On Political Apathy

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Bob Herbert, columnist for the New York Times, continues his excellence in journalism with this opinion Changing the World:

[For context, the opinion is framed around the history of the Civil Rights Movement and Andrew Goodman, Michael Shwerner and James Chaney, the three civil rights workers who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Mississippi in June 1964, during Freedom Summer. The entire opinion should be read. Here is an excerpt.]

Americans have tended to watch with a remarkable (I think frightening) degree of passivity as crises of all sorts have gripped the country and sent millions of lives into tailspins. Where people once might have deluged their elected representatives with complaints, joined unions, resisted mass firings, confronted their employers with serious demands, marched for social justice and created brand new civic organizations to fight for the things they believed in, the tendency now is to assume that there is little or nothing ordinary individuals can do about the conditions that plague them.

This is so wrong. It is the kind of thinking that would have stopped the civil rights movement in its tracks, that would have kept women in the kitchen or the steno pool, that would have prevented labor unions from forcing open the doors that led to the creation of a vast middle class.

This passivity and sense of helplessness most likely stems from the refusal of so many Americans over the past few decades to acknowledge any sense of personal responsibility for the policies and choices that have led the country into such a dismal state of affairs, and to turn their backs on any real obligation to help others who were struggling.

Those chickens have come home to roost. Being an American has become a spectator sport. Most Americans watch the news the way you’d watch a ballgame, or a long-running television series, believing that they have no more control over important real-life events than a viewer would have over a coach’s strategy or a script for “Law & Order.”

With that kind of attitude, Andrew Goodman would never have left the comfort of his family home in Manhattan. Rosa Parks would have gotten up and given her seat to a white person, and the Montgomery bus boycott would never have happened. Betty Friedan would never have written “The Feminine Mystique.”

The nation’s political leaders and their corporate puppet masters have fouled this nation up to a fare-thee-well. We will not be pulled from the morass without a big effort from an active citizenry, and that means a citizenry fired with a sense of mission and the belief that their actions, in concert with others, can make a profound difference.

It can start with just a few small steps. Mrs. Parks helped transform a nation by refusing to budge from her seat. Maybe you want to speak up publicly about an important issue, or host a house party, or perhaps arrange a meeting of soon-to-be dismissed employees, or parents at a troubled school.

It’s a risk, sure. But the need is great, and that’s how you change the world.

For those of you who are residents of Tucson, have you returned your early mail-in ballot that you requested? (Do so by Friday). If you did not request an early mail-in ballot, have you voted early at one of the locations of the Pima County Recorder's office? Have you volunteered a few hours of your time for making phone calls, or knocking on doors, or dropping off campaign literature? Have you made a small donation to your favored candidate, issue or political party? Have you written a letter to the editor?

These are just "a few small steps" that you can take to be an active citizen. It does not take much of your time or effort. Democracy is not a spectator sport, as Mr. Herbert says. Political apathy and passivity is how democracies die. A healthy democracy requires an active and engaged citizenry. It is one week to Election Day. Please do your part.