Tag: getting involved

Wisdom’s Cry #3: It’s a Political Year

As was true when I sent out Wisdom’s Cry in 1992, this is an election year, and while the focus of most people’s frustration, anger, desire for change, etc. is the federal government, we can do much more at the local and state level.  Here’s what I wrote then about getting involved [to go straight to a list of practical things you can do, scroll to the bottom]:

IT’S A POLITICAL YEAR

(August 1992)

The Year of Living Publicly is upon us, the year during which those who are leaders and those hoping to be leaders discuss all the issues they should have been discussing all along and will avoid discussing even now if the populace will let them.

Remember 1988 when the presidential campaign became a referendum on whether the American flag should be honored or whether furloughed black men should be allowed to rape?

We’v entered another political year, and most of us will be tempted to either ignore the political process altogether or focus on the public and private lives of those few men running for the presidency [2018 update: Congress].  We’ll gather our news from newspapers [2018 update: the internet] or those 17-second sound bites we see on the nightly news.  And at the end of the process we’ll be disappointed once again, feeling frustrated by our lack of control and a bit less willing to care about politics again.

But this is an important year!  Each of us needs to be involved.  Not at the national level, but at the local level.  For while most of the media discussion centers on the latest national clash between the Big Egos, the political races that will most directly affect our lives are quietly taking place in our neighborhoods.

In Washington State, for example, we will be voting this year for senator, governor, lieutenant governor, congressional representatives, all state representatives and many state senators.  A full 20% of the people in this year’s state legislature are seeking higher office, which means that their current positions will be left vacant, waiting to be filled by those whose views we endorse…or those whose views we don’t.

In addition, several initiatives will be on the ballot including two that deal with campaign spending reform.

So what, you say?  So get involved!  Many of us feel left out of the political process, unable to affect the decisions of government leaders.  But what we don’t realize is that we can have an effect on the process and ultimately on the decisions of leaders.

When you do more than just cast your ballot, when you attend public meetings or work on a political campaign, you increase your effect on process and decisions a thousand-fold.  Yes, a thousand-fold.  Whether we like to believe it or not, a small number of people from our neighborhoods are making the decisions that affect us all and we can each be a part of that group.

Too often it’s easier to stay home and concentrate on your own concerns.  Too often it’s easier to gripe about the direction society is going, about the lack of quality leaders, about he poor information on which decisions are made.

Too often it’s easier to gripe, period, than to do anything.

So how does one become involved when she has never been involved before?  On this page [see below] you’ll find a list of things you can do right now, today.  Be careful, though.  Once you become involved, you can’t sit back and refuse to do anything.  And you’ll no longer be able to gripe about having no part in the process!

THINGS TO DO IN 1992 [or 2018]:

  1.  Read your local community paper, especially the Community Calendar section, and attend some of the meetings announced.
  2. Join your local community council and begin attending its meetings.  These are open to everyone and are the best place to find out what’s happening in your community.
  3. Talk to any neighbors or friends you know are already involved and ask them to take you to events or meetings they attend.
  4. Call the county office of whichever political party you feel closest to and ask if there are ways you can help them.
  5. If you don’t want to work with apolitical party, call the League of Women Voters or similar groups involved in politics.
  6. Pick a local candidate and volunteer for his or her campaign.  this is the best way to hep out your views into office.  An added benefit is that you will meet others who share your views and desire to be involved.
  7. Arrange a candidate’s appearance before groups you already participate in.  Church and civic groups are always looking for speakers, and an appearance by your candidate fosters discussion of your ideas.
  8. Write to your local newspapers about issues you think should be part of the political discussion.  Newspaper will accept most letters that contain concise ideas clearly stated and the Letters section is the most widely read page of any publication.
  9. Talk about your views to anyone who will listen.  You’ll be amazed at how many of your friends share your concerns and are willing to be involved with you.

© Michael N. McGregor 1992

Wisdom’s Cry: A Journal of Introspection

In 1992, I was living in Seattle and running a small European tour company I had established three years before.  In addition to leading my own tours, I guided for Rick Steves, with whom I’d been working for seven years. I was ready to move away from travel, though–to return to my first love, writing, or get more involved in politics, maybe even run for office.  Two years before, I had developed a small magazine I called Wisdom’s Cry, writing everything in it myself and sending it to friends to stimulate discussion about issues I thought were important.  I was tired of get-togethers at which people talked only about trivial things when larger things were happening in our country and our world.

I had intended to make Wisdom’s Cry a regular effort, sending copies to friends every three months or so, but touring and running a business and everything else in my life interfered.  Then came the Gulf War buildup, followed by the war itself and I found myself baffled by the country’s zealous support of what seemed to me an ill-advised venture.  When the war had ended and the next election cycle was in full swing, I was more anxious than ever to stimulate discussion among my friends and my thoughts returned to Wisdom’s Cry.  By then, I was volunteering as the newsletter editor for my local Democratic district, the Thundering 36th as we called ourselves.  I was a precinct committee officer too  (the only elective office I’ve ever held).  But I wanted to do more.  So I put out a second issue.

While looking for something else yesterday, I found that second issue.  When I read through it, it seemed to me that the writing in it was level-headed as well as passionate and sometimes creative.  Having mostly neglected this website for months, I thought putting some of the articles I wrote for that issue on here might help me jump-start it.  If nothing else, they show a way of approaching important issues that seems more reasonable (at least to me) than how we’ve been approaching them lately in this fractious and extremely partisan time.

I should note that only some of the articles in that issue seem obviously political–dealing with education, gun violence or getting involved in elections, for example–but all of them, even the more creative ones dealing with silence or art, are political in the deepest sense, for they are about our collective decisions about how we want to live as a society.

Maybe something I wrote in that issue, or just the decision to put it together and send it out, will inspire someone who stumbles upon this website to do more than they’ve done before to help better this country and world–even put out a magazine of their own.

To get things started, here’s my editor’s note from that issue:

“It’s been over two years since I put out the first issue of Wisdom’s Cry.  I’m sure some of you have forgotten about it.  It was a patchwork affair, much like this one, an attempt to increase discussion about issues I thought important.

“At the time, I hoped to make this a quarterly publication.  But like other people, I got involved in other things and though Wisdom’s Cry was never far form my mind, I didn’t find the time to work on it.

“Then last year came along and changed my mind about many things.  The Gulf War and its aftermath convinced me that we do not have the luxury of not speaking out for what we believe.  I saw politicians and other citizens silence themselves or jump on the bandwagon to support an enterprise that was dubious at best, arrogant, chauvinistic, and racist at worst.

“What does one do when he finds himself at odds with the prevailing sentiments in his country?   What does he do when his heart bleeds for those who suffer as the result of wrong-minded policies, for those whose needs are neglected because his government would rather build million-dollar bombs than put a few dollars into education or health care?

“He has three options: 1. He joins in, checking his conscience at the door.  2. He packs his things and retreats to an isolated place where he pursues his ideas on his own.  3. He jumps into the fray and does what he can to change attitudes and influence priorities.

“For me, the first of the three was never an option and though I thought about the second, the third was the only truly responsible course.

“So Wisdom’s Cry is back.  As before, it is not intended to be the final word on issues, but rather a call to discussion, to concerned consideration, and, finally to action.

“My hope is that every one of you will talk with me about issues that matter and that my feeble scribblings will prompt you to talk to those around you at home, at the office, at church.

“We are the people who can change this society’s course for the better but first we must overcome our fear of speaking out.  We must form beliefs and state them and do what we can to make this country and this world a more humane, more caring, more equitable and hopeful place to live.”

© Michael N. McGregor 1992

 

And yes, I went by “Mike” back then.  🙂