civic diary – Page 8 – Steven Savage

Civic Diary 5/13/2016

May 13, 2016 by Steven Savage

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

And welcome to my weekly examination of how I’m doing in being a better citizen.

For those of you just joining, I was inspired by Anil Dash to find a way to be more regularly civicly engaged. This is the result – a weekly diary to keep myself accountable and inspire people.

My big focus initially had been A) Following my assorted representatives, B) Following and joining relevant organizations, and C) Making efforts to at least write my representatives on issues, and of course D) Voting. That was a start.

I’ve been thinking over how there’s two kinds of civic engagement – Strong (highly organized, vertical organizations like political parties, PACs, and political orgs), and Weak (more local, distributed, casual efforts that, like the power of weak links in networking, having profound effects by accumulation). I did a lot more Weak work but not enough Strong work.

The simple fact of the matter is if you want to be civicly engaged, really make a difference, you have to get involved in some of the organizations out there. So now I’m wrestling with what’s appropriate for me. I’m waiting until June or so before I really try to answer this – but i’m leaning towards voter registration drives.

Now my latest findings:

First people are awful at talking about politics, and our media doesn’t help – we argue, we snipe, but we don’t engage. I’d heard about The Little Book of Revolution by David Akadjian and Maiez Mehdi, a guide to talking to people about politics. I’m reading it now and it’s really thought provoking – I’ll share more later. Short form is it’s got great advice on engaging people and getting them involved – and it’s very goal-oriented.
I’ve started following my local political party (Democrats, natch) and plan to attend a local meeting to get a feel for getting involved politically. Again just following a group on Twitter reveals a wealth of information. My default interest, as you may guess, is GOTV.
Your local political parties provide a ton of ways to get involved. Ever sat on a board? Raised funds? There’s a lot you can do – though how local (or national) you want to get may affect your options.
My local Democratic club had contact info for both Clinton and Sanders supporters, which was pretty cool.
I’m seeing the importance of “Weak Links” as well. Just running events for a club really makes a difference for people. Organizing people matters perhaps as much as anything else.

So that’s it for now. Any insights on your end?

Started your civic diary yet?

– Steve

Civic Diary 5/6/2016

May 6, 2016 by Steven Savage

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

So what a week, huh? Donald Trump is almost inevitably the Republican Nominee, and . . . well, Jesus, that’s about all we can focus on right now. Well that and we won’t have Ted Cruz Zodiac Killer jokes until 2020.

As of last week I’d realized I A) Wanted to become more engaged in organized politics or organizations with goals, and B) I didn’t understand as much as I thought. Where am I now?

First, despite that urge to “go out and get involved with some organization” I am holding off. Why? Changing jobs, busy as all get out, and I tend to overcommit. I’m actually going to take time to think this over, though right now “Voter Registration” sounds good.
I confess I’ve wondered if my future career should take me into the arena of political organizations as an IT manager. THAT is what I mean by overcommitting – my skillset tends to mean my commitments are mild or “all in.”
I’m going to look more into what to do in June. Setting a time to strategically ask what more I can do helps.
I’ve come to realized that our civic engagement has two parts to it – strong links and weak links Strong links are where we do specific things in specific organizations for specific goal – helping out a political party or group, etc. Weak links are the weak links of networking – things we don’t do intensely or all the time or in one way, but that have a lot of effects – like helping people look for work or promoting a club. Weak links are weak but numerous, tiny threads of spider silk that hold us together as a civilization.
Civic engagement is really a mix of Strong And Weak Links. If you focus only on the Strong you’re narrowed (and perhaps almost cultishly involved or part of the System in the bad way). If you focus only on the Weak you miss chances to do big things.
Strong And Weak involvements play into each other, and neither is better than the other. Both are needed. I could probably go into this deeper.
I am pretty good at Weak links. I do networking instinctively. I actually think everyone should do that – look for opportunities to connect people to each other.
Keeping myself mindful of civic engagement helps me follow news better – and I thought I was a news junkie beforehand. Being more concious of it just helps me be more aware.
I still debate how much blogging and social media helps. I did chime in on issues of sexism in tech on my blog and promoted some good causes on Twitter that got some attention. I just don’t know if this can do more, or if I should do something else when I do it. I guess part of it is finding what it can do and do it, if that makes sense.
My current big focus of awareness, besides Trump, is how fast the Trans-people-stalking-bathrooms idiocy has spread. In very short time I got to see it go from dumb bills to weirdos trying to protect our bathrooms from innocent trans people in person. Paying attention to news helps you see how fast this dumb-but-evil crap spreads – and let’s face it, this is just a-holes finding a new population to to target to keep the hate motivating their followers.
I like the idea of Civic engagement being constant, regular, predictable. To be part of my life.
I think a big part of Civic engagement is how its part of your identity. Probably going to write more on that.

– Steve

Civic Diary 4/29/2016

April 29, 2016 by Steven Savage

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

Hey all! So what’s the latest on my civic diary – my efforts to be more of a citizen?

Not much happened since last week as I got insanely busy. There’s a good lesson here in that you cannot do everything all the time. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself.

I think this is a big reason some people don’t really “dive into” citizenship activities; it’s exhausting and hard to pace yourself.

A few insights:

I’m realizing a lot of people do not know how to discuss politics – they know how to argue and fight, but not actually talk. I clearly need to get better at the discussion part.
Still convinced I need to get more involved in political organizations or organizing, which is hard as I have to pick something. For now I’m staying aware I should be more involved, and looking for opportunities to do so. I like observing this publicly as it makes me more self-conscious – so I do it.
The above has made me realize that, though I may understand many things of the world, my understanding of the political establishment (in the broad sense of everyone engaged in organized politics) is really quite poor. My work with Civic Geek helped me see how many organizations there are doing good in the world, and in turn I now see how much of our world, our society, are these interlinked structures. Being outside them disempowers you.
I think the disempowerment people feel is often real – but the solution is being empowered and empowering others. Getting aware and involved. A lot of political rage we see is just people finding new ways to be enslaved by jumping on fads.
Haven’t found anything new to write my representatives on. I am never sure how much of an effect it has, but I figure enough pebbles forms an avalanche.
Finally, I look at my other social involvements – clubs, speaking, museums, and worry I’ll downplay those too much. THere’s probably a balance – or a continuum – of healthy, different kinds of civic involvement. Maybe you can be too political.

– Steve