Considering that an election year is upon us again, I wanted to share something I wrote 2 terms ago as a reminder to not just go to the polls, but to also go do something about it.
I voted. Did you? I saw so many posts on social media showcasing the “I Voted” sticker or pen accompanied by, “I did my part!”
Did you? Did you really do your part?
Don’t get me wrong, voting IS extremely important. But simply completing that action is like hitting that thumbs up or heart button on someone’s post. It’s what I call slacktivism. The real civic duty is making a change in your community.
It appears to me we have been putting too much faith in people we will most likely never meet. We think they will be the ones to bring about change. In some ways that is true; however, I can bet I will never see one of them walking through the halls of of my school or extending a hand to people in my community. Neither will pull over on the side of the road and help you change the tire on your vehicle. Neither will answer their door and give you a cup of sugar. Neither will watch after your home if you are away. Neither will take care of the orphans and widows. Neither will sit down with your children and teach them that character matters over the color of someone’s skin.
Do you know who will do these things? Rather, do you know who should?
I wasn’t alive to hear his original speech, but I have often listened to the recording and used President Kennedy’s Inaugural Speech in my English classes. We could all benefit from hearing it every election year, if not throughout the course of our non-election years:
“Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. . . .
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
We all have unique gifts and talents. If each of us put those to use for the betterment of others, think of what we could accomplish. I am grateful for the men and women who choose to defend our nation in the military. I am grateful to doctors and nurses; if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have had much hope during my diagnosis. I am grateful for teachers because they make all other professions possible.
Rather than wondering who is going to clean up the trash around the roads, organize a clean up crew. Rather than thinking it is someone else’s responsibility to bring awareness to the mistreatment of others, educate others about how to break destructive cycles. There will be times your civic duty is to demonstrate an act of civil disobedience; If you are going to protest a cause, do so effectively and constructively.
The good news is that we can all do better, and we can start today. Rather than complaining about something and putting our hopes in a politician we don’t even know, we can go out and do something about it. And, we can do so without posting a selfish—I mean selfie.