civil participation Quotes

There is nothing beyond the reach of ordinary citizens doing the daily work of democracy, and no problem too great to tackle with the power of active citizenship.

Citizenship in the 21st century requires more than paying your taxes and voting and occasionally running for office. That even if you're never in political office, you have political responsibilities. You can make your society stronger and better.

I think the right way to do this is just to step up and do it, so I actually think we'll see more of that over the next coming weeks, because I think they'll say, "We'd like to be good for business and quiet on politics, but this is too urgent, it is too much of a key crisis in who we are going to become as Americans. We can risk too much, and so we have to step forward." And I think you will see more and more people stepping forward, like Howard Schultz, Steve Case and other folks, in order to try to make a difference in this [Donald Trump] election.

Write letters to your editors, write to your members of Congress, and write to your news stations.

Politics, of course, requires sweat, work, combat, and organization. But these should not be ugly words for and free people.

Believe in the power of your own voice. The more noise you make, the more accountability you demand from your leaders, the more our world will change for the better.

Older, younger, anyone can help. We've learned that our legislators listen, and people with passionate and thoughtful concerns make a difference every day. We've had constituents initiate legislation, lobby for it, organize meetings and events, and, of course, call, mail, e-mail and visit legislators to express their views. It's really great to see how much difference that individuals can make.

Unless women are prepared to fight politically they must be content to be ignored politically.

We're at a point in history where everyone needs to pay attention to politics. Too much is at stake for us to be apathetic.

I think there's going to be a lot of Americans who are really willing to be much more active than they were before, because they're worried about where Trump is headed.

I think our duty as American citizens is to be involved and engaged in anything that affects us. As an artist, I have to use my platform, and as a dad, a brother, and a black man, I have to be as socially woke and present as possible.

A lot of people think of political activism as some grim duty, and I think we do have an obligation to be citizens - to be informed and engaged.

I am getting much more political as I get older. It's the duty of any writer, in particular, not to stand back from the world.

I've always thought that the role of citizen, the role of advocate, were as important in our democracy as running for office.

I'm not trying to amass people in the streets. I just want them to be more aware.

[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.

This is the city, and I am one of the citizens/Whatever interests the rest interests me

I have spoken about what we can do as citizens, what we can do as a responsive citizenry, and this is where we have to shatter our complacency and become "active souls,"and be prepared to engage in aware - that personal struggle between our grief and our sorrow. But I don't think we have any choice.

Democracy is not about protests. Democracy is about meetings.

We need to continuously put pressure on politicians to do more, because they are happy just to do nothing—it’s easier to do nothing.