Just happened to glance at an article in one of the neighborhood papers here at my favorite coffee shop, about the Uptown Day of Service. For those who don't know Chicago, Uptown has been for decades one of the more desperate parts of town, although it's starting to turn around. Homeless shelters, "residential hotels," halfway houses, rehab centers, the works. I've lived there a couple of times -- not exactly middle-class. Day of Service is a volunteer day, for residents who can to mentor students, help out in soup kitchens, etc.
It reminds me very much of a philosophy I heard from a woman whom I consider to be one of the great ladies of Chicago, who put it quite succinctly: "I've been fortunate and had advantages. It's only right that I should give something back." It's an attitude I heard a lot, in a number of variations, from the people I knew in the art world, who were, most of them, at the very least well-off.
I feel like sending clippings of that story to a select group of corporate CEOs and members of Congress -- and maybe framed examples to Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Grover Norquist. I'm not sure they'd get it, though.
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