civics

Civic Diary 1/7/2016

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(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: 12/19/2016

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

Been awhile since I did these, huh?  Well back at it as always.

So let’s get this out of the way – very little was going to change no matter who won the election. As I’ve noted I think Trump is basically going to be an awful president in a historically bad way, so I may be moving a bit faster, but a lot of what I’m doing was already in the plan.  There’s a reason for that.

Really simply, I’ve realized over the last few months we’re really not that good at civic engagement in America. I’d been assembling a plan of what to do and how to get better at it for myself, some of it driven by the realization that “man, we could do this better.” In fact I could have done a whole lot better as a citizen in my life and didn’t.

How bad? Take the worry over President Trump – or anyone who’s President. The President is (or should) be one person in the system, but we too often ignore the rest of the system.  How many people vote only for President? Or never higher than Congress? How many think of the entire social-political system and if it’s working anyway? Do they look at local issues?

So here’s what I’ve been up to:

Staying Informed

Seriously, keep following news. I’ve got a news feed reader set up and my Twitter. I also mail/forward myself news I want to follow up on – if say I want to read more, call a representative, etc.

I also created a “Debunking” Twitter feed to follow up on debunking news from various sources, considering the amount of B.S. out there.

Regular Donations

I picked ten groups whos mission I support and set up either monthly donations or subscriptions/memberships. I reccomend you do the same – make it automatic. This depends on what you can afford, but hey, its something.

Auditioning Groups And Getting Involved

My goal is to get involved in two political groups/orgs, so I’m going to events and finding where I can get involved.  It certainly makes you think – maybe you help out with a local campaign but when that person is in congress you can have more influence. Range (and indeed “local”) aren’t always clear.  I’ve got an idea of one group I’ll probably join for a specific position, and I’m looking at others – with the possibility of actually doing some direct work with local government.

Let’s be blunt – if you want to make a difference, become involved and do something.

Working The Phones And Mails

Something I did once a week I’ve come to realize works better once a day give or take:

  • Call/write your congresspeople, governor, state reps, or even mayor if there’s anything you want them to address.  Try calling in-state offices and ask for specific actions. Do it daily if you have to.
  • Also call any of your representatives or others who have done things you agree with to thank them.
  • Call media companies or write them on their coverage of important issues.

So what’s next?

A few more things I want to do next

  • Subscribe to some news sources, including local. Keeping up on local issues is often forgotten so I want to stay informed. I’m also looking at subscriptions as gifts if I want to support a given news company.
  • Read up more on politics to better think about issues (I assume that happens with time, but the latest crazy makes me realize there’s a lot of subtletlties).

Hope these give you ideas!

– Steve

Civic Diary 7/15/2016

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

If you’ve been following my Civic Diary for any time you know one of my goals as an engaged citizen is to get connected to politics.  My attempts to connect with local groups was pretty scattershot, much of it because people kept moving the damn meetings.  Finally I found one by going to whatever I could and visiting a local political office.

So what I went to this meeting it was a kind of polyglot of local chapter meeting, club meeting, and a meet-and-greet of various officials.  I couldn’t see everything due to work, but I managed to finally network and connect and find ways to get involved.

  1. I’ll be going to a big meetup to get involved in Election 2016.  This is a specific date at a specific place for the specific purpose of different political groups coordinating.  I will go to this and state “I want to do this, now what.”
  2. I’ve got contact with a local party member to get more advice.
  3. I found a lot of local officials are pretty accessible, and got some insights on campaigns I may want to help with.

So finally.  Being civilly engaged in local politics.  The plan is to 1) Help with the election, 2) Network and connect, so that 3) I have a long-term plan.  #3 is almost certainly communication and/or recruiting.

Now that one hour I spent? Insightful.  I’m sure the things I share won’t be new to some, but they were pretty amazing to me.

There Are People Really Into It: Politics as a calling?  Yes.  People get into this like anything else.  It’s more than say a fandom (for some) but also there’s a calling/obsession/lifestyle/hobby vibe to it.

The Network Is Real: When I started doing my Civic Geek research, I began realizing just how much of civilization is due to groups and people getting stuff done that we don’t realize.  You see it at one of these political meetups as you meet local officials, see recommendations from organizations boost a candidate’s profile, and other such things.

You See The Bigger Network: Ever think politicians are distant?  Well it’s understandable in some cases.  However at least at this meetup I suddenly saw how politics itself is a giant Network of candidates, groups, donors, workers, and more.  I’m talking to people who worked with my state’s governor casually.  Now extend that further.

There Are Careerists And That’s Good: I totally support the idea of citizen government, but some people are career (or side career) in government and that’s good.  They build expertise.  They know how things work.  They have arranged their lives to take advantage of it.

There’s Ways In – But It’s Not Apparent: One of the things I realized is that, yes, there’s ways to get involved and get into office, but a lot of people don’t know how.  Where’s the instruction manual?  Here at this meeting I had an idea of how people did it – and how people not very political connected wouldn’t know when to start.  You have to work at it.

I Can See It’s Something I’ll Like: The energy of the meeting, the chance to make a difference, the engagement was something.  It felt the same way as helping at a con.  So I’m pretty sure after all this I’ll be doing political work as part of my life.

Definitely worth going.  I saw not a different world, but more saw the world different.

So for you?  Want to get involved?  Go to a local political party meeting.  It may just give you the opportunity you needed to make a difference.

See you at the phone bank – and next column!

– Steve