It's That Time Again

I can still remember staring at several televisions in a party held by prominent Democrats at a prominent hotel in Downtown Boston, waiting for the inevitable to happen...and then it did, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. My country, which had teased of a possibility of a post-racial reality far too may times for me to count, had actually elected a Black man, of mixed origin and race, the leader of its nation.

I then had the unique pleasure and misfortune to get a ticket to the Inauguration (looking back, it seems as many people got a ticket to that event as have claimed to have walked in the Selma March). Despite spending most of that day walking around and standing in lines with my brother in lieu of seeing any of the ceremony in person, after cooling off, the history of that moment hit me and I got the biggest smile on my face. Ah it feels like it all just happened yesterday.

RIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!

The alarm goes off and just like that, the election cycle for the 2012 Presidential Election Cycle is upon us. For those of you who, like me, are prone to think the election cycle just keeps coming sooner and sooner; some of you might remember that Senator Barack Obama (Ill.-D) announced his candidacy for the 2008 Election in February of 2007. All that said, it still feels like some of us (me included) are waking up from an open bar party that was supposed to last four hours and ended going on through the night and into the next decade.

Thankfully, we've had the conflict in Libya, Bank/Car Bail Outs, a Republican takeover of the House, the conservative attack on public employees and collective bargaining (Wisconsin, Ohio, etc.) as well as Voter ID, Abortion (Texas, Ohio, etc.) and Immigration (Texas, Arizona, etc), the Healthcare debate, Healthcare Legislation and expected appeals. Lastly, the federal and state-by-state budget debate that has dominated the first quarter of 2011 and looks to dominate the rest of the year, to help us sober up - rough as it may be, it's time we all sober up.

This past week President Obama announced his re-election bid for 2012 with the slogan, "Are you IN?" Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has already announced his campaign for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination and there are several other hopefuls, including Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich,  Mitt Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry, waiting in the wings.

In 2007-2008, President Obama made his campaign's slogan, "Yes We Can" so popular that it has been co-opted by such divergent parties as Bankruptcy Lawyers like Roni Deutch and Tea Party supporters. Don't believe me, just google "Tea Party rally signs" and "Roni Deutch ads" and after a little digging, you'll see them. Still, as popular as that slogan became, even spawning a Will.i.am collaborative song (that I still listen to on occasion), the meaning has yet to approach any real measure of substantial success where it really matters, citizens.

It's been almost four years since the slogan, "Yes We Can" took this nation and world by the throat and gave it a good shake and what's changed? Yes, voters helped elect the first Black President in this country's history. That was almost three years ago. In the world of sports, entertainment, business or most any element of popular culture, if a person, team, artist, band, entertainer, school, corporation, etc goes three years without doing anything significant, they are all but forgotten about. However, when it comes to the leaders of our government or ourselves as citizens, one big victory every three years is apparently something with which a person can be content.

How many of us know who our local elected/appointed officials are? How many of us voted in the most recent election in our area? How many of us know how the budget debates in our respective states are going to affect our community today and the next year? How many of us have gone to a neighborhood association meeting, volunteered at a local non-profit or have any idea where (if you associate with a particular political party) your city or county political party office is located?

For the sake of full disclosure my answer to those questions are as follows: 1. Not as many as I'd like. 2. I did. 3. I do. 4. I know where my local Democratic Party office is but have not volunteered anywhere or gone to a neighborhood association meeting. While it's great that I know so much about my community, I count myself as more guilty than most people who aren't civically active, because in my opinion it's far worse to know and do nothing with that knowledge than to just be completely ignorant.

As the adage goes, with knowledge comes power and with power comes responsibility.

I just recently earned my Masters Degree, placing me in the higher percentile of education reached by the  average person in this country. Yet, with all this knowledge and experience I've gained, I (in my estimation) have really done nothing to make a difference in my community, state or country. I say all of this because while I spend most of my time on this blog bemoaning the lack of civic engagement in this country and the tragedy of those who need to be most involved typically being the least involved, I understand on a personal level just how hard it is to make civic engagement a priority in one's life.

And that's the beauty of the municipal, state-wide and federal election cycles. Each cycle acts as a mirror that we can choose to look into and really see where we stand as far as the imprint we're leaving on our community, state, country and world is concerned. It is an opportunity to stop for a few (or 18) months and take stock or where we are and where our world is and with as busy as life can get, the value of moments like this cannot be over-valued. These are the moments where we can choose to ask, "Am I a part of the problem or am I a part of the solution?"

While it may be easier for groups like Rasmussen, USA Today, New York Times and Gallup to poll citizens on how well/poorly the President, Congress or Political Parties are doing. I think it would be more telling to poll citizens on how well they think voters are doing at being actively engaged in the governing process, because that (more than anything) can steer the compass of those elected/appointed officials who represent the civic interest in our democratic system.

Yes, it's that time again. Time for complex issues to get squeezed into 1.5 minute commercials and 15 word sound bites. Time for voting records to come out of the closet and go out the window. Time for people that don't live in your state to start affecting who represents you for the next 2 - 4 years. It's also time to stand up, take a good hard look in the mirror and do whatever we can to make the world around us better. In the end, it's not up to the President, your Senators, Congressmen, State Legislators, City Council Members or Mayor to make a difference.

It's up to you.