As I said in my first post, I have questions. That’s what this project is all about.
I’m trying to figure out, what I have to do, specifically, to be considered a ‘good’ citizen.
I’m not even trying to be a great one. I mean, sure, I want to be a great citizen. Stellar even. Amazingly amazing! But what does that mean?
What I’m really looking for is the list of actions I need to complete to be considered simply – good.
It’s what we in the software industry call, the MVP, which stands for minimum viable product.
Stated another way, what’s the ‘least’ I need to do?
Let me save you the suspense? I’ve done some searching and came up with a whole lot of ideas about what one should do as a good citizen. I did run into several challenges though.
The first problem I encountered, is that there is a ton of information out there telling you what rights and benefits you’re entitled to as a citizen, but there is very little information that outlines in detail what duties and responsibilities citizenship carries with it! Additionally, what is out there is typically written for a fourth-grade social studies class or a foreigner who wants to pass the United States Citizenship Exam. That’s not exactly what I’m looking for.
More importantly, when I start to think about what I would consider to be a good citizen, the list of activities I would need to add to my schedule seems not only outrageous, but outright impossible. That is, outright impossible for anybody with a life, a job, or kids (which one parent expressed to me is far more like ‘in hell’ than ‘a life’). When I think of what I might call a good citizen, I’m not sure the list of activities such a hypothetical theoretical imaginary person does in a day, week, month or year, is even possible in the 21st Century.
I would assume that if my view of what a citizen must do isn’t actually possible, my definition is warped. Citizenship isn’t sainthood, at least I don’t think it is or should be. It needs to be actually achievable to be at all valuable.
What is a “good citizen” in the modern era? What is the official definition? Is there one? What is mine? If there is no good definition of “citizen fitness”, how can you know if you are one?
The bottom line is that I realize that I’m probably not a very good citizen, and I want to be better, but need to know exactly how to do it.
So, I’m going to do a little 365 project and see if I can figure out what the definition of a good citizen is, and…. try and be one.
Why this project:
- Seems like a good way to explore if is it even possible to be a good citizen in the 21st Century with fake news and distractions like the internet.
- Seems like a fun way to meet interesting people and learn new things.
- Seems like good topics to sit around and discuss while drinking coffee, tea or wine. (i.e., wine!)
- I need an excuse to do better at staying informed on issues. This gives a structure and accountability.
- There isn’t anything like this, as far as I can tell, so it meets a need in my opinion.
The first step of this process is trying to figure out what ‘they’ say a good citizen is. We have the Internet at our fingertips, any minute of the day, so long as you have good cell service or Wifi!
This should be a piece of cake, right? Well, I went to the Google Machine to find out. What I found shocked me.
Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash
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