When want is keenly felt

I can scarcely think of a better holiday tradition than getting reacquainted each December with that Ghost Story of Christmas--aka A Christmas Carol.

Some of its scenes, and much of its plot, are so familiar as to have become caricatures. The very word "Scrooge" connotes greed and grumpiness; hurl it as an insult and its meaning is universally understood.

Like watching an old movie you've seen many times (and there have been several magnificent screen versions of Dickens' holiday classic), every re-reading reveals something--a detail, a phrase, a perspective--you hadn't noticed before.

This year what caught my attention was the two men who come to visit Scrooge in his counting house on Christmas Eve.

Everyone knows the gist: The gentlemen come in just as Scrooge's nephew is leaving, hoping to solicit a donation for the poor, and are taken aback when Scrooge asks whether the prisons, union workhouses, the treadmill and the Poor Law are still in full vigor.

"They scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," one of the benevolent visitors says. "A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth."

The men chose this time of year, they said, "because it is a time, of all others, when want is keenly felt, and abundance rejoices."

Scrooge is unmoved, of course, and the pair leaves empty-handed. But the visit forebodes the evening's impending visit by the fettered spirit of Jacob Marley, who offers Scrooge a chance to avoid a similar torturous fate.

When Marley departs, Scrooge follows him to the window, where he looks out on a pandemonium of phantoms, all chained and wailing and wandering in restless haste and remorse: "The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever."

It would take three more spirits and several peeks into Christmases past, present and future before Scrooge finally internalized Marley's admonition that the common welfare, charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all his business.

So it is appropriate at this rolling time of year, when Marley said he suffered most and want is indeed keenly felt, to consider our own reckoning with the fact that whatever our occupation may be, mankind is our business.

It is joyful to report that Arkansas is one of only a few states that exemplify the irony of being both highly impoverished and philanthropically generous.

We have more than our share of poor families and children, and we give more than our share of our income to charitable causes, though our means may be modest.

This was highlighted in a National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) report on the impact of advocacy three years ago. The study profiled and analyzed five organizations each from four Southern states over a five-year period.

The facts and figures section for each state listed statistical philanthropy information, and it was surprising that Arkansas giving was twice that (in whole dollars) of Alabama and Louisiana, and three times that of Mississippi.

Nationally, our state ranks 20th overall in per capita giving. Of those making $50,000 or more, our median contribution of $3,554 represents 6.3 percent of our median discretionary income, which lands us at number five and seven, respectively, among all states.

We can boast of being a state full of Scrooges, all right--reformed, post-haunting Scrooges.

And the words of Scrooge's visitors on Christmas Eve are as relevant to Arkansas as if spoken yesterday: "Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

Those men were advocates for the poor and destitute; they were acting on a particular cause for a vulnerable community.

The NCRP report highlights advocacy organization achievements and their remarkable ripple effect in helping communities.

Collectively, the 20 nonprofits spent $41.9 million over five years on advocacy and organizing, the bulk of which (78 percent) was contributed by foundations. But the total value of monetized benefits achieved was $4.7 billion.

That means every dollar invested returned $114 in local community impact, which is not only impressive as a performance measure, but also inspiring when gauging social significance toward the greater good.

The five Arkansas nonprofit organizations showcased in the study were Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Center for Artistic Revolution, Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center and Rural Community Alliance.

There are, of course, many organizations (including local churches) whose mission is well-aligned with this season of giving. Dickens ends his story by noting that some laughed at the alteration in Scrooge from a humbug-uttering miser to a giddy do-gooder.

"But he let them laugh," Dickens wrote, "for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset ...

"His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."

May it also be enough for all of us.

And as Tiny Tim might have observed, God bless advocates for better communities, every one!

------------v------------

Dana Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.

Editorial on 12/19/2014

Upcoming Events