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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.

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