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| Philanthropy |
Filling Four Fissures
William Jefferson Clinton
05/03/2004
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When President Roosevelt dedicated his library a couple of months before the
outbreak of World War II, up at Hyde Park, he said, “In order to do this sort of
thing, you have to believe three things. You have to believe in the past. You
have to believe in the future. And you have to believe people can learn from the
past, to make a better future.” And that is essentially what I am asking others
to do.
For those of us who have benefited from a tax policy that I deeply
disagree with, but which seems like an entrenched part of our national life for
at least a while, we need to recognize that the inevitable price of that policy
is a bigger gap between the government and the common good. And philanthropy is
willing to step in and help fill the gap, at home and around the world.
Do
not be discouraged if you cannot change everything; you can do something. Very
often, the thing you do will change the life of a family, or of a community, in
a way that goes far beyond the particulars of your action. Somehow, we have to
get into the habit of acting like and convincing others that the world is too
small for most of the fights we kill people over and waste our lives on. We are
on the same side, and we are all just passing through.
Art by Michael Gibbs
 | Former President Bill Clinton runs the William J. Clinton Presidential
Foundation. This essay was excerpted from his speech to the Council on
Foundations 2004 Family Foundation Conference. |
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