The other stimulus

Charity | Concern over Obama's public spending need not overlook his call for private service | Mark Bergin

Associated Press/Photo by Susan Montoya Bryan

President Barack Obama called the nation to service in the weeks leading up to his inauguration. And on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Americans across the country responded, fanning out to soup kitchens, neighborhood cleanup projects, blood banks, and numerous other helpful community initiatives in every state. About 13,000 such projects generated a widespread sense of participation in Obama's presidential installment and the accompanying promise of change.

Now what?

Since that day of service and the subsequent inauguration, Obama has worked to push through unprecedented amounts of government spending in hopes of alleviating economic turmoil and its attendant suffering. The scope of that publicly funded strategy might well betray doubt about the impact of private charity.