J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, joined by his wife, Jennifer Rauchet (at left), arrives to meet with Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 5, 2024.

Senate Republicans are pushing back firmly in vetting some of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees. But it remains to be seen whether this will continue through the confirmation process – or whether this will be the high-water mark of resistance from the GOP.

Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, is facing strong headwinds to his nomination over questions about his character, notably reports of habitual heavy drinking and a sexual assault allegation (both of which he’s denied). Republican senators are openly expressing concerns about his alleged actions, and Mr. Trump is reportedly considering replacing Mr. Hegseth with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The nominee’s struggles come after Matt Gaetz, Mr. Trump’s initial pick for attorney general, was forced to withdraw his nomination as numerous Republicans balked over allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct.

But while Mr. Trump has chosen a number of other deeply polarizing figures for other spots in his administration – like Kash Patel to lead the FBI, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services – they may face an easier path in the Senate. That is simply because, although their views and plans are far outside the historic norms for nominees to their jobs, at first blush they don’t seem to have the same level of personal baggage.

Evan Vucci/AP/File

Tulsi Gabbard arrives before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh.

North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer told the Monitor that the chances Mr. Hegseth will win confirmation are “tenuous,” and expressed concerns about his reported drinking problems. But he said he thought Mr. Trump would get more deference from Republican senators for his other polarizing nominees because their controversies were mostly “policy, versus the personal stuff.”

“The personal character things are not unimportant. I do think that they’ll get [more deference], they being Kash and Tulsi and RFK,” he said.

Some Democrats expect the same. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who like Mr. Hegseth is an Iraq War veteran, said she “wouldn’t go that far” when asked if his imperiled nomination showed that her GOP colleagues were taking seriously their advice-and-consent role – and might show the same diligence for other controversial nominees.

“I think he’s such a terrible candidate with very, very clear issues that it’s hard for anybody to stand up and say that this man is actually qualified. I don’t think he’d even pass a background check,” she said.

Mark Schiefelbein/AP/File

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., speaks during a press event on Capitol Hill, Feb. 27, 2024, in Washington.

While Republicans immediately pushed back on Mr. Gaetz’s nomination, and many took a wait-and-see approach on Mr. Hegseth, they’ve been more vocal about defending other Trump nominees.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that Mr. Patel “will be” confirmed. “People I know and who I trust speak well of him and I’m looking forward to meeting with him,” Mr. Cornyn told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

It’s notable that Mr. Trump is having more trouble getting his nominees confirmed this time than he did after he first won office, even though he faces a more favorable Senate.

Back in 2017, his Cabinet nominees faced a tougher crowd. Republicans had one fewer Senate seat, and there were a lot more Republican senators who were willing to outwardly criticize the president than there are now. But back then, he largely picked candidates who were palatable to Senate Republicans. This time, he’s gone fully with picks that reflect the anti-establishment ethos of his Make America Great Again movement, putting up nominees that leave even some of his regular Senate allies uncomfortable.

José Luis Villegas/AP/File

Kash Patel, former chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, speaks at a rally in Minden, Nevada, Oct. 8, 2022.

Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Patel, and Ms. Gabbard will all face their own hurdles. But many Senate Republicans don’t seem nearly as disquieted with them as they do with Mr. Hegseth.

Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, an Army veteran and survivor of sexual assault and a key vote on Mr. Hegseth’s nomination, said after meeting with him that she still wasn’t convinced she could support his nomination. “We have to have a very thorough vetting process,” she said in a Thursday Fox News interview.

Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is scheduled to meet with Mr. Hegseth next Monday, told the Monitor “I certainly have a lot of questions” about him that “stem from what I have read that you [journalists] have dutifully reported.”

Mr. Hegseth remains defiant. “As long as Donald Trump wants me here in this fight, I’m going to be standing here in this fight,” he told reporters Thursday afternoon.

But even Republican senators who back Mr. Hegseth have openly wondered whether he’ll stick through the process.

“I’m all-in for Pete. I think Pete will be great at this. It’s just – how long is he willing to go through this? You know, that’s tough. It’s a tough process,” said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

Mr. Mullin said he didn’t expect an “easy process” for Mr. Trump’s other nominees. But he indicated they won’t face the same level of hesitation as Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Gaetz from the Republicans who will determine whether or not Mr. Trump’s nominees survive confirmation.

“I think he’s the most challenging nomination that the president’s put forth since Matt’s gone,” he said.

Restoring the Notre Dame cathedral has been profound for people like archaeologist Dorothée Chaoui-Derieux.

Since the 2019 fire that saw Notre Dame’s famous spire burn to ash, Ms. Chaoui-Derieux and her team of 20 have unearthed an abundance of medieval treasures. They include forgotten tombs, headless sculptures, and the fragmented remains of a vibrantly colored 13th-century rood screen – the partition that separates the choir from the nave – buried beneath the cathedral floor.

“We’ve literally had our hands in 2,000 years of history, excavating and digging up the past,” says Ms. Chaoui-Derieux, chief curator of heritage at the Regional Archaeological Service of cultural affairs for the Paris region. “Our goal is to make sure this medieval cathedral, and all its history, comes back to life.”

As Paris’ beloved cathedral gets its last-minute touches before it reopens to the public Dec. 8, people like Ms. Chaoui-Derieux who have worked tirelessly on Notre Dame’s restoration say the public is in for more than a few surprises.

“The cathedral was very dark; it had accumulated centuries’ worth of dust,” says Ms. Chaoui-Derieux. “Now, people will find bright-colored stone and clean stained-glass windows. We’re going to rediscover a cathedral bursting with light.”

In the aftermath of the fire, when French President Emmanuel Macron promised to restore Notre Dame in five years, many said it couldn’t be done. But hundreds of millions of euros in donations poured in from around the world, and over 1,000 restorers, artisans, and craftspeople have risen to the challenge of Mr. Macron’s steep timeline.

Now, they say, the public can expect a revitalized cathedral that incorporates old and new, respecting tradition while also breathing new life into the iconic cathedral.

“Everyone involved – from City Hall and the Catholic diocese to artisans and academics – has put everything they have into this project,” says Sylvie Sagnes, an anthropologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and member of a multidisciplinary research team on the Notre Dame restoration. “We all wanted to respect this national monument that generates so much emotion for people.”

Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters

Construction workers climb on scaffolding at Notre Dame, in Paris, Dec. 3, 2024, as restoration work continues before the cathedral's reopening.

Notre Dame’s universal appeal

The world watched in disbelief as the Notre Dame cathedral caught fire on April 15, 2019. By the following day, the cathedral’s wooden spire had collapsed, its upper walls were damaged, and most of its wooden roof was destroyed. The fire caused an outpouring of generosity, with individuals and businesses donating upward of $1 billion toward restoration efforts within two years.

Notre Dame “is both a religious and a cultural monument, and has universal value to people,” says Nathalie Heinich, a French sociologist and author. “To see a building that had remained identical since its construction be destroyed, it created a rare emotional reaction. There was a sense that both authenticity and antiquity – two fundamental heritage values – had been affected.”

Though the fire was traumatic, it provided an opportunity to look at Notre Dame through a new lens. Early on, some called to restore the cathedral using contemporary design. But those ideas were eventually scrapped as heritage experts pushed for a restoration that respected the vision of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, one of the architects who oversaw a major restoration of the cathedral in the mid-19th century.

In August, the National Commission on Heritage and Architecture unanimously opposed President Macron’s plans to replace stained glass windows in six chapels in the cathedral’s nave with more modern versions.

And despite an international competition to reimagine the rebuild of the cathedral’s famous spire, Mr. Macron ultimately opted to restore it to Viollet-le-Duc’s conception. Forty carpenters from French building company Le Bras Frères meticulously studied the 19th-century sketches to re-create the medieval wooden spire.

“We used the same methods as in that era, except that this time we used electric machines to cut the pieces of wood,” says carpenter Patrick Jouenne, who quit his job to become the lead carpenter on the spire rebuild. “It was a challenge but also an honor to work for Notre Dame. You realize, wow, you can’t dream of anything better.”

Michel Euler/AP

Designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac displays a liturgical vestment for bishops to be worn at the December reopening of Notre Dame, Nov. 20, 2024, in Paris.

Decorating the cathedral

As the restoration moved forward, there was one thing that was not up for debate: the need for a fire alarm system. At the time of the fire in 2019, the centuries-old Notre Dame did not have any type of detection apparatus in place.

“We had to envision all the possible scenarios and necessary measures, keeping in mind the sheer size of Notre Dame, and the interaction between fire and ventilation,” says Benjamin Truchot, project manager of the fire unit at the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks, which relied on digital and scale physical models to create an innovative fire detection system. “That was the big challenge: to offer a modern security system within such an ancient structure.”

While architects were keen to respect traditional methods structurally, there has been more leeway when it comes to garb and artifacts within the church.

Fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who has dressed Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Pope John Paul II, says he was given free rein to design the liturgical garments for Notre Dame. The robes he came up with, made of off-white Scottish wool gabardine, feature sprays of red, blue, and yellow fragments surrounding a gold cross.

“The color represents all of us, humanity, the young and old coming together,” said Mr. Castelbajac, from his Paris studio. “We need a universal language.”

Last month, the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee gave Notre Dame the official Olympic bell, which will join two smaller bells – named Chiara and Carlos – to be rung during Mass.

And on Dec. 11, Notre Dame’s traditional choir will step aside for a special concert by an amateur choir made up of nearly 100 craftspeople and artisans who took part in the restoration.

But part of Notre Dame is still indelibly rooted in tradition. Last week, as a statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus that was saved during the fire made its way back to the cathedral in a public procession, there was a sense of Notre Dame’s resilience, its strength to pull itself up out of the ashes.

“Notre Dame has continued to provide us with hope and renaissance,” says Parisian Marie-Aline Girod, who took part in the procession. “It’s the heart of Paris.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated Dec. 6, the same day as publication, to correct the spelling of Dorothée Chaoui-Derieux’s name.

Stefan Jeremiah/AP

Members of the New York police crime scene unit photograph bullets on the sidewalk outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4, 2024, in New York.

Gina Moffa, a New Yorker, walked by the scene of the fatal shooting of health care industry CEO Brian Thompson on her way home from the doctor’s office on Thursday afternoon, just one day after the attack.

Moments before, she discovered her insurance deductible hadn’t been met. So she had to pay an unexpected $1,600 for the office visit.

Ms. Moffa is hardly alone in feeling overwhelmed by the costs and complexities of the U.S. health system. Between 2005 and 2022, the share of working-age Americans struggling with medical-bill problems or debts increased from 34% to 41%, according to a survey by The Commonwealth Fund. An analysis by KFF, an independent health care research group, estimates that people in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt.

Such pressures may have been a factor in the assassination-style killing of the leader of America’s largest health insurance company Wednesday morning, according to evidence gathered by police so far. Those pressures may also explain the lack of empathy seen in a number of public comments about the killing, says Ms. Moffa, a clinical social worker, who lives on Manhattan’s West Side.

A sign of motive? “Deny,” “defend,” and “depose.”

Detectives say the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” were written on shell casings discovered at the scene of Wednesday morning’s shooting, NBC reported. These apparent messages from the shooter echo critics who say the insurance industry has deployed a strategy of “delay, deny, defend” to reduce the number of claims paid.

SOURCE:

Peterson-KFF Health Tracker System

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

The health insurance industry in some polls ranks as one of the least trusted in America. That doesn’t mean the typical American would have any support for this week’s shooting death. But an empathy vacuum was reflected on social media this week, where the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University identified thousands of posts cheering Mr. Thompson’s death.

“There’s a bigger conversation at play here that we’re trying to push down the way we always do,” says Ms. Moffa, author of “Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss.” “But what I think can’t be ignored is that so many millions of people lack empathy, and we have to understand why.”

Concerns about security for CEOs

Police have not yet confirmed the shooter’s identity or motive. But Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the New York Police Department, called it a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.”

According to his wife, Paulette, Mr. Thompson had reportedly received threats related to coverage decisions. Medical industry professionals also saw threats against them rise during the pandemic.

But despite two protests earlier this year related to coverage denials at the company’s headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Mr. Thompson was alone and unguarded on Wednesday. He was killed just before dawn as he walked to a conference from a New York hotel in midtown. The shooter, who appears in police-issued photos as a slim young man in a hooded sweatshirt, fled via an e-bike and disappeared into Central Park. A massive search ended its second day Thursday without finding the gunman.

The killing has stirred discussion of whether corporate executives often lack appropriate security protection.

It has also put a focus on one of America’s largest and most controversial industries. In part, public reactions reflected how social media often rewards expressions of schadenfreude or the feeling of satisfaction when another person struggles.

Many also expressed sympathy for Mr. Thompson, his family and the rule of law. “This is horrifying news,” Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig wrote on the social media platform X. “This kind of violence is never acceptable.”

But the celebratory responses continued, echoing the way some people reacted positively to President-elect Donald Trump’s near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this year and snidely to the loss of wealthy explorers touring the Titanic wreck last year.

“When other’s human lives are deemed worthless, it is not surprising to have others view your life of no value as well,” wrote one medical doctor on social media.

Insurer’s denial rates more than doubled

UnitedHealthcare is America’s largest health insurer. A Senate report released this year found that the firm’s services denial rate after a serious medical issue almost tripled in recent years, increasing from 8.7% to 22.7% between 2019 and 2022. Some critics have described this shift as evidence of profiteering.

There are ample signs of other firms pursuing higher profits, too. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield recently announced cap on coverage of anesthesia in three states, drawing protests. On Thursday, with the news of Mr. Thompson’s death amplifying public outcry about the industry, the company reversed that plan. “Don’t mess with the health and well-being of New Yorkers – not on my watch,” warned a statement Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, one of the states where customers would have faced the cutbacks.

At the same time, there are some rising efforts to alleviate medical debt and curb the costs of borrowing in the U.S. After the three main credit rating agencies found that medical debt wasn’t a good predictor of creditworthiness, the 14% of Americans who had unpaid medical debt on their reports in 2022 dwindled to 5% by the middle of 2023.

For many, like Ms. Moffa, responses to the shooting reveal that “It’s hard for us to look at nuance and be able to hold two opposing thoughts at one time,” says Ms. Moffa. Many people feel their health insurance needs aren’t being met. Yet Mr. Thompson was also a human being.

“It’s a very complicated story that brings out larger themes in people’s lives and feeling prioritized and cared about by corporations.”

The trail at Thomas & Palmer Brook in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, winds through mature pasture, wetlands, and forest.

Residents love this trail because of its wet coolness in the summer; its bright orange sugar maples in autumn, the contrast of green pines and white snow in the winter. But on a recent Monday, wildfire haze from the Butternut Fire obscured the ridgeline of nearby East Mountain, where just days before Black Hawk helicopters dumped water they had collected from local ponds.

Doug Brown, director of stewardship at the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, a nonprofit that maintains nearly 14,000 acres of wild land and over 60 miles of trails in this western Massachusetts county, stares into the distant haze, shielding his eyes from the sun.

“Climate vulnerabilities show up in a lot of different ways in our community,” he says. “But we weren’t thinking a lot about fire.”

The Butternut Fire that broke out on Nov. 18 consumed portions of the Appalachian Trail, as well as over 1,400 acres in East Mountain State Forest, here in Great Barrington and nearby Sheffield. The fire quickly became Massachusetts’ largest wildfire this year after months of record drought in the Northeast. It took nearly a week for a crew of local volunteer firefighters, state emergency services, and wildfire fighting crews from as far as Wyoming to contain the blaze.

“It’s not something I’ve seen out here before,” says Mr. Brown. “I’ve been through areas under wildfire in the western U.S., and I’ve been in those smoky contexts, but I’ve never seen a plume of fire come over the hillside” in Massachusetts.

The Butternut Fire finally fizzled out on Dec. 1. No lives or structures were lost in the blaze. Firefighters and local police are currently investigating the cause of the fire, but suspect that humans were the source.

Mackenzie Farkus/The Christian Science Monitor

Fog and wildfire haze from the Butternut Fire obscure East Mountain in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on Nov. 26, 2024.

In October alone, wildfires across Massachusetts increased by 1,200% over the state’s annual October average of 15 wildland fires.

“We can tell you that we’ve had no thunderstorm development in the month of October and November, which means there’s been no natural-caused fires,” Massachusetts State Fire Supervisor David Celino says. “So all of the fire activity we’ve seen is human caused in some form or fashion.”

And that, he and other forestry professionals and firefighters say, is a new challenge for this forested region.

With a decreasing winter snowpack, which leaves tree roots more vulnerable to cold, plus a new wave of forest pests that have migrated with warmer temperatures, the Northeast has unusually high levels of dead wood in its forest, experts here say. When that combines with a drought – like this year’s driest fall in at least 120 years for portions of the region – the risk of wildfire shoots up.

But the people who live in and around the trees here are not used to thinking about forest fires. Now Mr. Celino, along with other forestry professionals and firefighters across New England, are trying to change that.

Wildfire lessons for the Northeast

The Northeast is one of the most densely forested regions in the U.S., with 170 million acres of forestland cover and tree canopy and other green spaces covering 35% of urban areas in the region. The region isn’t yet facing wildfires on the scale of those on the West Coast, where burns can engulf entire towns. But wildfire preparedness is generally lacking, most experts here agree.

In Connecticut, for instance, there were 200 fires this past fall.

“Those oak trees ... were lighting up like matchsticks,” says Andy Bicking, executive director of the Connecticut Forest & Park Association.

In a recent research paper for the National Fire Academy, Christopher Renshaw, interim fire chief at the University of Connecticut, found that overall wildfire preparedness in Connecticut – from fire policy to public education on wildfires – is behind the rapid changes the state’s forests are facing.

Yet there are models elsewhere in the country for Northeastern firefighters to study, Mr. Renshaw says. In his paper, he highlighted the 2023 wildfires on Maui as a preview of potential threats to Connecticut’s forests.

“A large, vast percentage of our country [is] already dealing with this problem,” he says. “So we don’t have to go far for lessons learned.”

Innovative ideas

Indeed, some unique wildfire management efforts are already taking shape in the Northeast.

Elia Del Molino says he could see the Butternut Fire and smell its smoke from April Hill, the home of Greenagers, a nonprofit where he works as conservation director. The organization employs youth to maintain and clear trails alongside local environmental groups like the Berkshire Natural Resources Council. Not long ago, they didn’t even have wildfires on their radar. Now, Greenagers is creating training programs for members to get certification for fighting blazes in their forests.

“When we build trails, pretty much the first step is you dig the fire line,” says Mr. Del Molino.

Young people are also addressing the strains put on local fire departments. Despite declining numbers in recent decades, some volunteer firefighter departments have seen an uptick in younger people hoping to help save their forests.

Steven Senne/AP

A fire-damaged tree stands surrounded by ash, Nov. 10, 2024, in Lynn Woods Reservation, after a brush fire moved through the area, in Lynn, Massachusetts.

The Williamstown Fire Department, for instance, located in northern Berkshire County, has seen an increase of eager part-time volunteers over the past few years among students attending Williams College.

Further south, on a 600-acre plot in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, one of the largest wilderness areas on the East Coast, forestry professionals study prescribed fire, wildfire effects, and fire tools at the Silas Little Experimental Forest. According to Dr. Michael Gallagher, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station and the lead scientist at the experimental forest, his team has received more questions recently from forestry management professionals and firefighters about monitoring and managing wildfires.

“We will go out and participate in prescribed burning or wildfire operations to support local agencies,” Dr. Gallagher says. All of the technicians at the experimental forest are “red carded,” meaning they’re all qualified wildland firefighters. “Through those experiences, we also get a very good sense of what managers need and how to respond to them.”

The team at Silas Little Experimental Forest has been focusing a lot on terrestrial laser scanning, or terrestrial lidar. The device is a laser range finder built so that it can pivot on a tripod and scan the whole forest. “We use that to collect very rich structural data about the forest,” Dr. Gallagher explains. “That data can help describe the state of the forest, whether there’s a major fuel hazard there or the hazard’s been mitigated through some type of management, maybe prescribed fire or mechanical thinning.”

He describes it as a device that is easy to learn to use because it has one button, does the work itself, and only takes about 30 seconds to collect the scan. Lidar can also track forestry changes over time, even in the midst of multiple wildfires. “If you do a treatment where a wildfire comes through, you can continue to go back and use this monitoring tool through time as the forest changes after that,” Dr. Gallagher says.

Forests in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and even the majority of the East Coast, are fire-adapted and even fire-dependent. Prescribed burning, Dr. Gallagher says, is a proactive approach to reducing wildfires. Maintaining the forests with these burns can help them grow and flourish. “Fire is a natural process and a necessary process to keep these assemblages of species going.”

As for East Mountain State Forest, Mr. Brown says, it will be fine.

“The trees that remain – the oak trees in particular – they’re going to do really well,” he says. “They’re resilient against fire, and hopefully this clears the way for better forest regeneration and less invasive species coming in.”

Editor’s note: This story, originally published on Dec. 6, has been updated to correct the name of Thomas & Palmer Brook.

Reuters

Residents and National Guard members in Hendersonville, North Carolina, organize donations for people in need after flooding from Hurricane Helene, Oct. 6.

One measure of a person’s generosity – beyond, say, paying taxes or serving in the military – is in everyday donations of time or treasure to others. Helping a neighbor. Rescuing a distant relative from ruin. Sending money to strangers in need. Or, after Hurricane Helene flooded western North Carolina, the thousands of volunteers from across the United States fixing up entire communities for weeks.

Perhaps the best metric of these “bonds of affection,” to use Abraham Lincoln’s term, are the results tallied up after each GivingTuesday. This year’s day of generosity in the U.S. – now in its 13th year – provides a broad snapshot of American selflessness.

The event on Dec. 3 saw an increased percentage in donations from last year (16%) that was higher than the increase in consumer spending on Black Friday (10.6%) and Cyber Monday (10.2%). In other words, goodwill beat out goodies, an outcome that befits the deeper, spiritual meaning of the coming Christmas season.

Yet hidden in the data was a 4% increase in volunteering. This was a hopeful sign after years of hand-wringing by nonprofits that Americans, in an age of social isolation and declining trust in institutions, are increasingly avoiding unpaid activities in service to others.

“Generosity isn’t just about money – it’s about connection and community,” said Asha Curran, GivingTuesday’s chief executive officer. “In a world that can feel increasingly divided, we’re seeing people unite through simple acts of kindness that have profound ripple effects.”

The percentage of Americans who participated in GivingTuesday was up 7% from last year. “People are weary after the election,” Ms. Curran told The Chronicle of Philanthropy. A national day of giving was “a moment for a fractured citizenry to feel like they are coming together.” 

Giving has so many expressions that it is almost impossible to calculate. A report released in September by The Generosity Commission acknowledges that Americans “are reimagining giving, volunteering, and community before our eyes.” The pandemic lockdown, for example, “gave rise to spontaneously formed mutual aid networks of volunteers helping neighbors and strangers.”

“Most people identify as generous and do not believe there is a right or a wrong way for people to practice generosity,” the three-year research study found. While givers say their resources of time and money may be limited, they “describe generosity as boundless.” Even the latest data from GivingTuesday doesn’t begin to capture it.