I tend to be someone who digs for the truth in something.
I HATE internet hoaxes (how many times can Morgan Freeman die?), and I will always check out the facts behind ‘based on a true story’ that gets slapped on any movie.
So, yesterday I was so impressed by the blog entry that was republished on Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/why-poor-peoples-bad-decisions-make-perfect-sense_b_4326233.html) that I threw up a quick post in support of Linda Tirado and her dream of writing a book about her experiences with poverty.
But then….
I kept hitting the refresh button on her ‘gofundme’ page. Her original goal that I saw was $25,000. Then it changed to $29500. Then it changed to $39500. One final change yesterday afternoon put it at $55000, where it has now remained.
I made a comment about this on Huffington Post and received several responses back indicating that this was the way that social media fundraising works. That if I had seen the goal as being $55000 when I first looked, I would have seen the gap as too big to bridge and would have been discouraged from donating.
Well….maybe. I will admit there is a certain amount of psychology to this. But here’s what has really happened for me….
The amounts being changed caused me to dig deeper. I then found entries by the original author that stated the events were ‘taken out of context’. I’m not sure how that is actually possible, as she was the one to arrange the narrative in the first place.
The more I read, the more it seemed details were missing. Piecing it altogether has been a challenge, and I know I have not been entirely successful in that regard.
My thanks to Vera Stone, who left a comment on my original post from yesterday:
Many professional politicians claim a start in poverty. Linda Tirado is well-connected, main contact for College Democrats at Southern Utah University http://www.suu.edu/leavittcenter/resources.html On current LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindatirado and previous Bloghttp://scoldedbyparrots.wordpress.com// she wrote of professional political work (10 years) and stated: “I retired when I had a baby.” On her Twitter account then @tirado_linda was “Currently working on a book about small races and grassroots politics” (2011),
I checked the links that were provided. They are accurate.
I now have far more questions than answers.
I do not, for one minute, think that Linda Tirado is scamming people. At least not on purpose. But, her timeline is somewhat skittish, and at the very least, I believe she has been somewhat disingenuous in regards to her own political background and her already being asked to write a book back in 2011.
The sad part is that the next time I see a story like this, I may be tempted to save my $10 and just skip over it altogether. That, unfortunately, is my cynical nature.
My apologies for the original post I made yesterday BEFORE I fully checked it out….
I do wish Linda Tirado godspeed in writing her book, and look forward to reading it when (if?) it comes out…
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