The Formation of Political or other Community Groups

This first participation exercise illustrates the diverse ways in which the First Amendment encourages us to participate in our communities and politics.

Students are encouraged to get involved in local community or political groups and to share their experiences throughout the semester.

This project lays the foundation for subsequent participation activities. The objective of this exercise is to study how personal values and constitutional freedoms translate into the formation, functioning and perpetuation of political/community groups.

1. At home start writing down things that are important to you, such as:
   1. Activities in which you participate
   2. Groups of people (starving children, homebound senior etc.) or other life forms (whales, old growth forests, etc.) you especially care about.
   3. Political causes
   4. Political parties
2. Decide on the top three from the list which could motivate you to invest time in.
3. You may want to team up with classmates to research out what opportunities exist in the community to join a group with some sort of advocacy agenda. The Internet links below can help, or you can go to your college's student life office for information.
4. As you research available local and campus groups, consider such factors as:
   1. Effectiveness of the group
   2. Opportunity to effect change through the group in your community
   3. How well the group fits in with your values, and how dedicated the group truly is to their cause
   4. Their methodology for change, i.e., mainly educating members/guests, letter/e-mail/BLOG writing, attending governmental (or university administration) meeting, picketing, sponsoring community walks, etc.
5. Decide upon a group and note what made you decide on a particular group. (Asking others how they were inspired to form or join a community group would be helpful. You may also decide to start a new local chapter of a group, or a new group at your church, etc. The Internet is good place to find out about movements in other areas you may want to promote on your campus or in your town).
6. Be prepared to compare the differing methodologies of the groups you researched, and how that relates to the Part I of the text.

Citizenship: Getting Involved, Making a Difference

Personal Commitment

Effective citizen action begins with a question: What goal do I care enough about to try to make a reality?

The question is easy enough, but many people go through life without having asked and answered it. They are citizens in a constricted sense. They may vote. They may even donate money on occasion to a political cause. But they never get deeply enough involved in the life of the society to leave a lasting mark on it. The citizens who make a larger contribution to their community are those who commit themselves to action on a cause in which they believe. They are citizens in the fullest sense of the word.

These two types of citizenship were clearly evident when terrorists bombed the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Some Americans rushed to help the victims. Many people donated blood. Others sent money and clothing to the victims' families. Thousands from around the country went to the site of the World Trade Center to see whether they could help in the rescue effort. Other Americans worked within their own communities to promote tolerance for those of Middle Eastern descent and the Muslim faith. Still others helped local schools and organizations develop plans to prepare for and respond to future terrorist acts. Yet the war on terrorism for most Americans was something to be seen on television rather than something to be acted on directly, despite the great concern many of them felt about the issue.

So it goes, issue after issue. Most people sit on the sidelines, forgoing the opportunity to contribute substantially to public life.

Because the United States has a federal system of government and a strong tradition of local government and free association, there are literally endless opportunities for people to get actively involved in politics and public affairs. Citizens interested in working on political campaigns can join local, congressional, statewide, and presidential campaigns. Volunteers interested in community affairs can choose from all sorts of local organizations, from churches to schools to community groups. The Internet now offers countless national and international organizations in which to participate actively. For example, the international campaign to ban land mines, for which Jody Williams won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, began when she used the Internet from her home to organize the effort.

The difference that committed activists can make was never more in evidence than at the founding of the United States. Even though the Revolutionary War eventually enlisted a large number of participants, agitators such as Sam Adams in Boston and Patrick Henry in Virginia awakened other Americans to colonial injustices. Then, during the debate over ratification of the Constitution, the Federalist essays of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay helped sway opinion in favor of the proposed change in the nation's government.

Activists are the defining spirit of the community, whether that community consists of the people of the world, the citizens of a nation, the residents of a local community, or the students on a college campus. If you haven't been active to this point, what might you do now to get involved?

From page 41 of Patterson's American Democracy 7^th edition

Internet Resources

Vital Voices
http://www.vitalvoices.org/
The nonprofit Vital Voices Global Partnership grew out of the U.S. government's Vital Voices Democracy Initiative and The Vital Voices Democracy Initiative. The site contains activist resources and an extensive Internet resources page. Vital Voices emphasizes women's activism, but has resources of interest to both genders.

Interactive Mass Media and Political Participation
by J. Michael Jaffe http://research.haifa.ac.il/~jmjaffe/poli_cmc.html
A scholarly book about presented online in full text.

The Advocacy Classroom: Free Resources
http://www.advocacyguru.com/what%27s_free!.htm

IdealsWork.Com
http://idealswork.com
Consumer advocacy information.

I Petitions: Your Voice Counts
http://www.ipetitions.com/index.html
Web site with petition creation/distribution, bulletin board and other activist tools.

Yahoo Society and Culture Guide
http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/

Activism Resources
http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/Politics/Activism_Resources/

Yahoo Guide to Weblogs
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Weblogs/

Guide to Community Service Scholarships
http://www.making-a-difference.com/

Student Activist Links
http://www.making-a-difference.com/pages/Links.html

RavenTalk
http://www.raventalk.com/
Raventalk is an entry site for exploring how to create a sustainable planet future. Raventalk provides connections to the people, activism and ideas working toward a healthy and sustainable Planet for all living beings.

Americorps Resource Page
http://www.americorps.org/resources/index.html
Resources from the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Michigan Community Service Commission
http://www.michigan.gov/mcsc/0,1607,7-137-6116---,00.html
Information on community service opportunities. (Check for simular information with your state or local government – or try contacting your college student affairs office.)

Students in Service to America Guidebook
http://www.learnandserve.org/resources/index.html "The Students in Service to America Guidebook was created to help adults—teachers, parents, after-school providers and those who work in community-based organizations—to find and create opportunities for young people to answer the President's Call to Service."

The Corporation for National and Community Service
http://www.cns.gov/
The Corporation "engages Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to help strengthen communities." This is the federally created corporation behind Americorp.

Searching for the Meaning of: The American Democracy
Connecting the text and classroom with first-hand experience

1		How did you put the American core values (see pgs. 9-18) into actions through your activism experience?
2		What process did you go through to decide your societal goal(s) (see pgs. 10-18)?
3		What guarantees from the Bill of Rights (see pgs. 56-57) helped make your experience possible?
4		What have you learned about the meaning of self-government (see pgs. 58-65)?
5		Did you learn anything about increasing interdependency and intergovernmental relations (see pgs. 88-99)?
6		What limits to freedoms and rights did you learn about (see chapters 4 and 5)?
7		What other observations can you draw from the text and your experiences?