ages 14-21 living at or below the federal poverty level.  Youth participants are employed during 7 week, off-school periods to study, create and perform modern adaptations of a Shakespeare play while they are mentored by professional artists and human relations facilitators." My background in the arts dictates that I am all for programs like these.

My post didn't result in an email from the Oval Office, but I did get a few comments from members and friends of SFLA who a) really appreciate the publicity and b) really would like a Powerbook of their own. Turns out the Powerbook pictured belongs to the troupe's "music mentor," not to the program.

Based on the other comments I recieved this morning about Bono hanging out with Bill, several people seem to think that Steve Jobs needs to be as publicly philanthropic as Bill Gates is. I actually Googled a bit to see if I could find some info on some of Steve Jobs' charitable contributions and so far all I have come up with is this Make-A-Wish visit.

Here's another great cause for Uncle Steve to get behind. Consider this my official plea on SFLA's behalf. C'mon Steve-o... donate a Mac or two for a worthy cause. I bet they'll even let Al Gore pose with it instead of Laura Bush.

[Disclaimer: I have no reason to believe that Steve Jobs reads TUAW. In fact, I have been told that he is not a fan of blogs in general, but if anyone at Apple is reading and they have Steve's ear, feel free to pass along the message.]

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