I’m no Greek scholar. I took Latin in high school and Spanish in college. But even with the limited linguistics skills that I possess, I do know that the root meaning of the word politics is “people”. At the end of the day, politics is about the people—not the politicians, their political parties, or the issue du jure. It’s about the people that our governments are formed to serve.
Vaclav Havel got this right,
“Genuine politics—even politics worthy of the name—the only politics I am willing to devote myself to—is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us.”
Sometimes I wonder if our government leaders have forgotten this basic middle school government class lesson. Politics is serving others. To that end, anyone who serves others, whether they’ve been elected or not, is a politician.
Go figure. Who knew that we are all politicians in our own way?
