Get meaningfully involved in our local community

This may be one of the most difficult, and yet rewarding, ways to contribute one's time and energy due to the proximity of the issues and relationships, which increase one's personal investment to outcomes. However, this local investment is critical to building the kinds of communities that work best for all its inhabitants.

Voting is one way of contributing, but only a small part. In order for our communities to work equitably, a broad cross-sector of our community needs to continually engage each other on issues of greatest concern to our community, whether that be community-police relationships, affordable housing, reinvigorating the local economy, or a host of other concerns.

There are so many competing things for our attention, especially given our access to technology, and this can serve to enhance our local participation, or decrease our involvement with our neighbors, libraries, city hall, and so on.

Understandably, it is often difficult to see the rewards when your community doesn't have a culture of listening to its citizens, or when individual voices are crowded out by those in power or with "the money" or _____.

However, let's make a commitment to give some of our time meaningfully to our community ... where we eat, reside, raise our families, and so on. And maybe we'll be able to contribute to the development of the kind of culture in our community where all citizens have a voice and can contribute to the decisions that affect them, effecting democracy on the local scale, day-by-day.