Nonprofits filling gap left by federal cuts isn't answer
By Sophia Shaw / Chicago Tribune
It has been a painful few months watching federal support for health and human services, museums, libraries, public broadcasting, science, education, diplomacy and environmental protection be intentionally and indiscriminately gutted by President Trump. What’s more troubling is that neither Congress nor the courts have meaningfully stopped him.
To me — and to many — public investment in these areas has always been a backbone of our nation’s health, prosperity and rich cultural life. These investments give muscle to the promise of “liberty and justice for all.” Yet clearly, there are those who see these same programs as bloated, ineffective or ideologically expendable.
Since the founding of our republic, nonprofit organizations have supplemented the work of government. This hybrid model of public and private investment is, in many ways, part of what makes America unique; and even admirable. Alexis de Tocqueville recognized this spirit in 1831 when he observed:
“Americans of all ages, conditions, and dispositions constantly unite together. … Americans group together to … build inns, construct churches, distribute books. I have frequently admired the endless skill with which the inhabitants of the United States manage to set a common aim to the efforts of a great number of men and to persuade them to pursue it voluntarily.”
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