By Luke Fischer

I’m sure many of you are like me — battening down the hatches, changing the oil in your snowblower, and making sure your kids have hats, gloves, and boots ready for the inevitable frigid weather that creeps in this time of year. Between the subzero temperatures and blowing, drifting snow, we have become a hardy bunch.

A few years ago, in the middle of a polar vortex, I was at a meeting near the Canadian border with real air temps hovering around minus 34 degrees. A council member from Warroad walked in from the parking lot, shuddered, and said, “It’s a zip your coat kind of day.” And while we all chuckled in reply, I think we understood there was something inherently dangerous about the weather — and in spite of it, we figured out how to get out and about and get on with the things that need to be done.

In a lot of ways, we can keep moving when the snow piles up or when temperatures plunge because we know how to prepare for it. I think we all know we can do it because we know we’re not alone and we’ve learned the importance of lending a hand to a neighbor in need. Who among us hasn’t helped a neighbor shovel out a driveway end after the plow comes by, or made a donation to a glove drive to ensure kids in need can stay warm on the playground?

Each winter in St. Paul, a volunteer group known as the Saintly City Snow Angels offers to shovel the sidewalks of elderly and less able-bodied residents. (Similar groups exist in many other cities as well.) They do so willingly and without judgement for their neighbors in need. Why do they step up for the task? Because they are part of a larger community, greater than themselves. And they step up because it’s the right thing to do.

We know it’s the right thing to do because we’ve all been the beneficiary of a neighbor willing to lend a hand. These acts of kindness happen regularly without a request or a neatly kept score sheet. It’s what we do because it’s how we make it through the winter. It’s part of who we are as a civil community.

If you’re on social media, watching cable news, or trying to follow our politics at the national level, you’re probably like me — frustrated and confused about the political rhetoric and political violence that continues to grab headlines. The story we’re told doesn’t match the reality most of us are living. After all, in the middle of a blizzard it wouldn’t be practical to ask someone who they voted for before helping push their car out of a snowbank.

We see this spirit of togetherness in communities across the state. Public safety first responders answer calls for service, crews produce fresh drinking water, and city councils carefully consider matters of public interest. Just like the Snow Angels, they do these tasks without reservation or judgment. It’s their routine. It’s their business. And it makes each one of the hometowns we care for wonderful places to live.

We can all take a page from the book of the Saintly City Snow Angels. As local leaders in Minnesota, we’re in a position to model a better version of our politics with a higher ethic and higher standard for what public service ought to be. It’s baked into our DNA. Even with all of our modern conveniences, the weather here requires us to be a little more neighborly, forgiving of one another, and willing to both offer and accept help from a friend.

It’s more important now than ever before that we all lean in to build public trust, to lend a hand when someone is in need, and raise the bar of respectful public discourse. It’s time to reclaim the narrative about what public service is and who we are as Americans.

In that light, I’m approaching this season with a lot of gratitude. To live in a place with a climate that makes us all work together differently means that we get a front-row seat to folks treating one another like neighbors and not political adversaries.

Luke Fischer is executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities. Contact: [email protected] or (651) 281-1279.