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A Challenge To Others

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.

Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.

American aviator Amelia Earhart, born today in 1897

Philanthropic New Year

An ambitious New Year’s resolution! “Renewing America’s Promise: Fired Up for Philanthropy and Democracy in 2012″ by Maxim Thorne in NYE’s Huffington Post:

I am not the first to draw the comparison of Franklin and Prometheus. Philosopher Immanuel Kant called Franklin the “new Prometheus.” This is important. I believe Franklin offers us a role model for American philanthropy and for being a philanthropist. He uniquely, self-consciously and purposefully built his life around a distinctive American version of private assumption of public responsibilities which is the essence of the Classical Greek “philanthropic and democratic” ideal of society. Even John Adams, his political rival, had to admit that “there was scarcely a peasant or citizen” who “did not consider him as a friend of humankind.” Who can wear that moniker today? [...]

In the New Year, let’s get “fired up” and get some fire for and about the public good — and be “unperplexed and unbiased” by self interest. [...]

Our American Founding is about philanthropy in action.