MacKenzie Scott: A Philanthropy of the Spirit in an Age of Abandonment

The Kansas City Globe e-Edition
The 1st AACTA Awards were presented at the Sydney Opera House on 31 January 2012. The ceremony was preceded by a luncheon at the Westin Hotel in Sydney on 15 January 2012 (Wikimedia Commons / Photo by Eva Rinaldi)
The 1st AACTA Awards were presented at the Sydney Opera House on 31 January 2012. The ceremony was preceded by a luncheon at the Westin Hotel in Sydney on 15 January 2012 (Wikimedia Commons / Photo by Eva Rinaldi)

There are moments in history when a single act of generosity reveals the moral decay of an entire nation. MacKenzie Scott’s $ 38 million gift to Alabama State University, the largest in its 158-year history, is such a moment.

It is not merely a financial transaction, nor the casual benevolence of the wealthy. It is a moral indictment against a society that has grown indifferent to the suffering of …