What's $3,000,000 Worth?

I read this interesting article online today. Basically, there is a private school in Austin, TX that was given a donation of THREE MILLION DOLLARS. The catch was, they had to omit the story "Brokeback Mountain" from their high school reading list, where it was an optional read. The school debated and then gave back the money.

I posted the article on my YA Novelist listserve and almost immediately Jordan Sonnenblick and Mark L. Williams both came up with the same great idea. To send the school autographed copies of our books, to show our support for the brave stance the school took.

Here's an excerpt of the article:

Library group hears more complaints about such themes

By Matthew Obernauer

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

The story began in Wyoming, where two cowboys met on the margins of
society, amidst a vanishing American frontier.

But at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, the tale of "Brokeback Mountain,"
a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx, didn't end
there. It spilled off the pages into the school's boardrooms and onto
religious message boards, dividing parents in the tightknit community
and ultimately leading to the school returning a $3 million gift to one
of its biggest donors.

This month, the St. Andrew's Board of Trustees officially released Cary
McNair and his family from their $3 million pledge to the school's
capital campaign after McNair objected to the use of "Brokeback
Mountain" as reading material in a 12th-grade English class.

"Brokeback Mountain" tells the story of two male ranch hands who fall
in love and have a homosexual relationship over many years.

"St. Andrew's has a policy not to accept conditional gifts, whether
it's $5 or $500,000. When the McNair family looked at their gift in a
conditional manner, then the school could not accept it," said Bill
Miller, who was asked by St. Andrew's to serve as its spokesman for
this story.