We can all learn a little something from P. Diddy.
First the Diddy taught us that rap wars between coasts should be avoided. Then Diddy taught us that with the right amount of money you could date women with equally weird names like J. Lo. After that he taught us that shooting up a nightclub might lead to trouble. But most recently, Mr. Diddy has taught us about community service.
Earlier this month P. Diddy raised $1 million for New York's public schools and another $1 million for various charities by running in the New York Marathon.
The Diddy told The Associated Press: "It's an honor and blessing to do something good for the city."
That's a great lesson for all Americans: You can raise tons of money for charitable causes by running a marathon. Hopefully we can all forget about some of the Diddy's music and fashion designs and accept this lesson into our hearts.
Furthermore, there are individuals who visit ASU who I really hope will steal a play from coach Diddy.
If you have been asked, "Have you voted for me yet?" recently, you'll know exactly who I'm talking about. There is a group of magazine salesmen that has been hanging out on campus and stopping ASU students with that question.
We all want to seem as though we at least care about politics and elections, and these salesmen are ready and willing to prey on our collegiate instinct to pretend like we care about what is going in the world.
So when average students are asked, "Have you voted for me yet?" they think to themselves: "Uh oh, there's an election today that I didn't know about!" This is how the salesman gets the average student.
Unfortunately, regardless of what certain Tempe City Council members think, average students are polite and don't want to be rude to these eager young salespeople. So they have to listen to a speech about raising money for inner-city kids. And after the speech, they have to decide if they would like to subscribe to magazines and help those poor children.
While the cause is noble, their strategy needs a little work. Instead of asking poor college students to donate money, they need to think like the Diddy. Instead of whoring themselves to magazines, they need to get out and run marathons.
In one marathon the Diddy raised a couple million clams; just think of how much money could be raised if an entire staff of former magazine salesmen were participating.
Some people will say that only P. Diddy could have raised that much money because of his celebrity status. Those people need to be a little more optimistic. Anything is possible if you apply yourself.
Take the Diddy for example. His single "Bad Boys for Life" was a moderate hit despite the Diddy being in the middle of a trial for an alleged shooting and the song being annoyingly stupid and grammatically incorrect.
Then Diddy got away with the shooting, and the rich little pantywaist went on to actually finish the New York Marathon. The life of the Diddy is proof that if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
If Diddy can sell millions of records without being able to sing, rap or play an instrument, the salesmen can raise a little money.
There may not be very many big and popular marathons in Arizona, but that shouldn't stop these guys. You don't need corporate sponsors, balloons, live music and an audience to run. They should pull a Forrest Gump if they really want to help the inner-city children.
If they started running back and forth across the country, they could generate a buzz so big that our public schools will never again have to worry about money.
If it takes a stunt like that to get this country to allocate some money to education, then it's about time for someone to start running.
This strategy shouldn't be limited to these salesmen either. Other groups such as Green Peace, those African AIDS people and the homeless should get involved, too.
If there is anything valuable that we can learn from the CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, it's that if you're willing to run for a really long time, you can rake in a lot of money for charity.
Chris Fanning is a journalism junior. Reach him at christopher.fanning@asu.edu.
