Susan Boyle did Scotland proud by wowing the crowd and judges on the Britain’s Got Talent television show.

Susan doesn’t present as a diva, and the first audience reaction was skeptical laughter. But then she sang, and everything changed.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know all that.

But you may not know that ten years before her Britain’s Got Talent appearance, Miss Boyle recorded “Cry Me a River” for a community charity. The audience at Britain’s Got Talent would have torn the house down had they heard that! WOW! Even better than “I Dreamed a Dream.”

Newspaper editor, Eddie Anderson, who organized the charity recording and recruited Boyle, said, “I was amazed when she sang. It was probably the same reaction as Saturday night. [The Britain’s God Talent show] Susan was exactly the same then as she is now. She has a fabulous and unique talent.”

Mr. Anderson most likely preened about discovering her talent ten years ahead of everybody else, but my question–and the point of this post–is why didn’t he do anything about it? Why didn’t he share this news with anybody? Why didn’t he return Boyle’s generosity?

He’s a newspaper editor, for crying out loud. How hard would it have been for him to give her publicity? And surely he knew people who could have hired Boyle for singing gigs. At the least.

No, he sat on his hands, content to take and not give back. Getting what he wanted was as far as it went for him. His remarks don’t give a glimmer of any thoughts about giving Susan Boyle a helping hand. Even a minimum effort to return her favor apparently never occurred to him.

Mr. Anderson represents our times perfectly: All take, no give.

What a sad way to live.



Check out author Bette Dowdell at http://BetteDowdell.com