By Ny Magee, The Grio
Following his trip to the edge of space, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos returned to earth on a new mission to pay it forward.
The wealthiest man in the world announced Tuesday that he plans to donate $100M each to CNN contributor Van Jones and celebrity chef José Andrés.
“They can give all to their own charity or they can share their wealth. It’s all up to them,” Bezos said at a press conference after his trip to space, CNN reports. The gift is part of his philanthropic initiative called the Courage and Civility Award, with aims to honor “leaders who aim high, and who pursue solutions with courage and who always do so with civility.”
“We need unifiers and not vilifiers,” Bezos said. “We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe. But they do that always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case. But we do have role models.”
While accepting the award, Jones said “Sometimes dreams come true.”
“Lauren and Jeff don’t do nothing small, man, they don’t do anything small, they just don’t do it. They dream big, they love big, and they bet big. And you bet on me, and I appreciate it,” Jones said at a news conference on Tuesday where the award was announced, as reported by The Hill.
Categories: Economics/Class Relations, Left and Right