the queen of mean
As a younger New Yorker I couldn’t really relate to the horrific stories of Leona Helmsley, the queen of mean. I mean, I shrugged, and kind of had a scooby “hmm???” look once in a while, but I never got it, until I got older.
I was fortunate enough to work near the Mogul’s real estate empire. During this time, I started hearing certain gossip blips on the news and around town and would think back to the Park Avenue building. “She put her husband in a substandard nursing home.” “She slapped a maid.” “She evaded the government out of millions in taxes.” “She had a 1200?? sq. ft. room for her shoes.” That got to me as a single mom who worked 60-80 hours a week, forced to sacrifice time with her daughter to be able to provide a moderate lifestyle and quality education.
It was only then, at that point in my life that I used to question the queen of means actions. I still couldn’t understand it.
Today, the queen of mean did something I will never understand. She left 12 million dollars to her dog. Don’t get me wrong, I have 2. I have had them for 7 years. As a single mom, I had a dog get hit by a car, and I couldn’t afford to pay a vet to save her. I have always struggled with that decision. However, I still can’t understand the queen’s decision.
With 12 million dollars, she could have helped the ever increasing amount of New Yorkers who are being displaced daily due to the rising costs of apartments. The average apartment prices in NYC are 2400 according to the lates MSN real estate for 2006. Another report claims it 2500. As a public school teacher I see other single moms, moving out of the city in order to be able to continue to teach. Couldn’t that 12 million dollars directly impacted the city that made her so rich?
She could have helped out the dilapidated rec center’s in the city to keep youth off of our streets, impacting them, their future families and the future of our city, keeping her legacy alive.
I guess for me, I would like redemption in my death. Lets say I screw up everything now until then, I would at least like if any money I left behind were left to benefit something, someone, somehow. I’m sure I’ll need to atone for something, and I can’t think of a better way than being charitable.
I was silly to think that she would want to redeem herself in death, who knows maybe she left millions more to charity and it just hasn’t been reported. Of course, newsies have to print the worse. I love my pooches, but even if I had that amount of money to consider it, I still think that I would rather impact the community I had left behind.
may Allah have mercy on her soul.
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under Blogroll, pakiRican. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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$12M for her dog….priceless