Barbara Harman: The ‘fierce urgency’ of later
Like many people, I have been thinking about the most compelling needs our community faces in the midst of this pandemic and where we can do the most good in our individual efforts to help. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s compelling phrase, “the fierce urgency of now,” is especially resonant here, for it is indeed urgent that we act with power to support immediate needs: that we care for those who care for the sick, strengthen groups that feed families who can no longer feed themselves, help charities providing medical care for people who lack access to it, and assist organizations providing financial resources for people who have lost jobs.
It is also critical that we look downstream: Where is the fallout? Which problems, though perhaps less evident, are emerging as significant? How can we identify the second, less immediate and obvious, phase of the pandemic’s impact?
Just as we learn every day about the novel manner in which this novel virus behaves, we also discover less obvious ways in which it silently damages and challenges our community. To take a few examples:
- Front-line health care workers suddenly need wills and custody documents in case they fall ill, and many others need help applying for benefits they have never before needed.
- Child abuse and domestic violence rise as vulnerable people and those dangerous to them are confined together in small spaces.
- Mental health problems escalate as we are isolated from each other and lose our social supports.
- Schools move to remote learning, providing access to laptops and hotspots. This is a good first step, but learning on a tablet is simply not the same as learning in a live classroom: Who is going to reimagine learning in two dimensions? And who will address the learning loss — for learning loss there will be — when the pandemic finally ends?
But even beyond this crucial second phase, I would argue that we also need to think about a third phase in our response. In a community where inequalities in income and opportunity are deep, serious and entrenched, there is an urgent need for the services offered by a vibrant nonprofit sector. The list is long, but here’s a start: enrichment activities that affluent children routinely enjoy but poor children do not; arts programs that not only encourage creativity but also serve as second homes for youth and as resources for families; literacy classes for adults who can’t read; supports for our veterans; aid for immigrant families; help for returning citizens who have been incarcerated; and assistance for LGBTQ youth. While this third phase is critical to our survival as a community, we will be utterly unprepared — just as we were for the virus itself — if we don’t begin thinking about it now and supporting nonprofits that have pivoted for the moment to remote operation but will need to retool once again for in-person services once it is safe to do so.
So, as you consider “the fierce urgency of now,” begin thinking as well about what I would call “the fierce urgency of later.” Support organizations that are helping the vulnerable among us. But think too about the medium- and longer-term need and reach out to your local theaters (whose very existence also supports local coffee shops, restaurants, stores, and even parking garages), after-school providers, community centers, and environmental organizations — indeed, to all those that provide critical services but may not, without your help, survive another day to serve those who depend upon them.
Let’s make sure that the world we come back to is one that supports all members of this community — and that there is indeed a “community” to come back to.
Barbara Harman is founder and chair of the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. She is also executive director of the Harman Family Foundation.
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