Why should you care about what the government does?

“The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect.” The Alchemist in The Alchemist (p. 204 electronic copy, sorry)

Well this is it, the blog post where we decide on our question, what we’re going to teach the class, a commitment of time and energy to something I hope is worthwhile. We’ve touched on it in parts of our other blogs, but now its time for us to come up with a solid question that we will take ourselves.

I think this quotation, though only slightly out of context, does a lot to describe why we have governments in the first place. Things are just alright now, but there’s an ideal on the other side of the coin. I think that while the Alchemist here gives a more religious, spiritually deep meaning to the quote, I can’t help but think about how much needs to be done in our own world to prevent scenarios of global crisis and build a better, brighter tomorrow.

What people do far away influences you. They do things in courthouses from coast to coast. These people do things in the White House and the chambers of Congress in Washington D.C. And there are tons of other people behind the scenes around the world doing things that influence you.

With my question I want to try to emphasize the importance of civic engagement in a more interesting way than you’ve probably seen in your previous civics classes. Let’s talk about space, get real with ebola, and dream big together about policy.