Charity — At Home and Elsewhere

One of the things that even avid critics of the American way admire worldwide is the widespread belief in charity and the willingness to contribute significant amounts of time and money for a wide variety of good causes. I’ve been riding in the Pan Mass Challenge for the past two years. It’s an amazing experience, driven by generous donations and lots and lots of volunteers. Even in last year’s economic environment I was able to raise donations 30 percent over my target thanks to friends, co-workers, neighbors — often people who barely know me but understand the importance of this kind of charity.

When my parents were visiting from Germany recently I gave my dad a tour of the beautiful facilities of the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA where my kids go swimming and rock-climbing and so forth. We paused for a moment in front of the wall honoring the individuals and families that have given generously to build the new building. My dad choked up a bit. That people would give thousands, hundreds of thousands and in some cases even millions of dollars to a local recreation center is something unheard of in European welfare states so admired by the political left in this country. And frankly, why would Europeans feel so inclined after more than half of the average person’s income has been confiscated in one way or another?

By now, you probably know what I’m getting at. Team sports are a great way for kids to learn a variety of skills and get the exercise they need. And there is also the sense of community and a bit of PR that is quite important for towns like Swampscott. We love our Big Blue and we are proud of our football team (while it hasn’t been regulated away for health concerns yet). From what I hear, a great number of our residents have donated lots of money to renovate the local stadium. That’s great. My dad will probably choke up again if I tell him — especially after he enjoyed watching his 5-year-old grandson play soccer last year in that same location thanks to the selfless efforts of organizers and coaches spending their Saturday mornings with the local kids.

The problem is that now in addition to those generous donations officials are looking to the taxpayer to cover the cost for an artificial surface. From what I’ve seen that would be at least a million dollars or more coming from the town. I don’t see how that is feasible — or a top priority where we don’t even know yet to exactly pay for the new police station, how and when to dredge our brooks and the harbor, how to pay for the necessary fixes to our sewer system, storm drains and roads.

Sure, we can keep putting things on a big tab and we can watch our tax burden creep up. But one day my dad and I may be staring at an empty wall and the only tears may be tears of anger.