Civic Diary

Civic Diary 6/18/2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Pretty ugly week, so let’s jump into my civic diary here.

The shooting at Pulse is horrible and heartwrenching.  It’s also an example of why you have to follow not just issues, but how people react to issues- the assumptions, the erroneous reporting, the political grandstanding from previously LGBT-hostile politicians, etc.  Horribly, the blood wasn’t dry before the bullshit started.

At the same time, you have to stand back and see what really happened – a troubled man (I will not call him insane, he clearly was sane enough) that got his hands onto powerful weaponry and committed a massacre.  Seeing everything from family homophobia, to access to guns, to how we seem to seriously miss the potential for violence.

Needless to say, I do support gun regulation, and know what I’m calling my representatives on.  However I also want more studies of gun violence and other violence, and plan to support that.  Violence is a health issue and one we should be studied.

It kind of feels weird to talk about anything after that.  But that’s the point.

I have a political meeting next Sunday, which should be interesting – and I hope it’s not cancelled.  I don’t suspect it will be.  This is where I take a look into getting involved in GOTV efforts, which seems to be a good starter focus for being more civicly engaged.

I’m finishing up that book on political engagement and dialogue, “The Little Book Of Revolution.”  It’s still something I’ll have to reread, but it is giving me ideas – and it does remind me that dialogue is important as a big part of the book is engagement and discussion.  Note the discussion part – most political “discussion” is yelling at people.  The author of this book talks respect and engagement.

So that’s about it for me so far.  May next week allow me to share more pithy advice and so forth, and may we have less to mourn.

– Steve

Civic Diary 6-10-2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

Well the California Primaries are over, my Twitter feed and news feed are filled with politics, and I’m of course thoughtful.

So I haven’t always followed up on primaries in the past, but as I’ve become more aware of politics and civic engagement, I see their importance.  It’s not just the presidential Primaries, but its the local voting as well – local politics has an influence on people’s lives, change minds, and build future political careers.  Those local bills and policies change a lot.  You’ll want to pay attention to.

Since that political meeting I wanted to go to was cancelled, I scheduled two more this month, figuring A) I can make at least one, and B) No one is going to cancel both of them.  I pretty much decided I want to find out how to do get out the vote work as a start to real civic engagement.

There are also local political clubs I found and joined one.  I figure it can’t hurt to check one out if I have time.

And speaking of time, I’m feeling the time crunch from work, social obligations, my projects, and more.  It really takes effort to make time for civic engagement, especially NEW civic engagement.  I’m having to rethink my plans and schedules.  That’s good, but man, it’s a bit of a pain.

Which brings in another realization – being civicly engaged is a long-term commitment.  yes, I knew this and understood it, yes some of my civic work has been long term, especially my more local and geek stuff.  Yes, I usually think long term.

But then I realized a good chunk of what influenced me was the 2016 election and the realization people could be better engaged in politics.  But still a apart of me had stopped thinking about anything past November.  I’m realizing that’s (obviously) short-sighted.

So yeah, I want to get more involved politically and see if there’s anything I can do for this election.  But I’m trying to shift my mind to long-term engagement beyond my flirting wit the idea of being on a city board – and I’m kind of drawing a blank right now as to what that is.

I mean I have my civic engagement in the form of social groups and museum work and speaking at cons and the like.  But it doesn’t quite feel like its got a lot of long-term planning in it – or even the long-term planning of doing “yeah, that’s good enough.”

However, I have come to realize about 70-80% of what I do outside of politics is pretty satisfying civicly.  I may need a bit more thought of what I’m doing, a few changes there, but I feel like my whole elder geek/geek job guru/social integrator thing works pretty good.

So that’s it for my Civic Diary.  How are you doing?

– Steve

Civic Diary 6/3/2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Hello everyone, it’s the latest Civic Diary. As noted I figured I’d post this late or not at all considering the weekend, and I figured I’d just do one this week. Not exatly what I’d want to do, but I do acknowledge my limits.

So this weekend I attended Fanime 2016. I do a lot of conventions where I speak – but this time it was just recreational, cosplay, and hanging out with friends in a mini-reunion. This got me thinking.

Lately my usual work at a museum doing accessioning has been on hold due to remodeling. I just had my first event I haven’t spoken at in years. So having a sudden spate of not doing “my community thing” was insightful. I felt like something was missing, a visceral sensation.

That sensation is a guide to Civic Engagement that trully is something from “you.”

There is something we humans crave in engagement, the desire for meaningful activity that ties us together. Having a rare moment where I did not have my museum work, did not have speaking, made me aware of that lack.

It led me to rethink – and appreciate – my various forms of community involvement. What was important? What mattered? Why did I do it? What more can I do. I’m going to be re-evaluting my civic engagements in the weeks to come now that I have this “gut feel” about what’s important.

I think I need to sort of write up my “system” for civic engagement if that makes sense. This is, of course, part of it.

What else is up?

  • That local political meetup?  Got cancelled.  So I need to find out where the next one is.  I’m annoyed, but thats the way it goes.
  • With all the eventful activities I got behind on “The Little Book Of Revolution” – I’ll try to finish that soon. Its kind of a heavy read to be blunt – plus right now I’m not in the mood to learn to Change People’s Minds.
  • I’ve been thinking over my idea of Strong and Weak links in Civic Engagement -and I hate the terms. I’m thinking of them more as Strong and Diffuse links – do we build specific powerful structures or more of a networked system. Voter registration via a political party is a Strong form of Civic Engagement. Charity work to distribute food to the needy is more diffuse. Running an anime convention is Strong, running a general writer meetup is Diffuse.
  • People really, really should appreciate the power of their fannish groups, game clubs, and more. Those connections provide a lot of support and social structure – as my own experiences at Fanime reminded me.
  • I’ve gotten behind on writing my representatives – though I wonder I’ve overfocused – since usually as of late I write them on trans rights. Do I keep mailing on the same thing or try to keep discussing different important items? For instance, this time I wrote them on voting rights.
  • I keep forgetting my state reps. I really need to remember them.
  • I’ve seen a county political party encourage letter writing to the media. Does that work? I admit the media is a pretty giant mess but I wonder if, much like me writing my reps, it at least has a chance to work?

Thats it for now. More next week!

– Steve