Hi Mark, I think we have a plan for the next four years: shrinking our area of focus to local, local, and local. I'm still on our Waste Management Board on Fishers and working with Brad to get solar power out on the island. We support local land conservation orgs and BOP and Shellfish Growers, and our son Nick's org. VOCAL-NY, which addresses systemic injustices. For 2025, we are working toward getting rid of the remaining invasives and replacing whatever lawn we have left with food crops (ha ha we'll need a lot of help from our farmer daughter Molly) on our properties. My question on the NGOs is this. Don't NGOs do the work our government is supposed to be doing? So when philanthropies fill in the gaps of government, aren't we letting the government off the hook? And then, aren't philanthropies deciding what's important instead of the government - of the people - agreeing on what's important?
Hi Sarah - thanks for posting us on all you are doing. It’s great stuff. As for your big question, yes i think i agree with you — the most important thing by far is to build a majority political coalition that will elect people who who will prioritize the matters we care most about. However, we face some pretty strong headwinds on that front right now. I think engaging with NGOs now in the right way can improve the likelihood of getting the political outcomes we seek. Finally, it’s always been true but it seems to be especially true right now (unfortunately), that there will be some important matters that governments won’t take on and these are urgent priority in my view. I think NGOs can help in a big way by focusing on those opportunities now. Anyway, I sure don’t have all of the answers but I do believe engaging wherever one can find worthwhile activities - like you are doing - is a smart move.
Hi Mark, I think we have a plan for the next four years: shrinking our area of focus to local, local, and local. I'm still on our Waste Management Board on Fishers and working with Brad to get solar power out on the island. We support local land conservation orgs and BOP and Shellfish Growers, and our son Nick's org. VOCAL-NY, which addresses systemic injustices. For 2025, we are working toward getting rid of the remaining invasives and replacing whatever lawn we have left with food crops (ha ha we'll need a lot of help from our farmer daughter Molly) on our properties. My question on the NGOs is this. Don't NGOs do the work our government is supposed to be doing? So when philanthropies fill in the gaps of government, aren't we letting the government off the hook? And then, aren't philanthropies deciding what's important instead of the government - of the people - agreeing on what's important?
Hi Sarah - thanks for posting us on all you are doing. It’s great stuff. As for your big question, yes i think i agree with you — the most important thing by far is to build a majority political coalition that will elect people who who will prioritize the matters we care most about. However, we face some pretty strong headwinds on that front right now. I think engaging with NGOs now in the right way can improve the likelihood of getting the political outcomes we seek. Finally, it’s always been true but it seems to be especially true right now (unfortunately), that there will be some important matters that governments won’t take on and these are urgent priority in my view. I think NGOs can help in a big way by focusing on those opportunities now. Anyway, I sure don’t have all of the answers but I do believe engaging wherever one can find worthwhile activities - like you are doing - is a smart move.