The past several months have created a need to think about what accountability actually requires of us. It applies to our politics and to how we treat each other as neighbors. Here is what has come into focus for me:
Be Accountable.
Not as a slogan, and not as a weapon. Accountability is a discipline, and it applies to everyone, including the people holding the microphone.
I believe in it deeply. Ask the uncomfortable questions. Expose misconduct. Demand better results. Remove anyone who abuses their authority. But an accusation is where an inquiry begins. It is not a commitment nobody is allowed to reconsider.
So what happens when the evidence disproves the accusation, but the attack continues because the first version drew more attention? At that point, the person demanding accountability owes some of their own. A platform should raise your duty to tell the truth, not lower it.
We have encouraged this in elected officials, too. Public office was never meant to be a personal publicity machine. When agencies and leaders who should be working together become opponents in someone else's campaign for relevance, a disagreement becomes a scandal, a colleague becomes an enemy, and a public institution becomes a convenient target. The residents who depend on those institutions are left with the consequences long after the headlines move on.
Once cooperation looks like surrender and acknowledging a fact looks like betrayal, how does anything get resolved? We make it politically costly to work together, then point to the failure to work together as proof that our institutions are broken. We are helping create the very failure we claim to oppose.
And what incentive is there to solve a problem when the problem is the source of your attention? A solution becomes a threat to the person who says they are fighting for it. An angry public becomes useful, and keeping people angry starts to pay better than helping them.
We cannot sustain that. Criticism carries obligations, and insisting on them is not an attempt to silence anyone. Let the evidence decide the accusation. Make sure corrections reach the same audience as the original claim. And hold that standard just as firmly when the one misleading us is someone we like. Too often we are choosing teams and calling it principle.
So before you share the next accusation, ask yourself whether you would accept the same evidence if it were aimed at someone you respect.
Holding power accountable must include holding accountable those who gain power by keeping us angry. We do not protect the public by teaching people to distrust every institution while believing anyone who attacks one. That doesn't empower anyone. It makes them easier to manipulate.
Accountability is not about winning the argument. It is stewardship of the public's trust, and that trust is not ours. It belongs to the residents we serve.
Be accountable, and choose the truth.