2018: Getting to really know your government is the first step

2018 is barely out of the gate and I think we can all agree that is seems this year is going to reap what 2017 sewed. With our current government wrestling with shutdowns, trust issues and this last weekend again seeing marches on opposing sides, it seems the polarization has finally manifested itself in its full form.

CGC would like to first give our support to those military and government workers who were effected monetarily that have little to no power when shutdowns like these occur. There are many people in our country who work hard to make all of our lives better. They run the gamut from those who work on environmental, medical, education, sanitation, agriculture, etc., who can be hurt by these shutdowns and deserve our support and recognition for being caught between this partisan morass.

While CGC condemns unnecessary governmental shutdowns, we understand that these issues involved are not new and have been festering for many years. There are no easy fixes, however, CGC would suggest that everyone take a moment to consider that while the worst case scenario seems to be happened, and currently we have been put in limbo until Feb 8th. What as citizens can we do to mitigate the fallout?

We believe that during times like these we should all be productive in our understanding of how the government works, how shutdowns like these happen and both their short and long term effects on our country.  It is never too early to begin to think about the 2018 elections and your options for representation. Were your representatives providing constructive suggestions and appropriate civil behavior during the negotiating process? When it came to this shutdown and leading up to it in 2017, did they try to work toward bipartisanship within Congress? If they didn’t, what were their reasons behind it and were they sufficient enough that it made sense to you?

So to start this examination, CGC will focus this week on proactive information to help educate our followers about the consequences of shutdowns, about how our government works and what early steps as a citizen you can take to hold your representative to civil responsibility.

We recommend that everyone watch Crash Course from PBS Digital Studios.  This on going multi-generational 48 episode series of short, less than 10 minute vignettes will provide the concrete information to help you understand your government’s workings and help place the events into context.

While we all wait to see what will come in the next few weeks, we ask what productive things you as a citizens feel you can and will do to prevent future shutdowns from happening. What do you plan to do now in January to prepare for the elections happening in November and to make yourself more informed. What would you like to see from organizations like ours in facilitating in areas such as how we can better hold our elected officials accountable for civility.