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DANIEL ORTNER: Bill Clinton and the act of giving
by Daniel Ortner
Columnists | 12/4/07
Posted online at 11:11 PM EST on 12/3/07
/ Last updated at 11:16 PM EST on 12/3/07
My first memories of former President Bill Clinton involve watching him on Nickelodeon's The Big Help imploring youths to give up hours of their day and help out in their community. He was unparalleled in his ability to communicate the value of service to the youth: Our community allows us to go to school and benefit from the amenities of life, and we have a moral obligation to invest our time and effort in return. It was a beautiful and simple formula that as a child was truly inspiring for me. In reading Clinton's newest book, Giving, and seeing him speak on campus last Monday, I was happy to see that Clinton is applying the same logic to his post-presidency years and is using it to truly benefit the globe.
Clinton's Giving is filled with inspirational stories, but nobody's story is more intellectually moving than that of the former president himself. As Clinton explains in the introduction, after his presidency he felt that he had been given such a profound opportunity by society that he felt it his duty to spend the rest of his life striving to give others their due opportunity to thrive.
Indeed, the most striking thing is how difficult it is to imagine other former presidents doing the same. One could hardly imagine current President George Bush going to Africa to deliver lower-cost cocktail drugs to children with HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the difference in techniques is striking between former President Ronald Reagan, who established the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, given to elites such as Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush, while Bill Clinton's foundation promotes microloans for small businesses in Third World countries. Strangely, the anti-big government conservative Reagan spent the last years of his life rewarding political leaders for their acts of courage, while Clinton, a liberal Democrat, spends his time encouraging self-sustained growth and acts of giving on the individual level.
Perhaps the fundamental distinction is Clinton's belief in the power of people to make a difference. He suggests both small and practical steps-switching to fluorescent lightbulbs, or loaning $25 to a needy entrepreneur in a Third World country-and large one, that can improve a community, save a life or heal the planet.
Clinton's Giving is filled with inspirational stories, but nobody's story is more intellectually moving than that of the former president himself. As Clinton explains in the introduction, after his presidency he felt that he had been given such a profound opportunity by society that he felt it his duty to spend the rest of his life striving to give others their due opportunity to thrive.
Indeed, the most striking thing is how difficult it is to imagine other former presidents doing the same. One could hardly imagine current President George Bush going to Africa to deliver lower-cost cocktail drugs to children with HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the difference in techniques is striking between former President Ronald Reagan, who established the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, given to elites such as Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush, while Bill Clinton's foundation promotes microloans for small businesses in Third World countries. Strangely, the anti-big government conservative Reagan spent the last years of his life rewarding political leaders for their acts of courage, while Clinton, a liberal Democrat, spends his time encouraging self-sustained growth and acts of giving on the individual level.
Perhaps the fundamental distinction is Clinton's belief in the power of people to make a difference. He suggests both small and practical steps-switching to fluorescent lightbulbs, or loaning $25 to a needy entrepreneur in a Third World country-and large one, that can improve a community, save a life or heal the planet.
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