We are just now wrapping up a municipal election cycle that occasionally got pretty divisive. I heard from and talked to many citizens of our cities as well as candidates about their ideas and often their frustrations.

Almost without exception, I appreciated the passion and concern these individuals showed for their communities. Each had their reasons for getting involved, whether that was showcased by running for a political office, writing a guest opinion or letter to the editor to share their point of view, volunteering to knock doors or post signs or even just getting out to vote.

In the end, so many of the elections came down to just a few hundred votes or even less. Someone had to win; someone had a lose. That’s part of the representative republic process that we have in our country.

The votes may not yet be officially confirmed, but the results at this point seem fairly clear. That means it’s time to move on.

Now the question facing each of our communities, particularly those where the races had a lot of conflict, is how do they keep that mentality from festering and creating more problems? How do the citizens come together to tackle the difficult challenges that every community faces?

It’s not easy. Just look at the national political landscape.

But I think there is a key that can make a huge difference to really build our communities.

The one quote I can always remember from President John F. Kennedy is, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

I certainly don’t think we’re doing a very good job of that as a country right now, but I think it is something we should seriously look at emphasizing in our communities.

I believe that the willingness to sacrifice for the good of the whole instead of focusing on self interest is what makes communities strong.

So what can you give to your community?

We face significant consequences if we don’t follow the laws or don’t pay our taxes, so those don’t really count.

In a general sense, I think the best thing we could give to our community at this time is kindness. We just recently had the World Kindness Day on Thursday. I think it’s great to highlight, but in some ways, it’s sad that we don’t have “kindness day” every day. That’s especially true in our neighborhoods and around our towns.

We have to be willing to find ways to overcome the petty differences. So often those little things get in the way of truly building our communities.

It can start with our representatives, our mayors and city council members.

I challenge all of our elected officials to not fall into the trap that has become so prevalent on a national level: Just because you won an election doesn’t mean you should only treat those who supported you with respect and decency. If you are a representative in your community, you represent everyone there whether they voted for you or not. You don’t have to agree with them — and you probably won’t on many issues — but you definitely should respect them.

But we shouldn’t just rely on others. We should take it on ourselves to do more.

There are thousands and thousands of people who show kindness by volunteering at serving in many capacities. I applaud all of you who give of your time and abilities to help those around you. I think it makes a huge difference.

It’s something most of us could probably do a little bit better, and I encourage all of us to try.

I think if we all inject a large dose of extra kindness into our communities, we’ll be happy with the results.

Jared Lloyd is the managing editor of the Daily Herald.