2 min read
August 4, 2016
A remarkable correspondence between Theodore Roosevelt and philanthropist Kent Williams.
“Your kind suggestion of a change of name is not one that I can accept. So many millions of better people have died forgotten that to stencil one’s own name on a benefaction seems to carry with it an implication of mandate immortality, as being something purchasable.”Kent went on:
“I have five good, husky boys that I am trying to bring up to a knowledge of democracy and to a realizing sense of the rights of the ‘other fellow’ […] If these boys cannot keep the name of Kent alive, I am willing it should be forgotten.”Roosevelt’s reply was short and issued within a few days. “By George! you are right.” Kent understood something simple and profound about the sort of public culture needed to sustain democratic sensibilities. Public spiritedness requires more than simple generosity—rather it needs the redirection of adoration and attention towards persons and symbols of common interest. Philanthropy, inasmuch as it seeks to buttress this common good, must forsake its pretense to ‘purchasable immortality.’
Photo credit: US Department of State via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC