By Randall Woodfin

A little more than 10 years ago, I announced my first run for mayor. As that anniversary passed, I’ve been thinking about how much our society has changed since then.

Back then, if I had told the people of Birmingham that one plus one equals two, I believe every person listening would have accepted it as true.

Today, if I say one plus one equals two, some people won’t believe it.

This isn’t unique to Birmingham. We’ve all heard the national conversation about misinformation, disinformation and foreign interference in our elections. We’ve watched public confidence collapse in nearly every institution that once anchored our shared life as a nation: government, religion, academia, the news media, the courts.

Maybe worse, we’ve lost faith in our neighbors. We look at the world as if everyone is selling something, and we’re skeptical of anyone who doesn’t tell us what we want to hear.

So when I say homicides in Birmingham are down 70% over the past two years, some people don’t believe it. They don’t take the time to look it up in the FBI Crime Data Explorer or check my math. They just say it isn’t true.

They won’t believe it when I say Birmingham City Schools has raised its state report card score from 72 to 77 in three years and cut its number of failing schools from 15 to one. That progress in a system with 43 schools belongs to a committed board, a dedicated superintendent in Dr. Mark Sullivan, and great staff at every level, and there’s more to come this year.

You don’t have to take my word for it. You can confirm every one of those numbers on the Alabama State Department of Education’s website.

But we now live in a world where we can pick information sources that let us skip the facts and simply confirm what we already believe, true or not.

This kind of distrust demands that our leaders act like leaders.

I recently spoke to the first class of graduates at the U.S. Coast Guard’s new home at Birmingham-Southern College. I also spoke at the Birmingham Police Department’s latest promotion ceremony, which celebrated one of the largest classes of new sergeants, lieutenants and captains we’ve ever had.

Every one of them now has a title that says “leader.” But a title doesn’t make you a leader.

What makes you a leader is how you carry yourself: whether you inspire confidence, promote excellence and uphold the values of the people you serve. Good leaders equip their teams to succeed, keep them moving in the right direction, and develop the leaders who will come after them. The best leaders have humility at their core. They accept that they won’t always be right and that they don’t know everything.

Leaders should listen more than they talk and keep learning. The funny thing is that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.

Now more than ever, our political leaders have a duty to cut through the noise, be intellectually honest and deal in facts, whether those facts are convenient or not.

I think of the late Sen. John McCain at a 2008 town hall, when one of his own supporters described his opponent, Barack Obama, as an outsider who couldn’t be trusted. McCain took the microphone and gently corrected her.

“No, ma’am,” he said. “He’s a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

McCain lost that election, and some strategists would say it proves that defending your opponent is bad politics. But McCain wasn’t defending his opponent. He was defending the truth. Real leaders don’t trade in falsehoods to win an argument or a race.

Years before he became our second president, John Adams took on the deeply unpopular job of defending British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre. “Facts are stubborn things,” he told the jury, “and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

That was true in 1770, and it’s true today. One plus one still equals two.

It’s time for leaders to take the higher road and take up the mantle of truth.

Randall L. Woodfin was sworn in as the 30th mayor of Birmingham, Alabama on Nov. 28, 2017 and is serving his third term. He continues to bring renewed vision, dedication and energy to a city where all residents have the opportunity to work, play and grow to their fullest potential. Mayor Woodfin’s goal is to uphold the Magic City’s legacy, making Birmingham a magnet for the next generation of purpose-driven builders who embrace innovation.

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

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