here<\/a> for the current prompt. \u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/p>\nWhat does civic responsibility mean to you?<\/h1>\n
\u201cWhy do you view the government like this, like it\u2019s something out there, something separate, an enemy?\u201d The speaker was Norwegian, the location a conference workshop. \u201cIn Norway, we see it differently. We are<\/em> the government.\u201d As her words settled over me I knew I would be remembering what she had said for a long, long time. See, I grew up with the oppositional view she was talking about. I saw government as the problem, and firmly believed that the only positive thing to do with government was to shrink it. I saw taxes as akin to theft. What changed between then and now was an attitude shift, and the speaker that day gave voice and words to that shift.<\/p>\nIn the debate over the fiscal cliff last year, a friend made a fascinating observation on facebook. \u201cI use my tax money to hire the government to do certain things,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to refund my money, I want it to use my money to do what I\u2019m hiring it to do!\u201d You know, things like roads. National parks. Fire departments. Schools. Welfare for the down and out, and social security for the elderly. His status update also got me thinking, because as a child, teen, and young adult I never thought about everything we for all intents and purposes \u201chire\u201d the government to do, and also because his status update built on the \u201cwe are the government\u201d message of the Norwegian professor.<\/p>\n
For me, civic responsibility is about an attitude. It\u2019s about things like paying taxes and voting, sure, but it\u2019s also about how<\/em> you do those things. Do you pay taxes grudgingly and while talking about tyranny, or do you do so with the knowledge that you are contributing to the common welfare? Do you vote just because you\u2019re supposed to and leave most of the local races blank, or do you research the candidates from president to county coroner and make informed choices?<\/p>\nI think too often in this country we talk about our rights while ignoring the fact that in addition to rights we also have responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.\u201d ~ John D. Rockefeller Jr.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We talk all the time about freedom, but the reality is that living in a first world country like the United States isn\u2019t free<\/em>. We have rights, but also responsibilities, and if we forget that we have responsibilities we risk jeopardizing our rights.<\/p>\nCivic responsibility also involves looking beyond yourself to the society you live in. It involves remembering that we aren\u2019t going it alone, that we can\u2019t<\/em> go it alone, that this web we call society is interwoven and interdependent. It means realizing that we are part of something larger, whether we like it or not, and it means being willing to embrace that rather than resenting it.<\/p>\nAll of this is very abstract, yes, so I\u2019ll take a moment to make it more concrete. In my own life, I hope to become more involved in local government and with civic institutions like the public school.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re like me, you spent a lot more time thinking about the presidential race this last November than you did thinking about the candidates running for state representative in your district, but the reality is that your vote \u2013 and your volunteering \u2013 have a great deal more effect on that smaller race than on the presidential race. And, believe it or not, who you vote for at the local and state level does actually affect people\u2019s lives. Think, for example, of the rash of anti-abortion legislation passed by state legislatures last year. These votes matter, and yet we often hardly think about them. In my own life, I want to change that.<\/p>\n
I also plan to be very involved with my local public schools once my children reach school age. I intend to volunteer and help out, to meet and get to know the teachers and other parents. I might even consider something like running for school board. I hope to find ways to be involved with other civic institutions as well, and to volunteer for various causes. Sure, I only have a limited amount of time, but I don\u2019t have to do everything at once. I have my whole life ahead of me.<\/p>\n
Like it or not, we exist within a wider society. Civic responsibility, for me, means realizing that we are not alone in this world, and that we are not so independent as we might like to think. It means looking up from our own lives and embracing all of the connections we have to everyone else. It means remembering that rights come with responsibilities. It means remembering just how much we have living in the country we do, and being willing to give back with our time and money. On some level, it means expanding our family circle to embrace our local community, our state, and our nation. And that, my friend, is revolutionary.<\/p>\n
If you would like to write your own response to this prompt and be included in this Monday\u2019s roundup of responses, either leave a comment with your response on the post containing the prompt<\/a> or write your own blog post in response to the prompt and email a link to lovejoyfeminism (at) gmail (dot) com.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Why do you view the government like this, like it’s something out there, something separate, an enemy?” The speaker was Norwegian, the location a conference workshop. “In Norway, we see it differently. We are the government.” As her words settled over me I knew I would be remembering what she had said for a long, long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[307],"class_list":["post-11991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-civic-responsibility"],"yoast_head":"\n
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