Critical Questions—Seeking Funding. An Exploration through Quotation—posted by Mary Brydon-Miller
Follow the Money
Those of us old enough to remember Watergate and the Nixon era probably also remember seeing the film All the Presidents’ Men and the pivotal scene in which Deep Throat (played by Hal Holbrook) advises the young Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) to “follow the money”.
They do and voilá, “I’m not a crook” 2,
Watergate and the end of the Nixon Presidency.
“Ah, them was the halcyon days!” It sometimes seems like we’re still desperately trying to follow this advice ourselves. Seeking funding to support our work as action researchers often feels to me like a necessary evil. We need to support our organizations, our community participants, our students, and sometimes our own salaries. With cuts in state support for education there is an increasing emphasis on entrepreneurship for those of us within the academy while decreases in charitable giving and more competition for grant funding means a desperate struggle to find and sustain support for those of us in community organizations.
“After a while, Charlie Brown, you learn what sells”4 . It’s tempting to try to remake ourselves in the guise of whatever the flavor of the month happens to be—AIDS prevention, childhood obesity, save the whales—all worthy causes, but you can’t be all things to all people.5 As frightening as it may be and as much as I hate to quote this source, it’s better to “stay the course”6 Maybe we should simply recall the words of Polonius, “this above all, to thine own self be true”7
1William Mark Felt, Sr. aka Deep Throat
2Richard Nixon
3Lloyd Brydon, aka my Grandfather
4Linus to Charlie Brown in Charles Shultz’ comic strip Peanuts.
5This is not, apparently, a quote, but more of an overused aphorism.
6You name it, Johnson, Reagan, Bush…but I did find an interesting fact while looking this up. Apparently this also comes from a saying by Richard Le Gallienne, “Stay the course, light a star, change the world where’er you are”.
7Polonius to Laertes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet…although it should be noted that this was just a bit before he was run through while hiding behind the arras in Gertrude’s room.