Pessimism towards the charges against Greg Mortenson as well as pessimism towards Mortenson's defense seem to cast shades of gray on everything in his home town of Bozeman, MT. Then it snows....
Here in the northern Rockies, April showers mean spring snow storms. Twice last week, we went to bed with near blizzard conditions outside. At 3 a.m. one night, I woke to that strange, silver luminescence that fallen and falling snow cast on the world. A white night. Everything visible in the darkness, but not definitively.
Come daylight, the world is glazed, each leafless tree branch and power wire burdened with a berm of snow. Cars left out on the streets are heaped like igloos, the houses are humbled under white and the surrounding mountains blanketed. When the sun breaks through, the world briefly takes on a distinct clarity, everything sharply drawn in black and white. But mostly white.
The snow cover doesn’t last long in the spring sun. Tuesday’s fall lasted through Thursday. Thursday night, the wind turned bully, the temperature dropped and the snow again slid sideways into town.
More than snow fell last week. A hometown hero, someone who came to symbolize compassion in a state not necessarily known for it, was accused of fraud, both literary and financial. No one called it lying.
Greg Mortenson, builder of schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, champion of their young women and the author of the tremendously inspiring memoir Three Cups of Tea, allegedly fabricated the stories in that memoir and used funds raised for his non-profit Central Asia Institute for his own gain.
The news was greeted here with much incredulity and pessimism. One letter writer to our town newspaper claimed, “Next they’ll want us to believe that Jesus was a terrorist and Mother Theresa was a meth-junkie.” The fact that Mortenson was admitted to the hospital later in the week with a heart ailment only deepened sympathy.
The pessimism came in various sorts. Many were pessimistic of Steve Kroft and CBS. Others, some close to the story, were pessimistic that Mortenson did what he said he did. There were newspaper stories that local, former board members of CAI had resigned in years past when they felt the charity wasn’t doing everything by the books. Some of us were pessimistic because said people didn’t come forward at the time.
Bozeman, with a population less than 40,000, is a town full of non-profits, most with an environmental agenda. These organizations fall on both sides of the issues, but mostly in support. Sometimes it’s hard to see what all of them do. Often, they seem at cross-purposes, even when on the same side of an issue.
There’s always been some suspicion of non-profits here, even as they employ dozens of people locally and are active members of the community. Are they truly dedicated to their cause? Or are they just an excuse for paying salaries? How can we trust them?
The latest annual report published by one respected, locally-based environmental-education organization seems to show (the terminology of such reports often seems designed for obfuscation) nearly half of their considerable funds are spent on salaries.
Throw in “professional expenses”--whatever that is--and it’s well over half. They aren’t under investigation.
The same annual report documents the important work that organization does around the globe, work that saves lives. Much of its funding has come from a corporation that exploits the very resource the non-profit champions. In more cynical moments, I wonder if it supplies ethical cover for its contributor while it stuffs much of the money in its pocket. Nothing is definitive.
The non-profits that serve the local-needs community do a wealth of good. Our food bank, our community health partners, mental health services and abuse shelters are exceptional for a city this size. I’ve worked with a variety of special needs high schoolstudents over the years. The organizations we have that provide care, activities, housing and other support for these kids and their families seem without fault. But then I don’t see their books. Still, I trust them.
I've seen Mortenson speak twice, once at our local high school, and once at the graduation ceremony of his alma mater, Concordia College in Moorehead, MN. Surprisingly, he's not a dynamic speaker. He seems insecure at the podium and operating without any sense of ego or confidence. This might be why he looked so stricken in the "60 Minutes" broadcast when confronted by Kroft. Or maybe he has something to hide.
Mortenson gave two presentations to our local public school students last November, one to all elementary and middle school students at the local university’s field house, the other to its high school students in their gymnasium. He donated 5,500 copies of Three Cups of Tea so that every student might have one. To make the presentation relevant, his then 13-year-old daughter and nine year-old son also talked to the students on the Institute’s efforts.
Days before the November appearance, Mortenson was diagnosed with pericarditis, a viral infection in the heart’s lining. He came anyway. The newspaper story of his appearances opened with, “Greg Mortenson is a man who keeps his word.”
When he finished the high school address, Mortenson immediately ambled over to speak with the special education students with whom I work. Though their physical disabilities don’t always make them stand out of a crowd, Mortenson found them and came over to thank them for coming, holding their hands and listening sincerely.
Needless to say, that act made a big impression. We made a connection between this and the story from Three Cups of Tea of how his work had been inspired by the death of his epileptic sister. Was it possible even this wasn’t true?
Jon Krakauer has written an on-line book about Mortenson that substitutes the word "deceit" for "tea" in its title. Schools across the country are wondering if they should continue to participate in the CAI's "Pennies For Peace" program. On the other hand, a colonel from the Pentagon was one of the first to jump to Mortenson's defense.
It could be that Mortenson, as he has claimed, is a bad manager. It could be that his alleged exaggerations were made in service of his cause. After all, he has built schools and served Central Asian children, though maybe not to the extent he’s claimed. Or maybe he’s someone completely other than we believed.
Often this time of year, it seems that winter will never end. Moments of clarity melt away and the world beneath the snow, the grit and brown vegetation waiting to be renewed, reveal flat, gray shades. Then it snows again, and for a while the world is visibly black and white. But mostly white.
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