You CAN Make a Difference Several readers have written asking how they can become “involved” in the public process. In the United States and Canada, it’s quite simple. Just step up to the plate. Our individual duty to vote is paramount, but so is our duty to become actively involved. In the remarkable inspired document “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”, the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles called upon “responsible citizens” – they were calling you and me as citizens – “to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.” We can’t very well “promote” much by blithely sitting silently on the sidelines, and obviously “I’m busy in the Church” is not an acceptable excuse. Within the understandable constraints of work, home, family, and Church, we each can and should do something to better our community and country. My first foray into the adventure of elected office was quite similar, nearly four decades ago. Troubled by what I viewed as irresponsible city government, one day I walked into the city clerk’s office, took a deep breath, and filed my candidacy for city council. I hadn’t done anything like that since high school student government, yet several weeks later I won election, proof that anyone can do it. Public service can be elective or appointive. At every level of government, opportunities abound for elected citizen leadership. Village boards, town councils, city councils, school boards, county commissions or boards of supervisors, state and provincial legislatures – this is where fundamental representative government by elected citizens, not professional politicians, is practiced best. This is where you can make a consequential difference in safeguarding values and principles you and your fellow citizens cherish. Countless are the appointed volunteer opportunities to serve your community for a few hours each month: library boards, school committees, city commissions, parks boards, hospital boards, transportation study committees, to name just a few. Make yourself available; phone your mayor (who by the way works for you) and as a citizen offer your service today. As President Spencer W. Kimball often counseled, “Do it now!” Whether in your town hall or the federal capital, public policies and law are enacted by public officers working together for the common good. Politics is rightfully referred to as the art of compromise. Compromise on positions but never on principle, especially where the family and eternal truths are concerned. No matter how challenging the scuffle may be, with dignity and courtesy be true to your convictions and covenants. You can always remain agreeable by agreeing to disagree, never abandoning the essential twin attributes of civility and respect. When the competing voices become noisy, when the going may seem tough, ponder the words of cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Some years ago I was invited, as a citizen, to serve on a school district hearing panel charged with inquiry into allegations of teacher misconduct – clearly an unpleasant and distasteful task. I hesitated to accept, but then recalled the old Hebrew adage “If not me, who? If not now, when?” This call to action was, for me, a reminder of my personal responsibility of citizenship. Holding in our hands the professional and personal future of an accused school teacher, the experience was often unpleasant and awkward. After several days of grueling hearings which we citizens conducted, interviewing many student and teacher witnesses, the teacher was exonerated. I’ll never forget this seasoned teacher, tears in his eyes, thanking us for “saving” his livelihood, his career, and his reputation. In that moment the reward of public service was manifest, as the three of us citizens changed what was a very small part of the world, but the entire world for that teacher. If life circumstances prevent your civic involvement, you can still make a valuable contribution by advocating sound public policy through writing letters to officials (including letters of gratitude), making phone calls, and voting. Everyone can do something! President Theodore Roosevelt, another political hero of mine, said it best: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” I am grateful for good men and women of unwavering principle-centered moral courage who enter the arena to safeguard the next generation, holding elected officials to account, demanding aggressive budget constraint and persistent fiscal discipline, never tolerating reckless spending largess, defending religious liberty, and constantly striving for morality and responsibility in government. 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May 22, 2026
May 22, 2026
