By Grant Oliphant, President, The Heinz Endowments
TFN member Grant Oliphant has been President of The Heinz Endowments since 2014 and has been a positive force in philanthropy and public service for nearly three decades. A leading proponent of the idea that philanthropy must be vocal in the defense of its values, he has written and lectured extensively on issues of equity, race and social justice, and championed principles that address critical community and societal issues in Pittsburgh and beyond.
Today, Grant shared on The Heinz Endowment’s blog his own reflections on what he hopes are some of the lessons we as a society learn and take to heart and put into action post Covid-19 as we rebuild from a place learning, community, and hope.
“Most of us have heard the old joke about a righteous man caught in a flood. As he prays for rescue from the rising water, first there appears a helper offering to carry him on his shoulders to safety, then a Good Samaritan in a rowboat, then a helicopter dangling a ladder. In each case, he rejects the offer, saying, “God will provide.” He perishes and, standing indignantly before the Almighty, exclaims, “But I thought you would provide!” To which God responds, “I gave you strong shoulders, a boat and a helicopter—what else did you want?!”
Humans can be astonishingly reluctant, at both a personal and societal level, to accept what a moment in time is offering us. We blur those insights with our politics and preconceptions, our biases and opinions. Numerous studies have shown how readily we dismiss even the most compelling of evidence if it runs counter to our vigorously held beliefs. We are prone to living in a world we invent in our own heads, apparently never more so than in this age of massive information overload.
Already we can see that happening with this pandemic. It manifested in our country’s catastrophic lack of preparation as the situation in Wuhan unfolded and early dismissal of the virus as an alien phenomenon and partisan fantasy. It appears in efforts to demonize Chinese people and racialize the disease, to wish away the science of social distancing, to mock scientists and medical professionals for their warnings, to blame hospitals for equipment shortages, to dismiss the loss of life as exaggerated, to pretend we are all affected equally regardless of race and poverty, and to brandish some pathetic notion of economic machismo as the essential alternative to flattening the curve.”
Read the rest of his blog here.
About the Author
Grant Oliphant has been President of The Heinz Endowments since 2014 and has been a positive force in philanthropy and public service for nearly three decades. A leading proponent of the idea that philanthropy must be vocal in the defense of its values, he has written and lectured extensively on issues of equity, race and social justice, and championed principles that address critical community and societal issues in Pittsburgh and beyond.
Following a six-year term as President of The Pittsburgh Foundation, Grant joined the Endowments where he reshaped the foundation’s grantmaking around three key strategic areas based on the core ethos of a ‘just community,’ supporting commitments and initiatives that enhance the quality of life for all.