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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Tracy L. H. Burnett, November 15, 1994. Interview K-0088. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Hoping for wealth in order to distribute it

Burnett describes his ambition to be wealthy, not only to afford a greater degree of freedom in his life, but also to contribute to his community.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Tracy L. H. Burnett, November 15, 1994. Interview K-0088. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

JEFF COWIE:
You made an interesting comment before. You said you wanted to be wealthy, and you knew you wanted to be wealthy.
TRACY L.H. BURNETT:
I'm going to be.
JEFF COWIE:
What do you expect--? I mean, how wealthy do you want to be, and what do you expect to get from it?
TRACY L.H. BURNETT:
What do you mean, what I consider being wealthy or something like that?
JEFF COWIE:
Yeah, sure.
TRACY L.H. BURNETT:
Man--.
JEFF COWIE:
You just seem really ambitious.
TRACY L.H. BURNETT:
I couldn't put it in a figure, a monetary figure.
JEFF COWIE:
That's fine.
TRACY L.H. BURNETT:
I think being wealthy is telling your mom that she doesn't have to go to work the next day. Man, just jumping up and going somewhere. Just jump on a plane and just go. You don't have to plan it in advance. Not have to worry about anybody controlling, you know, my life or saying, "Well, I want to sell my plant, and you're out of a job." Wealth just comes to me in all kinds of different ways. I think when I think about wealth, gosh, just being free, I guess, to do what I want to do. I've got a lot of things that I want to do in a community, and by being wealthy I could do them.
JEFF COWIE:
What sorts of things do you want to do?
TRACY L.H. BURNETT:
Oh, man, shoot, gosh, like homeless people, I can't stand to see homeless people. That just tears me up. I can't stand it. I'd like to build a shelter. The kids, they don't have like no where to go. No gyms. No place where they can just go and just be together. I'd like to build a gym or something like that or a rec center. There's just a lot of things that I see that the community needs that I would like to provide which I know one day I will be able to. I'm just a giving person. [laughter]