Born on Third Base


For this assignment, I read the preface and part of chapter two of Born on Third Base by Chuck Collins. I particularly enjoyed the preface because it gave me a feeling for the author. In this section, Collins shared a story on why he decided to give all his wealth away. When he was 26 years old, he visited a mobile home park that made him realize how far communities are willing to go to protect their own. He saw the community pull together everything they had and risk it all in order to save their park and set themselves free from the property owner. Because of this, Collins decided the only reason he was better off than them was due to sheer luck. He decided it was better to give away all his wealth, despite his dads pleas to keep some money for insurance. When disaster struck, his mobile home community showed up at his door step to help.


This section made me smile due to Collins faith in society. Many people would call him foolish for giving away the money that could offer him security against unforeseen events, like the fire he experienced. However, Collins knew that he had people in his life that would help him out if he ever needed it. I find it amazing that the people that came to his aid were the people that had the least in life. Communities are invested in helping out each other and I think we can learn a lot from them as a society. We need to start to realize that were all in this together and change needs to be supported by everyone.


I also enjoyed Chapter 2, which focused on the need for society to be more empathetic. In this section, Collins draws upon the advantages that would come from being empathetic towards the top 1%. Through relationships with the wealthy, many powerful agreements can be made and change can be facilitated. Collins argues that political campaigns need to stop targeting the wealthy and creating scapegoats for all the economic disparity. Instead, we must come together and place ourselves in each others shoes to recognize how we can work towards bettering our society. This chapter also made me realize how lucky I am to begin with because of sheer luck of being born in the United States.

Comments

  1. Kane AcostaMarch 24, 2019 at 4:52 PM

    I really enjoyed how you shared the authors backstory. It was interesting to read so far ahead into the book and the preface gives more insight into where the ideolgies furnished from. Yes furnished, great word! With the swimming pool example from what I read I can directly correlate how the mobile park example showed how people pull everything together and risk it all to save there community. All effort goes together to strengthen the commonwealth.

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  2. AnonymousMarch 24, 2019 at 5:20 PM

    I learned a lot about the author from your summary. I agree with him that there are many advantages that would come from working with the wealthy instead of being the target of political campaigns. I am also impressed by his selflessness since he gave all his wealth away. In this day and age, I think this is a very rare thing to do.

    -Ryan Baer

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  3. Alastair OdhiamboMarch 25, 2019 at 1:39 PM

    His acts of selflessness that you highlight on show how when you help others in their time of need, the favor can be returned in some other way. His faith in society is incredible and is what we all need to have.

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