{"id":375,"date":"2017-02-27T16:34:47","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T16:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=375"},"modified":"2017-02-27T16:34:47","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T16:34:47","slug":"i-thought-i-was-a-good-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/i-thought-i-was-a-good-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"I Thought I Was A Good Citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images-15\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The first time I voted I lived in California. It was 1972, during the Viet Nam War and Nixon was running against McGovern. I took my then toddler with me, dressed in a white leotard with a red zipper and a red, star-shaped pull. Over that she wore a red, white and blue striped skirt with the word \u2018VOTE\u2019 circling the circumference from waist to hem. I was just twenty and thrilled to be a part of the democratic process. Since then I have voted every time the polls opened.<\/p>\n

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I stayed informed. I marched for civil rights, women\u2019s rights, against the death penalty. I gave money to causes I supported. Very occasionally I wrote letters to my representatives. I thought<\/em> I was a good citizen. After the past three+ months I can now report that I was an under-involved citizen who assumed the democratic process, values, and structures could and would maintain themselves. I assumed that our courts and voting booths facilitated the \u2018arc toward justice\u2019 that Martin talked about. Since November 9th<\/sup> I have learned otherwise.<\/p>\n

We are living in different times. The future of our democracy and the future of our republic depends<\/em> on me<\/em>. And you. And you. And you. And you. It has always depended on us but I, at least, didn\u2019t have any idea to what extent. I don\u2019t believe I am overstating it to say we are living terrifying times. We cannot assume that our very ideals of freedom, human rights, inclusion, shared power, and political discourse are shared or valued so If those ideals are to continue to define and shape us as a nation it is up to us to make it so.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am learning new ways to be a good citizen. Being informed is no longer enough. If I want to be a good citizen I must act on the information. What bills are coming before the state and federal legislatures? Where do I stand on them? Who represents me? How do I let them know? I have my state and national representatives\u2019 and senators\u2019 numbers programmed into my phone. Their email addresses are in my contacts. Their snail mail addresses are saved in a doc that I can print out on cardstock. (I use postcards instead of lettered mail because letters have to be vetted for ricin, etc. so\u00a0postcards get to them more quickly). I demand town hall meetings and then show up. I attend state level committee meetings on issues I support or oppose. This is my new normal. I invite you to find and embrace your new normal.<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>People wonder if it makes a difference. All those small acts. All that time. The \u00a0only things that will<\/em> make a difference\u00a0is\u00a0that we actively participate in our democracy, without ceasing. We had become complacent and complacency is no longer an option. Not everyone has the time to go to meetings during work hours or that are held hours away but if you can, DO.<\/em> Everyone<\/em> can work to stay informed. Everyone<\/em> can commit to vote. Everyone<\/em> can spend 10-30 minutes a day making their voices heard. And none of us can\u00a0afford not\u00a0to be good citizens. The future of the republic depends on us.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The first time I voted I lived in California. It was 1972, during the Viet Nam War and Nixon was running against McGovern. I took my then toddler with me, dressed in a white leotard with a red zipper and a red, star-shaped pull. Over that she wore a red, … Continue reading I Thought I Was A Good Citizen<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,8,23,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}