informed citizenship Quotes

Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name.

Patriotism requires less and less of making the eagle scream, but more and more of making him think.

An informed patriotism is what we want.

I stay up on current events. I read 'The New Yorker' and 'The Economist.' I go to community meetings to see what concerns the people in my neighborhood. I studied literature in college, so I also continue to read poetry, literature, and novels.

People know more about baseball players' contracts than they do about the policies that govern the fate of our children's lives in twenty years. Think about it. People used to say, the whole time I was growing up, 'Do you want to bring a child into this world?' That's pretty dire.

A citizen who casts his ballot without having to the best of his abilities studied as much economics as he can fails in his civic duties.

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

The quality of life in America is dependent on the quality of the journalism. Most people don't realize that, but if you think about it, journalism is one of the pillars on which our society is perched.

I'm certainly not ready to go changing the world overnight right now. I'm completely uninformed about a lot of our issues, a lot of the nation's issues, not just Indigenous issues.

People crave trustworthy information about the world we live in. Some people want it because it is essential to the way they make a living. Some want it because they regard being well-informed as a condition of good citizenship. Some want it because they want something to exchange over dinner tables and water coolers.

I worry that we're not getting enough of the news that we need to make informed judgments as citizens.

Democracy doesn't require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in a while, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are.

But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.

… if we really want American politics to improve, then American voters will have to improve as well, by being more educated about the facts, more critical in our thinking and more demanding of our elected officials.

It can sound trite if you just say citizens need to be educated for democracy to work, but for him it wasn't trite. It was really this strenuous challenge to citizens to use their moments of leisure, which he defined as time away from work, to collect the facts that were necessary for full democratic participation.

Be involved; be informed. Try to be understanding and tolerant and to appreciate diversity.

We are on the precipice of being so ignorant that our democracy is threatened.

The very right to vote imposes on me the duty to instruct myself in public affairs however little influence my voice may have in them.

You can't serve on every committee. But you can know what happened, what the debate was, who said what.

That's why I like to read a lot. That's why I try to keep up on current events, what's going on in the world with the elections and the politicians and business people, because I feel like it's my duty to spread that. I feel like it's my duty to speak on that even if I'm never asked, because I'm representing the people. I don't want to be in a position where I have no knowledge.

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

I think I brush the surface of being involved politically with the issues and the personalities in the news.

If you rely on the media for your information, to educate yourself about the candidates and what issues are facing the country, then you get just part of the equation. I think it's important that we as citizens of this democracy take the responsibility to get as much information as possible before we go into the voting booth.

I do most anxiously wish to see the highest degrees of education given to the higher degrees of genius and to all degrees of it, so much as may enable them to read and understand what is going on in the world and to keep their part of it going on right; for nothing can keep it right but their own vigilant and distrustful superintendence.

Unless the schools provide our children with a vision of human possibility that enlightens and empowers them with knowledge and taste, they will simply play their role in someone else's marketing schemes. Unless they understand deeply the sources of our democracy, they will take it for granted and fail to exercise their rights and responsibilities.