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Like it or not we are all thinking about the Presidential election right now. Even if you didn’t watch the vice presidential debate or Katie Couric’s interview of Gov. Palin, you are watching the stock market, imagining the billions of dollars going into the war in Iraq, wondering if your bank is going to go under and sensing deep down that this election could actually make a difference. But are you also wondering if you can make a difference?

Which Candidate are you buying?

As the drama of this season continues to unfold, I am haunted by a powerful chapter in a book by Peter Block entitled, Community: The Structure of Belonging. Chapter 6 is devoted to “What it Means to be a Citizen”.

He claims that in our society to be a citizen is (are you ready?) to be a consumer! In an election year, that translates into thinking of ourselves (and being thought of by the campaigns) as merely a voter. As a voter we become passive and powerless—reliant on our leaders to define our needs. As Block puts it, “The candidates become products, issues become the message, and the campaign is a marketing and distribution system for the selling of the candidate.”

No surprise that it leads to our cynicism and disappointment. It also spirals into a “my product (Fill in the blank: candidate, issue, perspective) is better than yours” argument in which we feel the need to gloat about being right even though we have no idea what is true since all we did is pick something off of a political shelf!

And what we get from this process is poor leadership. Poor leaders need to mandate and coerce us to change. Poor leaders breed both entitlement and apathy.

Are you ready to produce the future?

Here is Block’s definition of citizenship:

“…a citizen is one who is willing to be accountable for and committed to the well being of the whole. That whole can be a city block, a community, a nation, the earth. A citizen is one who produces the future, someone who does not wait, beg or dream for the future.”

He is not saying that we don’t need great leaders and politicians. He is saying that great leaders coupled with real citizens are an unbeatable partnership. If (big unimaginable, if) we all bought into this new definition of citizen, the shift would be obvious and palpable. For example:

• Today’s side bar human-interest stories would be lead stories in the news
• Elections wouldn’t cost so much money because they would be less important
• Our leaders would be accountable for bringing us together to solve problems

Block is challenging us to be accountable and committed to the well being of our communities. Do you agree? Can you rise to the challenge? What could be different if we all rose to the challenge? What will you do?

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Photo courtesy of CAVE CANEM