LEADERSHIP: Responsibility to work for common good

Ms. Funk in her opinion writes we may be discouraged by the world around us. More optimistically she concludes; “let us recommit to the kind of civic conduct that sustains a free people: principled leadership, honest disagreement, and a shared commitment to the common good.”  I do not know Becky Funk, but I wholeheartedly agree.

Her article goes back 2000 years from the iron grip of Rome to the realization we should seek “the presence of truth, restraint and moral clarity” today. Ms. Funk advises “….we bear a responsibility to defend freedom, the rule of law and the dignity of every individual.”  She reminds us as President Reagan warned “we seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.”

I may have found myself disagreeing with President Reagan and I expect the same with Ms. Funk. I doubt our disagreement would be over the problems we confront as a nation or a community, but primarily on the specific solutions. Even then I would feel assured various solutions were considered. If we believe that a decision was reached based on our reason, our beliefs, then we can acknowledge it is for the “common good.”

We must call out leaders who do not work for the common good. I do not believe the current Republican Party leadership is acting for the “common good” of the country or the Republican Party. If we believe that any decision, regardless of who made it is “not from taking, but giving, not from fear, but from our faith, not from conflict, but from reconciliation, not domination, but from service” (Brian McLaren) that is a New Year’s resolution worth keeping.

PHIL WARD
Coeur d’Alene