Where is my community - Lessons in Leadership from childhood

Where Has Our Civic Spirit Gone?

By Andrew Crowley, Rock The Vote NZ Party Leader

In the hallway of my childhood home, among portraits of family and saints, hung a single image of someone neither relative nor religious icon: President John F. Kennedy. Beneath his portrait, his famous words stood etched in memory: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

It wasn’t just a tribute to a fallen leader. It was a call to something larger than oneself. A sense of purpose. A belief that citizenship came with responsibility.

But six decades on, one wonders—does that spirit still breathe?

Are we still inspired to serve, or have we entered an age of self-interest, where the state is expected to nurture us endlessly, cradle to grave? Has national pride been sidelined by cynicism or erased by complex reckonings with colonial history?

At its core, democracy isn’t just a system of governance—it’s a shared project. One that relies on citizens feeling bound to a common cause. In today’s multicultural, ideologically diverse societies, unity is no longer a given. Disagreement and division are easier to come by than solidarity.

Yet for a fair and stable society to endure, citizens must be willing to give something for the sake of our shared wellbeing—whether that’s supporting public health care, funding education, or simply paying taxes with a sense of civic duty.

This kind of sacrifice doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires a sense of belonging. Of community.

And that raises the most pressing question of all: where is my community? Is it still something we inhabit together, or merely an idea we lost along the way?

“JFK blown away — what else do I have to say” (Billy Joel)