“Christmas is not only a season of rejoicing, but of reflection…” Winston Churchill

Our end of year holiday season was full of joy, stress, social engagements, family matters, work escapes and even work-related holiday activities.  In a  31-day period, we dealt with the three biggest holidays of the year — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations with  get togethers, reunions, friends touching bases untouched for a year and parties and dinners. In 2025, we also faced weird weather, health challenges and political  hangovers from the federal government shut down and the seemingly daily shrill news alerts and commentary on the ever changing and never ending crisis of the moment.

This period began for me with a medical directive not to speak.  Since family schedules were impossible to coordinate this year, Ana and I joined with my sister, her friend and brother Danny at a restaurant in Santa Clara for Thanksgiving dinner. When the waitress came to take our order she asked our table “other than Thanksgiving is there anything else you guys are celebrating this evening, like birthdays?”  Not to miss an opportunity Danny tells her “My brother Mike can’t speak because he is all emotional today, he just got out after spending 16 years in prison.”  The waitress responded “Great, the birthday of renewed freedom” to enormous laughter from all of us.

That was how this holiday season started.

The famous Christmas carol says it all: ”the weather outside is frightful…..” and it was.  For over 20 days we had incessant tule fog, with a cold sunless sky and dreary gray days, sucking the joy out of any outdoor activity, even taking walks. The tule fog siege was broken only to be followed with a “bomb cyclone” in most of California. The weather people define this as “a powerful rapidly intensifying storm….creating strong winds, heavy rain and/or snow and flooding.”  They were right about the result, but missed on some of the  schedule.  Over three days of  storm, rain and ferocious winds undermined travel plans and  gatherings. The good news? We really needed the water and snow. 

In the age of social media, podcasts, extreme political partisanship and the absence of trusted sources in the media,  there is  a growing sense that government doesn’t really work well.  Some events this year reflect that.  the federal government shut down was finally ended with a simple compromise where food assistance programs were continued for one year instead of being immediately terminated with Christmas just days away.  In addition, congress agreed to have a clean vote on the issue of continuing aid to folks needing help with their affordable health care premiums. The president and leaders of congress need to act as soon as possible in 2026  while millions of Americans are now struggling with these cost increases. It’s not a positive New Year’s message to say. “Happy New Year! Here’s your new huge increase in health care premium. Pay it or lose your coverage.”

But not everything the government does is poorly handled and lacks accountability. Last year serious malfeasance was revealed by the Stanislaus County civil grand jury.  StanCOG, the agency at issue here, moved quickly to dismiss those at fault and to bring in new leadership to get the agency up to speed again.  This agency administers regional transportation funds. It is one of the most powerful but underappreciated agencies in the county. Once made aware of the issue, the StanCOG board acted decisively.  That is how things should work in government. Discover the problem; analysis of the reasons why; and actions taken to redeem it. That’s exactly what StanCOG did.  

Last month, a Stanislaus County supervisor, Mani Grewal, conducted an effort in his district to have residents identify and nominate “neighborhood heroes.” These are folks who work in their communities and neighborhoods to make things better. They don’t have partisan agendas. Supervisor Grewal alerted his district to such efforts  in the hopes the people who worked on local problems both big and small  would get some notice and appreciation for their efforts. Grewal asked his constituents to recommend the “heroes” in their own neighborhoods and communities.

The response was overwhelming. Sixty-one neighborhood heroes were selected for recognition. Over 300 of the heroes, their families and their neighbors attended the reception hosted by Supervisor Grewal where their contributions and work was acknowledged and praised.

Think of the added value here.  A supervisorial district in Stanislaus County has over 100,000 residents.  You take the time to find folks doing the work in their neighborhoods and communities and honor their contributions. The heroes see they are not alone.  Next year Supervisor Grewal will do it again. That is good for all of us.

2026 is likely to be a year when many more local, state and national heroes are needed.  When given the opportunity tell them “Thank you!” 

— This is a monthly column by long-time local political consultant and public servant Mike Lynch. Look for Lynch’s future columns in the Journal on the first Saturday of each month.