Time & Perspective Quote by Dana Rohrabacher

Rohrabacher is doing a politician’s favorite kind of problem-solving: naming a crisis that sounds urgent, moral, and fixable without picking a fight. The “problem” here isn’t poverty, underfunding, or broken public services; it’s awareness. Charities are framed as already-there solutions, quietly heroic but tragically undiscovered, and the community’s failure is informational rather than structural. That move matters. It shifts responsibility away from policy and toward networking, publicity, and civic enthusiasm - a realm where elected officials can promise action (“we’ll connect people”) while avoiding the harder questions (“why do these needs exist so persistently?”).

The subtext flatters everyone in the room. Families aren’t blamed for being in need; they’re simply “not even…aware.” Potential donors and volunteers are depicted as ready and willing; they’re just missing a directory. This is political rhetoric as social lubricant: it reassures constituents that their community is fundamentally generous, and it reassures skeptics that no ideological overhaul is required.

The line’s clunkiness - “charities…exist” repeated twice - also reveals its practical origin. This sounds less like a crafted aphorism than a speech made at a fundraiser, a council meeting, or a volunteer event where the point is to validate the nonprofit ecosystem and encourage participation. The implied agenda is public-private partnership: government as convener and megaphone, charity as service provider, and citizens as the workforce. That’s a worldview, not just a suggestion.