Our Government is Philanthropy
... and it's time to start acting like it
Dear Ones,
Today is another travel day for me.
I’m headed back to Minneapolis after a week in Seattle.
SO much happened during this trip — conversations and learning and relationship-building that I’m sure I’ll be fully processing for weeks to come… and that will surely affect my life and work from this point forward.
Since time and quiet space are in short supply today, I am re-sending a post from earlier this year that I heard resonated with many of you.
May it resonate widely and deeply again!
With Love,
Cecelia 💗
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Here in the United States, we collectively form our government.
We call ourselves “the people.”
We are the people who united in pursuit of freedom — religious freedom, economic freedom, political freedom, freedom from dictatorial despots who wanted to impose their will upon a population that would just roll over and oblige.
Together, over time, we formed a government that was unlike any seen before it here on Earth: a democracy.
And this democracy was representative.
The people would be able to directly choose and influence those who were standing in their stead within the government.
And nothing was set in stone, other than a constitution the original founders crafted as a guide. They knew that, using that guide, our chosen representatives would continue forming, and re-forming, and evolving our government over time.
The country was designed as dynamic, responsive.
The country was founded with ideals at its core.
Some of its most precious ideals were hope, and justice, and freedom. And in our country’s current chapter, those ideals are being threatened.
A Country
What is a country… really?
A country is a collection of humans.
A country is a collection of humans who are connected to each other by many things — geography, language, culture, history, and more.
A country is a collection of humans who care for each other, because they understand that their destinies are bound up together.
That caring happens in many different ways, of course… but one of the key ways it happens is through the government — which in a representative democracy should essentially be the collective body of the people choosing to care for itself.
There should be no question of whether to care. The only questions should revolve around how to care best.
But those are not the questions the United States is asking right now.
Instead, there are questions about who is worthy.
There are questions about how we can care for the fewest number of people possible.
There are questions about which freedoms can be limited for which people.
In short: the United States of America is a country that has lost its way.
Government is Collective Care
There are currently far too many Americans who see government as a “bad” thing…
… who want to avoid, by any means possible, contributing via taxes to the collective care possible through government…
… who are afraid of their fellow citizens, because they might live differently (in their housing choices, in who they choose as a life partner, in how they talk, in how they express their spirituality (or don’t), in how they choose to form a family, etc.)… or have a different color skin… or a different religion… or are trans… or or or…
… who want to tell their fellow citizens how they can live (which is the opposite of the freedom impulse that started the whole thing, for what it’s worth)…
… who want to impose religious morality on the entire country (which, again, is the opposite of the impulse from which the country was born)…
… and who, inclusive of all of the above, and beyond it, don’t really see themselves as a part of any collective body like a representative democracy… and would instead like to see themselves as rugged individualists.
Here’s the problem with that.
There are no individuals in a country.
A country is a collective — by definition.
And the collective of our country organizes itself, and cares for itself, via this thing we call government. In other words, our government is the means by which we the people care for ourselves, and each other.
Did you catch that?
Let’s say it again.
Our government is the means by which we the people care for ourselves, and each other.
In other words, our government is philanthropy.
Remember what we’re about, here at For the Love of Humanity.
The roots of the word philanthropy are Greek: philos, meaning love (think Philadelphia, the “City of Brotherly Love”), and anthropos, meaning humanity (think anthropology, or the scientific study of humanity).
Philanthropy means “love of humanity.”
And as we’re saying here: government is the means by which we are able to care for each other, at scale.
There is small-scale community care — within neighborhoods, within families, within friend circles. There is larger-scale community care — within entities organized to distribute care within larger systems, like the nonprofit sector.
And the ultimate system of care?
The one capable of the largest scale? The most comprehensive coverage? The biggest collection of effective resources to deploy?
Government.
We need to stop thinking of philanthropy as something apart from government… and government as something apart from philanthropy.
Government is philanthropy.
We need to start acknowledging that.
Our Government Needs to Be Truer Philanthropy
Given what has been happening in the United States lately, I am here to say this about philanthropy (ahem, true philanthropy, which is to say this: something different than what we call “philanthropy” today):
True philanthropy is never cruel.
True philanthropy is never hateful.
True philanthropy would never withdraw care that is desperately needed.
True philanthropy would never cast anyone away.
True philanthropy would never prioritize dollars over humans.
True philanthropy loves.
The thing about true philanthropy is that it’s the best of us — the best of humanity. When we are at our very best as humans, we enact true philanthropy.
So.
Tell me this.
When will our United States government stop acting like the villains of the founding story of our country — the foils against which the entire vision for this country was created — and start acting like the true philanthropy it should be?
I hope soon.
I genuinely, fervently hope soon.
Because far too many humans are already suffering at the hands of this government, and that is entirely the opposite of how it should be.