citizenship – Page 2 – Steven Savage

Civic Diary 1/7/2016

January 16, 2017January 7, 2017 by Steven Savage

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

A bit under the weather, but here’s the latest Civic Diary. For my new readers who aren’t familiar with this, I document my attempts to be a better citizen about twice a month or so. It was once a week but things got busy – and twice a month seems more effective. So what have I learned and tried.

Political Groups And Activist Groups

This last week I went to another meetup of a group I’m joining – and found I’d scheduled it right during a vital planning/org meeting. A good bit of advice here is that, when trying to join a group, keep their schedule in mind. They’re operating on one separate from you – theirs.

It looks like I’m going to get involved in group communications so stay tuned on that. I’d have more to update on that but the person I’m talking to has been sick.

This also brings up something important – in the past I was frustrated when interesting groups were hard to get ahold of. But considering how people have active lives, holidays interrupt, etc. I think I was being unfair. Give your various activist groups a chance.

Also post-election I am seeing a lot of people get more involved in politics and community – and bring their business skills. So what are you bringing?

Bringing Friends A Long

To help my friends out I’ve keeping them informed of who I’m calling and what I’m doing, and trying to get one involved in communications. We may not want to talk Big Things with friends or politics, but the truth is social connection is what makes society a society. Involve them.

Staying Informed And The News

I’ve purchased an actual subscription to an excellent local newspaper as my way of supporting good news. A bit unsure of who else to support as there’s some amazing things to subscribe to. If you pay for news, after all, you’re helping fund it, and it may be somewhat more objective.

Most news organizations have been erratic about quality the last few years. I’ve wondered if I should add more writing of letters and calling to express concerns to my schedule, still thinking of how.

Documentation

Now for something odd, but interesting. I’m documenting my experiences more.

First, I’m building a Civic Involvement outline. This helps me but also is a way to help friends and others get involved. At some point I’ll probably put it on CivicGeek.com or something.

Secondly, I’v taken to documenting my political and civic views. I want to codify them more, think them over. It’s been pretty enlightening already. Imagine writing a book, over time, consisting of your various jotting on politics – and thinking of how they cohere. It helps you understand yourself.

That’s what I’m up to. What about you?

– Steve

Civic Diary 8/8/2016

August 8, 2016 by Steven Savage

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

Another brutal week – busy at work and got sick on top of that. The illness meant . . . I ended up missing that big political meeting I’d been looking forward to. But still keeping at it. So here’s what’s been up.

Once I realized I was ill, I signed up for a GOTV event I’d been looking at anyway, and informed one of my contacts about my situation. The event I signed up for is at a political headquarters I’ve visited anyway, so it gives me some foundation. I found it by simply paying attention to my political emails and finding my candidate (Hillary, as you may guess) was having a GOTV event. Never discount candidate sites.
There’s also a local club I’m part of, so I’ll try to work that into my regular schedule.
I’m rolling the GOTV event into another social event as I found someone I know was going anyway. That’s something I never considered, and now the idea opens up a lot of possibilities – it’s probably more fun and builds better connections.
I’ve donated of course. Money always helps, of course.
Still haven’t written my reps lately, which I noticed is a bad habit I’m getting into – I read the news but I respond less. Maybe you can get too busy looking at the news and too little responsiveness.
As for the news, just damn, there’s so much to keep track of lately. I’m going to need to dial it back on my news obsession.

– Steve

Civic Diary 7/31/2016

July 31, 2016 by Steven Savage

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

Not my best week as an engaged citizen, but also a week where I considered a few important issues and had some insights. So let’s get to my latest on being a better citizen.

Civic Engagement

Beyond my upcoming visit to a political organizing party where I’ll work on GOTV, I’ve also engaged a member of a local political group to advise me – just in case this doesn’t work. After my past experiences, I want backup plans.

I’ve done poorly on one of my original goals – contacting my representatives more. I’ve been so focused on the political conventions and the campaign, I’ve forgotten to go annoy them very much. Not a good thing, and something I’m remedying by setting an alert for myself in my calendar.

I also did fall a bit behind on following my government news feed. Then again that was kind of my entire news feed the last two weeks, so I’m not sure I did.

One funny thing I did, in light of the Putin/Trump/Russia/Hacking mess is do a bit of my own protest by queueing up Tweets to mention this – not a load, no more than one a day, properly tagged. It takes little effort and is my small contribution to keeping that issue in the spotlight – currently for 3 more weeks. I was productive in my tiny way.

So that’s a bit on protest, which brings me to . . .

Protest Isn’t That Useful

Watching political events as of late has made me doubt the value of protest in modern politics. Unless it reaches a critical point, it seems to have very dilute effects. I’m not against it, but I’m against people thinking that’s all they need to do. My little Twitter thing is something I know is just an easy little extra.

Protest paired with plans, action, local organization, fundraising, is fine. Protest is one of many tools, but it seems as of late, embodied recently with a minority of Sander’s supporters, that people think protest is all there is. Go out, yell, magic happens.

That’s not it. Again involvement in politics, organizing, pushing for issues, that matters. Getting attention is at best part of it, and worse a waste in our distractible, sensationalist media. If you don’t build (or work with) an organization, you risk being either ignored or a sideshow unless you fit someone else’s narrative.

Post-Conventions

So after the two political conventions, a few impressions:

The Democrats walked with it, with an inclusive platform over a divisive one, with a lot of real political and personal testimony.
Trump’s followup has been horrible, from attacking the parents of a fallen soldier to weird conspiracies about Fire Marshals. Hillary’s comment that anyone that can be set off by Twitter shouldn’t be President seems to hold water.
The Democratic party seized the mantle of patriotism at the convention, and Trump’s actions are only helping them. This is a major cultural shift, and though one that makes sense (patriotism as a coming together), I saw a bit of discomfort on this in random Twitter commentary, that it could become jingoistic or otherwise pathological. I’m not that concerned, but it bears watching.
Conventions are like promises. Sure they’re theater, but people are supposedly saying things they believe in. I liked a lot of what I saw of the DNC – now I can call them on it.
We’re facing some kind of social and political shift, but I can’t get my arms around it. The Republicans have support but seem to have locked themselves out of the presidency. The Democrats are the patriotic adults in the room.

That’s it for me. Any more civic thoughts for you?

– Steve