This used to work...
Last night around this time, I was sitting at my local VFW club. No, I wasn't shopping for a great place for my wedding reception or eating a fund-raising spaghetti dinner. I was sitting in the back row at my precinct caucus. Ahhh.
Democracy in action.. While I took in the wood paneling and the shag carpet-covered poles, I was making snotty comments under my breath to Jff about the proceedings. I was appalled. The precinct captain who I had voted for two years earlier at another precinct meeting was butchering the meeting (at the time I was proud to have voted for a diamond in the rough- 40 year old man in tight sweat pants and t-shirt- I was convinced that he would do a great job-not so much).
In quite possibly the same sweat pants, our captain stood in the front of the room and did not have a clue about what should be happening. While reading directly from his sheet of instructions (coughing at every other word) he successfully confused 95% of the participants about who was a delegate for what, where, and when. The straw voting was worse. The resolutions part of the meeting is when Jff finally had to step in and set a few people, including sweat pants, straight. I was close to openly weeping, when Barb the 85 year old lady in the process of reading her resolution, which included reading through all of the pillars of Islam, droned on through several protestations of other participants. The following was flowing through my mind, "We are achieving nothing here, this is why people don't participate in politics in this country, this meeting is completely pointless, none of these people will ever attend another caucus, all because of Barb." And I am a government teacher! I should know better. When we finally crawled out the two hour meeting, I was thoroughly depressed. I was thinking "democracy used to work, what has happened?".
With a much clearer head this morning and my AP Government class looming, I reframed. These are my conclusions: First, we do students a disservice by teaching them the romaticized view of democracy in most classrooms-they should attend a caucus (some of mine did!). Democracy is not neat, quick, easy, nor always "fair". This is because, among other things, the framers were petrified of mob rule and the average citizen. Making democracy slow and tedious was a protection from tyrannical take overs or the common people actually ruling. Second, we do ourselves and everyone else a disservice in this country by not putting enough emphasis on educating young people about this system that we created and how they can participate in it. Until people actually understand the value of our system and how to use it, ironically until they are educated about it, most U.S. citizens will remained tuned out, because after all democracy today can seem too complicated, too cumbersome, and too slow to take part in and get anywhere- even sometimes to a U.S. government teacher.
Democracy in action.. While I took in the wood paneling and the shag carpet-covered poles, I was making snotty comments under my breath to Jff about the proceedings. I was appalled. The precinct captain who I had voted for two years earlier at another precinct meeting was butchering the meeting (at the time I was proud to have voted for a diamond in the rough- 40 year old man in tight sweat pants and t-shirt- I was convinced that he would do a great job-not so much).
In quite possibly the same sweat pants, our captain stood in the front of the room and did not have a clue about what should be happening. While reading directly from his sheet of instructions (coughing at every other word) he successfully confused 95% of the participants about who was a delegate for what, where, and when. The straw voting was worse. The resolutions part of the meeting is when Jff finally had to step in and set a few people, including sweat pants, straight. I was close to openly weeping, when Barb the 85 year old lady in the process of reading her resolution, which included reading through all of the pillars of Islam, droned on through several protestations of other participants. The following was flowing through my mind, "We are achieving nothing here, this is why people don't participate in politics in this country, this meeting is completely pointless, none of these people will ever attend another caucus, all because of Barb." And I am a government teacher! I should know better. When we finally crawled out the two hour meeting, I was thoroughly depressed. I was thinking "democracy used to work, what has happened?".
With a much clearer head this morning and my AP Government class looming, I reframed. These are my conclusions: First, we do students a disservice by teaching them the romaticized view of democracy in most classrooms-they should attend a caucus (some of mine did!). Democracy is not neat, quick, easy, nor always "fair". This is because, among other things, the framers were petrified of mob rule and the average citizen. Making democracy slow and tedious was a protection from tyrannical take overs or the common people actually ruling. Second, we do ourselves and everyone else a disservice in this country by not putting enough emphasis on educating young people about this system that we created and how they can participate in it. Until people actually understand the value of our system and how to use it, ironically until they are educated about it, most U.S. citizens will remained tuned out, because after all democracy today can seem too complicated, too cumbersome, and too slow to take part in and get anywhere- even sometimes to a U.S. government teacher.
posted by KLOU | 6:26 PM
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