Fresh from his trip to space, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has decided to reward Van Jones and chef José Andrés for their dedication to fighting injustice. On Tuesday, July 20, Bezos honored the two with the Courage and Civility Award. The award aims to honor those who have demonstrated courage and tried to be a unifier in a divisive world. The award also came with a $100 million gift to both Jones and Andrés to be given to charities and nonprofits of their choice.
“They can give it all to their own charity. We need unifiers and not vilifiers. We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe. But they do that always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case. But we do have role models,” Bezos told CNN.
Chef Andrés stated that he will use the gift to continue feeding the poor around the world while Jones will use some of the money to continue his fight for prison and jail system reforms with his nonprofit Dream Corps.
Continue reading on the next page.
