This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Michael Moore, administrative and research intern for the John Locke Foundation.
When someone asks you to define yourself as an American or North Carolinian, what do you say? Maybe you would respond in this way: “Well, I am a person who believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and all the other stuff that is spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” Does that really make you an American? There is an old saying: “Actions speak louder than words.” Well, it seems that many in America and across North Carolina put their actions into motion. They’re never seen, but their actions are felt.
Last week, I was in western North Carolina. Members of the local Shrine club in this community were collecting donations for handicapped children. The scene of Shriners collecting donations for the children they help has become second nature to me, because my younger brother was a patient at the Shriners Hospital. I guarantee that is one reason he turned out to be a better athlete among the two of us. I thought to myself, here are these men who could be spending their weekend with their families or doing something for their own benefit, but they were collecting donations for a cause they cared deeply about.
The scene of volunteers of different nonprofits doing their part to make the world a better place has become very common across the state and the nation. From the Salvation Army’s bell ringers at Christmas time to the Special Olympics, people are making a difference. You may be making a difference and not even thinking about it. Churches in each community are a tremendous outreach to many different service projects that have a huge impact on a lot of families. The volunteers who give something up to help others usually do not make national news, but their actions are felt. Peter Drucker stated that non-profits are characteristic of the American society, and we are a society of volunteers.
So this volunteering thing isn’t just a mindset that sprang up overnight. In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker, found a spirit of voluntarism and charity unlike anything he had experienced before in America. Tocqueville ended up writing a classic book, Democracy in America, and he marveled at America’s many civic associations that were supported through voluntary gifts of time and money. The moral of the story is that Americans have a caring knack about them.
It might be hard for some to understand why Americans have so many nonprofit groups to do the tasks that many other national governments have opted to do. For example, churches on the European continent are state institutions, along with hospitals. These two types of institution are among the biggest nonprofits in America. Government can only do so much, but charity comes from the work of a free people.
Most Americans are generous, compassionate people who believe in charity. Three out of four families make charitable donations each year averaging $1,800, or about 3.5 percent of their household income. Charity is essential to our health and happiness, community vitality, national prosperity, and even to our ability to govern ourselves as a free people. In the end, there is only so much government can do, and a hug and “Bless your heart” really cannot be mandated by policy. When people can choose to make a difference in their communities, you see the true American sprit. If you really want to see what I’m talking about, just look across North Carolina in a mountain community’s volunteer fire department and women’s auxiliary, an inner-city ministry, or a food bank in eastern North Carolina. You can see that North Carolinians – like all Americans – are truly compassionate people who believe in helping those who are not able to help themselves, and you get a glimpse of the heart of North Carolina.