Recently, I asked a new friend what they learned growing up that has most influenced them and their values. My own formative years were influenced by nuns who taught me from eight years of grade school through one of six high school semesters and my first year and a half of college. One of the most important things I learned is that each of us has a responsibility to and for our fellow human beings. My mother consistently reinforced this through her own behavior.

Responsibility to and for others involves recognizing that we all are part of the human family — not just our immediate biological families — and being willing to work toward the common good: engaging in ethical decision-making, actions and outcomes designed for the betterment of all. No one is an island unto themselves.

Interviewing political scientist, scholar and author Dr. Francis Fukuyama, Ari Melber asked Fukuyama about his successful career and whether his success might offer guidance for others. Fukuyama, once associated with neoconservatism, responded, “This is the trouble with a lot of conservatives. They think that everything is due to your individual effort, and they don’t understand that luck plays a big role in how successful your life is. I had a number of very important mentors that other people didn’t have access to.”

Fukuyama’s observation reminded me of a conversation I had with a man I met while standing in line at the Longmont post office years ago. It was during the Great Recession. The then-retired gentleman had been self-employed for most of his adult life and built a successful business. He raised five children. He said he always worked very hard, but it also was true his success was due, at least in part, to good luck. He expressed compassion for the many people out of work or otherwise struggling because of the recession. Listening, I felt great affection for this man — for his wisdom, his humility, his empathy.

In an April 2 lecture at Rhodes College, historian, academician and author Dr. Timothy Snyder talked about positive and negative conceptions of freedom. We in the U.S. get freedom “wrong,” according to Snyder, when we principally think about freedom as the absence of obstacles or of constraints, or as our being against someone (e.g., Canadians, immigrants, African Americans, LBGTQ+ individuals, whomever) or something (e.g., vaccines, Social Security, speed limits, books, whatever). This is what Snyder calls negative freedom. If you are simply against people or things, you don’t have to consider all the many people and things that have made you and your life possible.

Conversely, positive freedom represents movement toward something, rather than away from or against. That something is a better, more just society in which we and future generations can grow and thrive. Positive freedom seeks to find a balance between personal autonomy and the needs of society as a whole. It is grounded in the knowledge that freedom begins with recognizing the necessity of others in our lives and in the development of good and just habits over time — virtuous habits that build moral character.

Thus, “virtue is an inseparable part of freedom,” and it is the habit of empathy (both virtuous and practical) that motivates and animates all the other habits essential for positive freedom. Critically, empathy is “at the beginning of the knowledge we need for freedom” (T. Snyder, 2024), which is chiefly knowledge about ourselves. We cannot know ourselves in isolation from others; we can only do so in our interactions with others.

Our Constitution’s preamble begins,

“We the People … in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.”

This moment in history offers an invaluable opportunity, the opportunity for each of us to ask ourselves what it means to be part of the global human family (not just a Coloradan or an American). To ask ourselves what we stand for. To ask ourselves to what extent our behavior is consistent with what we say we stand for — and what the general welfare and freedom, the blessings of liberty, can and should mean for all of us.

Denise Fazio is a Longmont resident who spent most of her career working in the HR arena. Now retired, she continues to be involved with various organizations and causes, dedicating a good deal of her time to writing projects and virtual volunteering.