Ignore cynics, Gov. Spencer Cox says, ‘radical’ kindness can change the world

One kind act a day can change the world.

That’s the driving belief behind the One Kind Act a Day campaign, created by the Semnani Family Foundation and announced Tuesday by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

Cox also signed a proclamation naming April 12, 2022, as “One Kind Act a Day Day.”

The push asks people simply to pledge to perform one benevolent act every 24 hours. They can also share their stories of spreading goodness through the organization’s website.

Fill out the form online and share stories at thepowerofkind.org/pledge/.

The website features lists of kindness ideas, which users can “favorite” for later or mark as done.

The project is also being promoted through a television ad campaign that features notable Utahns like Gail Miller, Lisa Eccles, Rabbi Benny Zippel, Latter-day Saint general authority Seventy Kevin W. Pearson, Catholic Bishop Oscar A. Solis, and University of Utah President Taylor Randall.

Khosrow Semnani, founder of the Semnani Family Foundation, spelled out the initiative at the Gallivan Center in front of about 100 audience members. He was supported by several other prominent Utahns, including Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Zions Bank CEO Scott Anderson.

Additionally, eight organizations already have partnered with the One Kind Act a Day campaign, including the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable and the U.

‘Nothing more important than kindness’

Semnani, whose organization focuses on providing health, education and disaster relief resources to communities around the world, spoke about how the idea for One Kind Act a Day came from conversations with his family.

From there, he shared the initiative with Cox, Mendenhall and other leaders who immediately said, “I’m in.”

Semnani also said he’s putting “tens of millions of dollars” in behind the scenes to make the One Kind Act a Day campaign a success.

The project wasn’t hard to sell, he said, but now it has to deliver.

“That’s where you all come in,” Semnani said. “There is nothing more important than kindness and love and care today, because of the problems… that are in the world.”

Speaking after Semnani, Cox said that an increasingly cynical world will mock them for launching a kindness campaign, but those people are “fundamentally, absolutely [and] completely wrong.”

No single policy, politician or structural change, Cox added, has the power to change the course of history like kindness does.

“It is the most radical political philosophy that has ever existed,” he said. “I think it’s the most radical religious philosophy that has ever existed. And I think it’s the truth of where we need to be. It’s how we become happier.”

Mendenhall agreed, saying the country is at a place of decision-making. The wrong choice will keep people on a course of hatred, cynicism and even the demise of democracy, while the right one — kindness — can recenter humanity.

As the state with most volunteerism in the country, Utah is the perfect epicenter for that recentering, the mayor said, “but what I want to ask you to do is actually first turn that love and compassion into your own heart.”

There’s so much vitriol in the world, she continued, evidenced by online comments and by the criticism Cox recently took from a conservative group over a video from an April 2021 town hall in which he listed his pronouns.

“We have some internal love and repair to do on ourselves,” Mendenhall said, “so that we can reflect that love and compassion on others.”

‘The glue that keeps us together’

Anderson, the Zions Bank CEO, said the One Kind Act a Day effort will be featured on the bank’s ATM machines, building doors and electronic communications.

One act of kindness each day is a small thing to do, he said, but it can make a huge difference in other’s lives.

“While Zions Bank operates in the financial sector,” Anderson said, “at the end of the day, we are in the business of helping people.”

Other speakers included U. psychiatry professor Noel Gardner, who outlined some of the positive health benefits of kindness, and sisters Elizabeth Radcliffe and Tiffany Hatch, who have “a knack for spreading kindness in the community,” according to a news release.

The event closed with a showing of the TV ad, which features a variety of prominent Utahns as well as a number of ordinary people.

“Kindness is the glue that keeps us together,” Salt Lake County Health Department Executive Director Angela Dunn says in the video. “In times of uncertainty, chaos and even despair, it is the antidote to suffering.”