I’m writing this at 2:07 EST, here in New York City, on Election Day, November 4. The opinion polls have giving us an intimation of who the next President of the United States will be, but we don’t know for sure.
Either way, we are all going to wake up on the morning of November 5 with a new President. We all will have voted, we see a change of the guard in January, but the question is, are we done?
The thing is, before I started the No Impact project, back in November, 2006, I made the mistake of thinking that both the responsibility I had to my democracy and the power I had over it was limited to my vote.
I was wrong. One of my big learnings over the course of the project was that I make a difference. We make a difference. You make a difference.
A life built on values, a life lived in line with what we believe, a life concerned with both keeping our own side of the street tidy but that also faces outwards with concern for the people of our community, region, nation and planet has tremendous power.
The most radical political act there is, I believe, is optimism. If I believe I can make a difference, I can. Certainly the opposite is true: if I believe I cannot make a difference, I will not try and, therefore, I cannot.
So, whoever is President tomorrow morning, I believe my responsibilities are far from over. In fact, they have only just begun.
From a United States Government website:
Democracies need more than an occasional vote from their citizens to remain healthy. They need the steady attention, time, and commitment of large numbers of their citizens…
From a post by Charles Firestone, on Huffington, about the responsibilities of citizenship:
Americans are very good at claiming rights; we are not always so ready to recognize our responsibilities…
Democracy means citizen sovereignty. To be sovereign each citizen should have a responsibility, among other things, to be informed, at least minimally, of the issues on which he or she is asked to make a decision…
Firestone goes on to make a list of the things we must keep informed about, amongst them, he says:
Each of us, as citizens of the planet, now has a responsibility to learn what we can about our inter relationship with the environment.
And he is right, but he doesn’t go far enough. I have a responsibility not just to be informed but to act. I must accept that the voting booth is not the limit of my civic power for the simple reason that the Government does not have absolute power.
The power rests with me, with us, the people. Not just how I vote but how I live. Not just how I live but why I live. Do I live for myself–do we live for ourselves?–or do we live for each other?
If I believe that we live for each other, and I do, then voting is only the beginning.
What else must I do?
I think we’re all trying to figure that out. Seeing for the first time just how limited our Government is in its ability to deal with the most dire emergency of a generation or more, many of us–many of you–are trying to figure out how to augment and go further than government power.
We have to keep trying and figuring out. But for now, here is a short list of internet places to go or read that can help you take the next step, the step that helps all of us affirm that we are much more powerful than once-every-four-year vote for President.
- Here are lots of first steps on the personal path to green.
- Here is a letter from the Presidential Climate Action Project to the next president you can sign.
- Here are where you can get involved with 1sky and 350, the two climate organizations I like most.
- Here, you can find the resources of the Center for a New American Dream which teaches about living happier using fewer resources.
Now let me ask you:
There’s lots on the web about what the next President should do in his first 100 days. My question is, what should we do in those first hundred days?