Thank you for this piece. It’s boggling how many friends of mine are agitated about national politics. Yet they are utterly uninvolved in the things they have the most direct impact upon: their local community. Their sense of “powerlessness” about the national moment could be mitigated by any of these smaller scale ways to participate in shaping the world.
Great advice. I think far too many people have gotten caught up in national politics recently. Can seem hopeless, but being involved in local changes can let them be real and give hope that things can get better.
Another opportunity, along the lines of reporting stuff that's broken, is giving super-specific suggestions on surveys that government departments are doing — something that I did a couple years ago and appeared to have tangible results in DDOT's pedestrian safety work! I wrote about it here: https://civicinsighter.com/p/more-to-life-than-federal-government
Also, I love your inclusion of the church in this theme. I only started going to church (for the first time in my life!) at the end of January, but I quickly discovered that it's an extraordinary avenue for participation in civic life, and I've found it giving me a ton of inspiration about civic engagement in general and how lessons from church might apply to the outside world. I love your point about being a useful fish in a small pond; the two main churches that I attend are very much like that, offering a chance to see how my individual actions can make a real tangible difference in a way that can be hard to see when dealing with the fuzzy idea of society at large. I feel drawn to help and to serve our church family in a way that I really haven't anywhere else for many years.
Thank you for this piece. It’s boggling how many friends of mine are agitated about national politics. Yet they are utterly uninvolved in the things they have the most direct impact upon: their local community. Their sense of “powerlessness” about the national moment could be mitigated by any of these smaller scale ways to participate in shaping the world.
Thank you! I think that feeling is very normal. I had so many unknown unknowns about local politics until housing advocacy pulled me into it.
Great advice. I think far too many people have gotten caught up in national politics recently. Can seem hopeless, but being involved in local changes can let them be real and give hope that things can get better.
The best part is that things can and do get better.
Great post!
Another opportunity, along the lines of reporting stuff that's broken, is giving super-specific suggestions on surveys that government departments are doing — something that I did a couple years ago and appeared to have tangible results in DDOT's pedestrian safety work! I wrote about it here: https://civicinsighter.com/p/more-to-life-than-federal-government
Also, I love your inclusion of the church in this theme. I only started going to church (for the first time in my life!) at the end of January, but I quickly discovered that it's an extraordinary avenue for participation in civic life, and I've found it giving me a ton of inspiration about civic engagement in general and how lessons from church might apply to the outside world. I love your point about being a useful fish in a small pond; the two main churches that I attend are very much like that, offering a chance to see how my individual actions can make a real tangible difference in a way that can be hard to see when dealing with the fuzzy idea of society at large. I feel drawn to help and to serve our church family in a way that I really haven't anywhere else for many years.
That is beautiful! Welcome home, brother! You will like this, one of my favorite things on the Internet:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pECvf2lxHOI&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD
Great piece! Appreciated your reflections on faith and YIMBYism too. You might find this article on religious liberty arguments for housing on church property by a friend of mine interesting: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/133.4.ReidyFinalDraft_vma6xn84.pdf