The Good Citizen

Can one be a good citizen and be successful personally as well? I'm sure the answer is "yes." "Yes" because a good citizen has the support of a community that gathers its strength from each individual in it. A community cannot be strong unless its citizens are strong.

What makes a good citizen? Goodcitizen.org, an organization dedicated to this goal, lists these traits, paraphrased and expanded here:

1. A good citizen knows the heritage of our country.

S/he knows the events that helped build this country and the people who helped make it. A good citizen honors the past and strives to build on it for a good or even better future.

Go to any Memorial Day function or 4th of July parade and you will see the pride in the citizens as they remember what it is we are honoring.

2. A good citizen is involved in the democratic process, depending on his/her age and station in life.

Children are good citizens of their neighborhoods and schools. They know that friendliness and helpfulness is a contribution and that vandalism and bullying diminishes the neighborhood and school.

Adults know that voting is a responsibility of citizenship and that involvement in community work and committees is important to the community, even as their work is important to them personally.

3. A good citizen supports organizations that are key to a strong America, like elected government officials, the school system, the police and fire fighters, and the military.

Sometimes, voicing opposition is part of good citizenship. Dissension and public debate are crucial to a democracy, but are the personal barbs necessary, too? Good debate is focused on the issue, not the person. When the good citizen wins, s/he wins with humility. When s/he loses, s/he does it graciously, accepting responsibility to support the winning side.

4. A good citizen makes an effort to understand the government at the local, state and federal levels.

In this way, we can understand its role and ours in it and we can be sure that government uses well the powers we have given over to it and does not take on more than it is given. Poor oversight has made many governments too powerful to contain.

5. A good citizen helps promote a sense of community.

Desperately bad communities have been turned around after some of its citizens have decided that no longer would they live with crime and filth. There are neighborhoods in New Orleans that are coming back better than they were before the hurricane and others that will probably never come back. The difference - good citizens who care and had invested energy in their neighborhoods before and now are determined to reclaim them. Others were disenfranchised before the hurricane and have nothing to draw on now.

6. A good citizen does all he/she can to be the best and the strongest and to make his/her family the best and strongest, knowing that these are the building blocks of good and strong communities and countries.

Individuals and families make the units that make the community and the country. Pride in self leads to values that make personal success and the desire to be part of great communities. Sometimes we take for granted who we are and what we have. This holiday is a time to remind ourselves that we have the opportunity to live great lives. We are American.

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