Word of September 2026

Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another person.

• Sympathy: Feeling a sincere concern or pity for someone’s difficult situation without fully sharing their emotional experience.
• Compassion: Understanding a person’s distress and feeling a strong, active desire to help or alleviate their suffering. When we consider the realm of public service to others, it seems that for an individual to be Empathic would be a helpful trait to possess. Having the ability to identify and recognize that someone has needs…is a good thing. Being able to listen objectively to someone, despite their circumstances in life. After all, sometimes life deals a difficult situation despite the best efforts of the individual. When you consider the current group of public servants in your area, ask yourself these questions:

1. Are they approachable?
2. Do you feel you can ask them a hard question(s)?
3. Do you feel ‘understood’ after talking with them?
4. Does the elected person (or a certified assistant) return your call within a reasonable amount of time?
5. Do they show kindness and understanding towards you?
6. Do you feel heard?

Why does Empathy matter?

• Builds Relationships: Fosters trust, deepens social bonds, and improves communication.
• Drives Prosocial Behavior: Encourages cooperation, kindness, and stepping in to help others in need.
• Aids Emotional Regulation: Helps people process their own emotional responses while staying connected to others.

We need to remember that even people serving in elected positions also have boundaries within which they work. Sometimes requests or demands may fall within the realm of some other ordinance or law within the city/county/state. An empathic person will understand this. It also gets down to numbers. On a typical five-member board, if three members vote one way together, then the item passes.

Often, families have a pet(s) in their household, and shower their pets with love and affection. In return, our pets tend to love us unconditionally. A professor once shared, “Even when we have been perfectly awful during the day, we come home and our pets love us unconditionally, no matter how nasty we have been. And we fall for that empathy every time.”

In return, we shower our pets with love and treat them as official members of the family. As it should be.

Humans feel empathy for animals because our brains are wired to recognize vulnerability, distress, and physical features that mirror our own experiences. 

Have you ever described someone as ‘A Big Teddy Bear’? What this means is that this individual is loaded full of empathy and caring of others. And we love seeing this in action. It warms our heart.

Sometimes, groups of people among us find themselves lacking through no fault of their own. School children are sometimes put in the position of not being able to afford their school lunch. It is not the student’s fault. It may not even be the parent’s fault. If we look at the root cause of people suffering, it may be because, despite the best efforts of all, some key component is missing. [Not earning enough money, loss of a job, child support did not come through, etc.]

This is where we need boatloads of empathy. We need to make every effort to understand where people are coming from. Those in a position of power have a solemn responsibility to pay attention to, and to have empathy for, all citizens.

In Dallas County, for all citizens (and their pets), I have empathy, kindness and caring—ready to go.

When I chose to run for Dallas County Supervisor, I took time to reflect on my own journey in Empathy. While growing up, my dad was a banker. He arose each morning at 5:00 AM to be at the bank by 6:30 AM.

On snowy Iowa winter days, Dad would arise at 4:30 AM. I would look out the window and see him carrying a snow shovel as he walked to the bank. Thirty or more minutes later, he would return home, shower, have breakfast, and walk back to the bank for his 6:30 AM arrival. After a few times of this, I asked him, “Do they pay you for scooping the snow around the bank?” “No.” he replied. “Then why do you do it?” “Because it’s the right thing to do,” he replied. “I don’t want anyone to fall on the snow or ice.”