My Problem

      
      How's this for a mantra: "The burden of citizenship is recognizing that what is not your fault may be your problem."

      Which leaves us all with the 72 million people who voted for the republican presidential candidate. As Anand Giridharadas wrote recently: "These voters are not our fault. It's certainly not my fault. But it is my problem." Yes, spot on.

     I'm not sure when the subject of Civics became Social Studies in the Ridgewood School system. Probably would have been wise in hindsight to leave the name alone. We certainly were taught Civics in our Social Studies classes but it wasn't the main emphasis. To tell you the truth I don't know what "Social Studies" means. I remember history being taught and some world events. If I were to guess about what is being taught today in Social Studies, it would be a far cry from the subjects which made up my cozy little world.

     This leaves us with the issue of Citizenship and why so many people believe that we can't trust our government to do anything right. There is ample evidence of government being more than capable to handle well defined tasks. Look at our interstate highway system and our National Parks as two of America's better ideas that couldn't have been accomplished by private enterprise alone.

     I know we can't convince everyone of the virtues of government but maybe we can gain a few more converts.  You would think with record unemployment and a bridge/tunnel/mass transit system in need of repairs it would be obvious where we might place our emphasis. If collapsing bridges don't capture your attention how about the forest fires in California and Colorado, or the annual flooding of the southeastern US?

     Part of being a citizen is knowing that we are all in this together and improvements in one part of the country do not take anything away from the rest of the country. I'm not saying these sort of decisions will be easy or should be done at the expense of our place in the world. Our global problems also belong to everyone and an "America First" opinion is not going to be enough. 

     You can argue with me about the details of what ought to happen first. Though please don't tell me that if we leave well enough alone our problems will take care of themselves. They won't.