My New Year’s Resolution Suggestion for All Government And Institutional Leaders: Work for the Common Good

The Last Thing Any Community Needs

The last thing any community needs is leadership that encourages a culture of contempt and condemnation.

We're drowning in it - hatred spread effortlessly through social media and news feeds, amplified anonymously but also brazenly when people in positions of authority give permission. School trustees weaponizing governance to target vulnerable youth. Presidents hijacking tragedy for personal attacks. Faith leaders framing inclusion as threat. Elected officials treating human dignity as negotiable based on political calculation.

These aren't abstract failures. They create the conditions where marginalized people are attacked, excluded, and killed while institutions meant to protect them either stand aside or actively participate in their persecution.

Where This Culture of Contempt Leads Us

The progression is predictable and devastating:

Dehumanizing rhetoric gets normalized as "free speech" or "legitimate debate"

→ Authority figures fail to intervene - minimizing threats or enabling them

→ Symbolic violence escalates - harassment, vandalism, intimidation

→ Physical violence becomes inevitable - Bondi Beach massacres, assassinations, hate crimes

We treat words as if they don't lead to violence, right up until we're standing over bodies. We minimize escalation patterns at every stage, telling ourselves "it's not that bad yet." We confuse tolerance with moral abdication, as if respecting "all perspectives" means accepting those that actively harm others.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde named it clearly at the now-famous inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral in January 2025 when she faced a torrent of vitriol for asking the President to show mercy: "The culture of contempt is threatening to destroy us."

Her sermon came just hours after Trump had signed a flurry of executive orders, including one halting refugee admissions and escalating deportation efforts. When asked later what moved her to speak so directly, Budde explained that she was driven by "the level of license to be really quite cruel" that some people now feel, and by "the fear that I have seen and experienced among our people — people that I know and love, both within the immigrant community and within the LGBTQ community, and how terrified so many are."

"I was trying to say, 'The country has been entrusted to you,'" she reflected. "And one of the qualities of a leader is mercy, right? Mercy. And to be mindful of the people who are scared."

The presidential response was as predictable as it was petty: Trump attacked Budde as "nasty," demanded an apology, and his supporters called for her deportation. She refused.

Who Really Wins?

Nobody.

Not the targets - who lose safety, dignity, belonging, sometimes their lives.

Not the communities - who lose trust, cohesion, the capacity to solve problems together.

Not even the perpetrators - who lose their humanity and poison our children's futures in a fractured society through their catastrophic failure as role models.

Not the bystanders - who lose moral clarity when institutions they trusted model contempt.

The only "winners" are those who profit from division itself - demagogues who build power on grievance, platforms that monetize outrage, movements that require an enemy to maintain cohesion. But even they're governing ruins.

What Thriving Communities Actually Need

Thriving communities rely on strong leadership that:

• Values respect and understanding - treating people with dignity regardless of disagreement

• Works to build bridges - creating dialogue across difference rather than weaponizing division

• Supports belonging and acceptance - ensuring everyone can participate fully in community life

• Works for the common good - prioritizing collective wellbeing over personal or political advantage

This isn't abstract or idealistic. It's the basic requirement for functional democratic society.

What "Common Good" Actually Means

"Common good" isn't some vague feel-good concept. It's concrete and measurable.

It means leaders asking themselves:

"Does this action make our community stronger or more fractured?"

"Does it protect the vulnerable or endanger them?"

"Does it build trust or erode it?"

"Does it enable all community members to thrive or only some?"

It means recognizing that:

• LGBTQ+ youth who fear for their lives because school boards won't protect them are part of "our community"

• Immigrant families paying taxes and being good neighbours are part of "our community"

• People with disabilities, Indigenous communities, religious minorities - all part of the community leaders are called to serve

The common good includes everyone or it includes no one.

What This Looks Like in Practice

When a school trustee is asked to support SOGI policies: ❌    Common good LOST: Frame inclusion as "ideology" threatening parents' rights ✅    Common good SERVED: Recognize that protecting vulnerable youth protects everyone's children in creating safe schools

When a mayor addresses rising hate crimes: ❌    Common good LOST: Minimize incidents as isolated, treat rhetoric as "just free speech" ✅    Common good SERVED: Name the pattern explicitly, intervene early, create accountability for escalation

When a faith leader discusses controversial social issues: ❌    Common good LOST: Use "religious freedom" to justify exclusion and discrimination ✅    Common good SERVED: Demonstrate what mercy, compassion, and genuine belonging look like

When a premier responds to Indigenous land rights: ❌    Common good LOST: Treat reconciliation as political calculation, prioritize extractive industries ✅    Common good SERVED: Honour treaties, support sovereignty, build relationship in good faith

When a president addresses refugee policy: ❌    Common good LOST: Weaponize fear of "the other," frame asylum seekers as threats ✅    Common good SERVED: Uphold international obligations, recognize shared humanity, tell the truth about contributions immigrants make

The Choice Before Leaders

Bishop Budde faced a predictable choice when she addressed President Trump at his inauguration service: stay silent and safe, or speak truth and face the fury.

She chose courage. She asked for mercy for those who are scared - LGBTQ+ children, immigrant families. She refused to apologize for defending the defenceless. When attacked as "nasty" and told she should be deported, she responded with clarity: "I will not apologize for asking for mercy for others."

This is what working for the common good looks like: prioritizing protection of the vulnerable over political safety.

Every leader faces similar choices, just at smaller scales:

• The school trustee who can vote with the LGBTQ+ community or with the vocal minority demanding exclusion

• The mayor who can name rising hate speech explicitly or minimize it to avoid controversy

• The councillor who can support affordable housing or defer to NIMBY pressure

• The police chief who can enforce laws equally or selectively based on who's complaining

• The university president who can protect academic freedom or cave to donor demands

Each choice either serves the common good or fractures it further.

A New Year's Resolution for Leaders

So here's my suggestion for every government and institutional leader as we begin 2026:

Resolve to work for the common good by:

1. Naming harm when you see it  Don't wait until it escalates to violence. Call out dehumanizing rhetoric, institutional failures, and permission structures for hatred while intervention is still possible.

2. Centering the vulnerable  Let those being targeted define what safety and dignity require. Build policy around their needs, not the comfort of those demanding their exclusion.

3. Modeling bridge-building  Create spaces for authentic dialogue across difference. Demonstrate that disagreement doesn't require contempt, that democracy means working through conflict, not weaponizing it.

4. Choosing courage over calculation  Do what's right even when it's politically risky. Stand up even when you'll be attacked for it. Refuse to sacrifice vulnerable people for your own safety.

5. Building accountability structures  Create mechanisms to track whether your actions serve the common good. Listen to community feedback, especially from those historically excluded. Measure outcomes for the most marginalized.

6. Refusing to give permission for hatred  Understand that your words and actions create permission structures. What you normalize, others will amplify. What you minimize, others will escalate.

7. Remembering who you serve  Not your party, not your donors, not the loudest voices or your political future. The entire community - especially those who have no other advocates.

The Urgent Questions

What are we doing wrong? We're treating words as if they don't lead to violence. We're minimizing escalation patterns at every stage. We're confusing tolerance with moral abdication. We're leaving leadership to those who model contempt. We're failing to build counter-structures before we need them.

Bishop Budde showed us the alternative: take stated threats seriously, intervene early in the escalation cycle, understand that protecting the vulnerable is non-negotiable, stand up even when it's risky, and refuse to apologize for defending the defenceless.

How do we get back on track? By naming the pattern explicitly so people can recognize the progression from rhetoric to violence.

• By modeling alternative leadership that demonstrates courage, clarity, and consistency.

• By building authentic belonging rather than settling for tolerance.

• By intervening early when we see dehumanizing language or institutional failures. By creating spaces where people can practice courage together.

• By connecting local struggles to global patterns.

• By focusing relentlessly on those most vulnerable, letting them define what they need and building what supports them.

• And above all, by choosing leaders who work for the common good and holding them accountable when they don't.

This isn't naive optimism. It's practical necessity.

A culture of contempt will destroy our communities, our democracy, our capacity to solve collective problems. We can't afford more leaders who prioritize division over unity, grievance over problem-solving, power over service.

The Work Ahead

2026 offers a choice: continue the descent into contempt and condemnation, or choose differently.

Bishop Budde said: "We can bring multiple perspectives into a common space and do so with dignity and respect. And we need that."

She's right. We desperately need it.

What Communities Can Do

While we cannot solve global problems from our local communities, we can demonstrate what it looks like when a community chooses differently. When some leaders stand up. When coalitions form. When belonging becomes more than rhetoric.

• Communities can create demonstration projects - cultural initiatives, public dialogues, community events that provide visible proof that community can be built on dignity rather than hierarchy, on mercy rather than contempt. Every symposium, every dialogue, every coalition gathering becomes evidence that the alternative exists.

• When institutions fail, community coalitions can become the accountability mechanism. Large enough to have political weight. Diverse enough to speak with moral authority. Organized enough to act when needed. These coalitions serve as alternative power structures that hold leaders accountable to the common good.

Community initiatives can function as both diagnosis and treatment - documenting the disease (permission structures for hatred) while providing the cure (counter-structures for courage, belonging, and human dignity).

The role of community work is not to fix everything. You cannot solve national politics or international crises from your hometown. But you can demonstrate what happens when a community chooses dignity. That work matters enormously - especially when larger institutions are failing.

As Bishop Budde reminded us: "Together, we can all be brave."

Community organizing creates the "together" that makes bravery possible.

So here's the resolution I'm suggesting for every leader:

"In 2026, I will work for the common good. I will protect the vulnerable, build bridges across difference, speak truth with courage, and refuse to give permission for hatred. I will serve the entire community, especially those who have no other advocates. I will choose what strengthens us over what fractures us."

The communities that thrive in 2026 will be those whose leaders make - and keep - this resolution.

The communities that fracture will be those whose leaders choose otherwise.

The choice is theirs. The consequences are ours.