Moby Doing More To Stop Murder In California Than Arnold Schwarzenegger

Musical artist Moby has decided to donate 100% of the proceeds of three upcoming concerts in California, totaling anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000, to help out domestic violence shelters who saw their state funding cut by Governor Schwarzenegger back in July.

Six shelters that temporarily house victims and their families have closed since Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto to eliminate their funding in July. Advocates say dozens more of the 94 agencies that received a total of $20.4 million in state money last year have scaled back services and cuts hours and staff.

"In the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot of money," Moby said about the cuts during a phone interview from Chicago. "But it's going to directly harm the women who benefit from these programs."

Moby, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall, said he hopes to generate $75,000 to $100,000 from dates in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco from Oct. 12 through 15 to give to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

"My mother was in a long relationship with a guy who was very, very abusive and at one point I had to stop him from stabbing her to death," Moby said.

The money will go to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

Domestic violence shelters are nothing more than homicide prevention units. Schwarzenegger's cuts - made by blue pencil after the Legislature passed a budget agreement - caused a huge threat to public safety that could cost more in court and law enforcement money in the long run. Republicans like him probably think that, as long as charitable donations have stepped into the breach, the state can be absolved for their efforts to threaten women's lives. But the $100,000, while extremely generous, is just a small fraction of the money that was cut.

Maybe some other celebrity could hold events with the proceeds going to domestic violence shelters. Maybe someone who had a long movie career and has a legion of adoring fans. Or maybe we can fund government properly and we wouldn't have to hold fundraisers to save women from being beaten or killed.