Thursday, October 26, 2017

Simple Acts of democracy








The simple act of saying out loud “Something has to be done about this!” is a political act. You then go on to think about what that something might be. Many of us do this. And, then many of us fail to put those plans into action for a variety of reasons. Busy schedules, anxiety, depression, a sense of hopelessness and fear play big into this frozen inaction.  Maybe the biggest factor is that, we, as individuals, do not really know how to take action.

Many of us may have only had one experience with learning about civics when we went to school. For some of us that was long ago, and for others maybe there wasn’t much really taught about how to participate in democracy. And, still others were taught that voting is the way citizens should participate. The implication seems to be that voting is enough. (And some of us don't even do that.) Voting is very important, but much more can be done to build a broader citizen-based democracy.

This blog will be my attempt to build that broader understanding of citizen-based participation in our government. I will refer to this as “Participatory democracy.”

Hopefully this effort will strengthen a belief in yourself that you too will have an impact on the way our government will function in the future. I hope that you believe, as I do, “the future” starts right now.

I am calling this effort “Practice Democracy” for a reason. As citizens, we are past the moment of letting elected officials act in “our best interests.” We have seen way too many times in the past, a candidate run for office on one agenda and then do what they want to do even when most of their constituency hold different hopes. We can regain control of the reins of government "by the people, for the people and of the people" by standing up on a regular basis to Practice Democracy.

If the People will Lead, the Leaders will Follow.