Are You Kind? The Grateful Dead’s Philanthropic Legacy

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“Someone has to do something. It seems incredible — in fact, it seems pathetic — that it has to be us.” — Jerry Garcia, 1988 (Photo: © Bob Minkin)

Celebrating the Grateful Dead’s ongoing legacy of making the world better, music journalist Joanne Colangelo talks about how her 11-year-old self decided to help save the rainforests–because in 1988, Jerry Garcia said it was important. She writes:

“What began with a room full of reporters chuckling after Garcia casually opened the conversation saying, ‘Someone has to do something. It seems incredible — in fact, it seems pathetic — that it has to be us,’ ended in a much more serious tone. When the laughter subsided, Garcia continued: ‘We’ve never really called on our fans, the Deadheads, to align themselves one way or another as far as any particular cause is concerned because of a basic paranoia about leading [them] somewhere when we don’t want to be the leaders. But, this we feel is an issue that is strong enough and life-threatening enough. Inside the world of human games — where people regularly torture each other and overthrow countries and there is a lot of murder and hate — there’s the larger question of global survival. We want to see the world survive to play those games, even if they are atrocious.'”

All this, plus a look at the Rex Foundation and our history of “philanthropic improvisation,” here.