‘This Is the Proverbial Rainy Day.’

In times of emergency, an American sleeping giant shows how to flex.

AI generated image of our moment in history, from Gemini.

None of us yet dare “look back” on the Trump era, despite the increasing signs that the wheels are coming off.

-Not during a week when we’ve seen unquestionably the worst and most deranged speech any president has ever given.

-Not when this president pursues undeclared prelude-to-war in our hemisphere, without presenting a case to either Congress or the public, let alone gaining authorization.

-Not when this president’s closest advisor describes those around him as opportunists and zealots, and barely anyone bats an eye.

-Not when these zealots order the destruction of yet another foundation of American science and innovation. (NCAR, in Colorado.) Not when his sycophants desecrate yet another American institution by cheesily and illegally tacking on his name. (The Kennedy Center, in DC.)

-Not when the power to start a nuclear war, or a regional war, remains in one man’s bandaged hands.

But we can and must recognize those who are standing up, to defend the values and institutions that the Trump team, during its furious decline, is still in a position to damage or destroy. In the coming weeks I want to start chronicling who has stood where, when it matters.

This first podcast is about an under-publicized and perhaps unexpected source of civic strength. These are America’s philanthropic institutions—including the legacies of great wealth accumulated from the Rockefeller or Ford eras onward, which are now applied to challenges in the US and around the world.

-Large law firms, one entire political party, many famed universities, even a majority of Justices on the Supreme Court have knuckled under in capitulation.

-But foundations—remote-seeming, ponderous institutions few of us encounter in our daily lives—are quietly but firmly making a stand.

Toward the end of making their collective courage less quiet and more contagious, I recently had a podcast discussion with one of the most outspoken of their leaders. This is John Palfrey, now in his seventh year as president of the MacArthur Foundation, based in Chicago.

MacArthur is best known for its “genius” fellowships, but it is active in many other realms, in the US and around the world. Its total assets are just under $10 billion. Before coming to MacArthur, Palfrey had directed the Berkman Center on the Internet and Society at Harvard, been a tenured professor at Harvard Law School, and led Phillips Andover Academy.

This year, Palfrey has been prominent in the philanthropic world for his exhortations that institutions need to “Unite in Advance”—and that they should use their money right now, on an emergency basis, to defend the values that shore up democracy. You can read more about his efforts and messages here, here, here, and here. Those rainy day funds? The rain is pouring down.

Because Palfrey presents his case so clearly, I hope you’ll listen to the full 30-minute podcast discussion, below. His answers are precise, and he clearly extends the lessons from his powerful and privileged sector of American society to the obligations of citizenship for all of us, in emergency times.

As I’ve written many times, the late Jane Goodall had an answer for audiences around the world, especially children, who learned about society’s problems and asked, But what can I do? She would reply: Do what you can. Where you are. When you are able.

John Palfrey closes this discussion on a similar note. In the final two minutes of the recording below, he says that he ends this tumultuous year asking himself, Am I fully doing what is mine to do?

Whatever is in our control, are we doing it, to preserve this American Republic, particularly as we go into our 250th year?

I think there are going to be so many opportunities for every American to stand up and do something that represents the history and the community that we believe in.

And I think only by doing that are we going to be able to restore the fabric of this incredible, incredible American Republic.

This discussion is based on the news of the moment, but it is about the news of the future. I hope you’ll find it enlightening, and encouraging.

You can listen to or download the recording, here:

And continued after the paywall, is a transcript of much of the discussion. My thanks to John Palfrey, and my hope that his message spreads.