It Matters: Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson, best selling author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, has recently been suffering a lot of scrutiny for apparently making up many of the stories that were in his memoirs. The stories were supposed to be based off of his life and tell about his adventures in both Pakistan and Afghanistan building schools for underprivileged children. He is now a world famous public speaker and has his own charity devoted to raising money for more schools. At least, this is what we have been led to believe.

In the past few days, information has been brought to the public's attention that causes us to question how much of these memoirs are true memories, and how much of them were just made up. Even if some parts were made up or exaggerated, should that take away from the parts that were real?

Memoirs, by definition, are usually allowed to be partly or even mostly fabricated, so why exactly are readers so outraged that Mortenson would do the same thing? One reason I am offended is because people are paying money to support his charity, and he has not been honest with the donors about where exactly the money is going. Many of his charity expenses were due to book signings and promotions, not going to helping the actual schools.

When Mortenson takes the novel, and turns it into something that is real, like a charity, he no longer has the right to make up stories no matter how much they may add to the experience of reading the book. He does not have the right to lie in interviews about how many schools were actually build, nor tell stories about kidnappings that never happened. These are no longer just parts of a book, they are lies being told by a man who is taking money from well meaning people and doing what he pleases with it.

This is not to say that Mortenson has not done any good, he has, in fact built many schools in middle eastern countries and is one of the most effective speakers around the world, but in order to maintain that, he has to have credibility. He cannot have news about his lies overshadow news about his good deeds, and I think it is important for Mortenson to recognize his responsibilities as someone that is trying to promote good in the world.