Light & Illusion – Art by Randall Klopping

Society, Philanthropy & Hope

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” – Albert Einstein

Philanthropy – altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.

Society often baffles me and always has. That is part of what life is like for persons with mental disabilities and conditions like Autism. For many years I have watched people with obvious physical disabilities have to fight tooth and nail for accommodation of their conditions even long after the ADA was passed, and those with not so obvious conditions just blatantly discriminated against in day to day life. I’ve had to face it and fight back many times.

I see many organizations & charities formed and do a lot of good but they can never raise enough funds to truly tackle the whole problem and they often have to send letters to people in need stating they have limited resources and will not be able to help. To those able to get help it is a miracle and those who don’t it becomes disheartening blow after blow.

Here in the United States trying to get help from the government is basically a case of a person having to give up their rights, even those protected by the Constitution! The SSA is one case I can testify to personally as during the “evaluation” process I was never at any time treated as a person who was innocent but instead was even denied due process because they weren’t even doing proper testing, rather just going through the motions and then issuing automatic letters of denial. Never at any time in the almost two years of runaround did they do tests like x-rays or MRI’s, in the first appeal they evaded ever scheduling the informal hearing I had filed for and instead tried forcing me to undergo psychological evaluation even though I had not filed under my mental disabilities! When I finally did get to go before a Judge in a formal hearing, I won my case without an attorney representing me, something just about every disability advocate & attorney will tell you is basically doing the impossible. Even after winning that battle nothing really changed because nearly a decade has shown me that they just break other rules. Part of the problem is our leaders are not properly funding them, even under Obama’s administration we are being sacrificed more and more even as he claims he can juggle the books and pull off a miracle called health care reform.

Many people out there, whether their hard times come from disabilities or just from circumstances, are working hard to rebuild their lives. But trying to get help from Charities or the Government eats up so much time and yields so little help that it often isn’t much help in reality. Too often we can’t get them to listen to what we need , thus it doesn’t fill the need and so we give up on asking for it.

There are many ways in which philanthropy can be done beyond the donating of money or volunteering time. With the invention of Social networks such as Facebook & Twitter we can communicate a need or show the hard work we do and yet most people don’t often pay attention. People will share and retweet the goofiest things to no end and yet ignore people working for something when 10 seconds spent passing on their post to others could make a real difference. I’ve watched many try to raise awareness of important issues such as victims of abuse & stalking and seem to be completely ignored. I see many like myself working hard to overcome hardships and yet it seems to mean little except to a few here and there.

Personally I would rather have a thousand people help me let others know about my art so that I can earn money with which to rebuild my life, than I would 10,000 people offering me money (charity). Why? Because the former gives the person in need a helping hand and allows them dignity and real hope! Think of it in terms of the old saying, “give a man a fish, you feed him for the day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The biggest difference can often be made in the day to day. There are many people out there in need that have talents & skills that with a little help offer the potential of supporting themselves. But often our society is in such a rush and gets so caught up in competition that people like us don’t even get to compete. Imagine what it feels like for them, to have a gift and live in a world in which we don’t get an equal opportunity to show what we can do.

Without proper help and opportunities we have little or no chance of earning money and without that we can’t really develop and build a life for ourselves. That is an environment in which it becomes nearly impossible to pursue happiness no matter how hard we work for it. Without the opportunity for development we don’t really get to live, we get mere existence and that over time destroys hope.

To truly give hope to others then must not philanthropy become a part of our day to day activities as well as giving money & time to charities and organizations?