A Judge’s Experiences and Reflections on Restoring Community

Our nation and our people are strongly but fairly evenly divided. Both sides claim the high ground. Too many of us irrationally despise and demonize one another, including those we have never met. Even for those of us with the mind, heart, and will to do so, the challenge of helping to mitigate the division and demonization looms large.

It is a daunting, but consuming task. Judges, especially appellate court and supreme court judges, are among those best able to help calm this social and cultural storm. Why is that so? Because judges are role models for those in and out of the legal profession, and they are our nation’s neutrals, cloaked with community standing, credibility, prestige, and power.

I humbly and respectfully suggest we judges share a duty, which we can pursue in ethical ways, to leverage our temporary, lofty circumstances to help rekindle good will, common sense, and common decency among our conflicted factions.3