Daddy's Philosophy and Your Gift Suggestions

Hightower with his parents in 1983

Merry happy, everyone! We’re preparing for our holiday weekend, and we got to thinking: What organizations are our readers supporting this year? We’d like to do a roundup post next week of different causes, groups, candidates and more that you’d like our community to know about or support through donations. Each subscriber gets just one (!) suggestion—we want to challenge you to really hone in on something or someone special who may need a little extra attention from your fellow Lowdowners. Leave your suggestions in the comments, and next Friday, we’ll share what you’ve suggested, plus a few of our own.

And, if you’re still scrambling for last-minute-gifts, don’t forget, subscriptions to this newsletter make a fantastic, feisty present for all of the friends—and enemies—on your list.

We’ll leave you with this special Christmas message from Hightower. Happy holidays!

Daddy’s Philosophy

This special day got me to thinking about America’s spirit of giving, and I don’t mean this overdone business of Christmas gifts. I mean our true spirit of giving – giving of ourselves.

Yes, we are a country of rugged individualists, yet there’s also a deep, community-minded streak in each of us. We’re a people who believe in the notion that we’re all in this together, that we can make our individual lives better by contributing to the common good.

The establishment media pays little attention to grassroots generosity, focusing instead on the occasional showy donation by what it calls “philanthropists” – big tycoons who give a little piece of their billions to some university or museum in exchange for getting a building named after them. But in my mind, the real philanthropists are the millions of you ordinary folks who have precious little money to give, but consistently give of themselves, and do it without demanding that their name be engraved on a granite wall.

My own Daddy, rest his soul, was a fine example of this. With half a dozen other guys in Denison, Texas, he started the Little League baseball program volunteering to build the park, sponsor and coach the teams, run the squawking P.A. system, etc. etc. Even after I graduated from Little League, Daddy stayed working at it, because his involvement was not merely for his kids… but for all. He felt the same way about being taxed to build a public library in town. I don’t recall him ever going in that building, much less checking-out a book, but he wanted it to be there for the community and he was happy to pay his part. Not that he was a do-good liberal, for God’s sake – indeed, he called himself a conservative.

My Daddy didn’t even know he had a political philosophy, but he did, and it’s the best I’ve ever heard. He would often say to me, “Everybody does better when everybody does better.” If only our leaders in Washington and on Wall Street would begin practicing this true American Philosophy.