Humility in government needs some practice closer to home

Published 1:30 am Sunday, February 1, 2026

Thanks to The Herald for publishing Stanwood Mayor Sid Roberts’ piece on the vanishing virtue of humility. (“Forum: We’ll never get to ‘Great Again” without a humble spirit,” The Herald, Jan. 17). I really appreciate Roberts’ eloquent illumination of humility as an essential component of ethical and moral leadership.

Unfortunately, as political ideologies have gravitated toward opposite extremes, humility has become one of the biggest casualties. Somehow, intransigence and stridency have replaced humility and authenticity as admired characteristics in our leaders.

As mayor Roberts points out, “Part of the problem appears to be a desire to appear strong and never appear vulnerable.” That impulse may stem from deep insecurity or self-absorbed tendencies.

Narcissistic individuals cannot seem to tolerate being wrong and will go to great lengths to avoid appearing weak.

We have seen that here in Snohomish recently in the rhetoric of exiting city officials voted out in November.

Ex-council member Karen Guzak, in a recent letter to a local newspaper, lashed out at new Mayor Aaron Hoffman’s dismissal of city administrator Heather Thomas-Murphy, calling it a traumatic firing and suggesting that it could interrupt important projects underway. This, despite the fact that Guzak eagerly voted to replace the previous city manager with Thomas-Murphy just four years earlier.

When we talk about the vanishing virtue of humility, it’s easy to focus on the obvious narcissistic tendencies of our current president; but it’s important to recognize that this deficit of virtue infects leaders at every level and of every political persuasion. If we are to bring about a renaissance of moral leadership, we must first expect transparency, accountability and humility from those who represent us at every level. The stridency and never-ending posturing must stop.

As Roberts put it, “We don’t need to make America great again. We need to make America humble again.”

Scott Zaro

Snohomish