Dirty words: resonsibility and duty

One of the things that surprises us often is that no matter how we flog a story week after week, there is inevitably someone who takes us to task for not giving enough ink to a particular issue. We get used to it because we know how busy people are and we know they don't have the time to read or to stay informed the way people did a few decades ago.
Likewise, when open house meetings are held on what are easily important issues, like our drinking water, sewage treatment or environmental initiatives, low attendance is the norm. That is, if anyone shows up at all.
Politicians like to say that no one cares about anything anymore unless it affects them directly and maybe they are right. For our part, we like to think that we provide the forum for them to explain why certain decisions are important. Sometimes, we highlight specific issues in this very space. Often, our outrage is shared by many of you who tell us so in the weeks to follow. But often, we hear only latterly about people's unhappiness with decisions. Most of the time, people don't bother to become informed if it doesn't seem necessary. These days, it is almost a job to avoid information overload. In what was supposed to be a virtually paperless society, we are loaded down with more papers than ever before and have less time than ever before to keep up with the information contained in those papers.
We expect that our police force, municipality, hospital and education system will run as they should, but few of us know if or when we should be holding our police force or hospital administrators accountable. How many calls should our police force answer per month? Should the United Counties of Prescott-Russell hold meetings during the evening when people can attend (instead of during the workday on Tuesday) or should these meetings, at the very least, be streamed online so that everyone could view the proceedings? It seems that it would make sense to do this only if people will sit up and pay attention, but maybe they don't care because the information is inaccessible.
If we pay for certain services through taxation, we should be prepared to inform ourselves about how they work. Call it a civic responsibility and move it to the top of the list of your existing responsibilities.
In this world where we all strive to get away and attain personal freedom, protect our privacy and develop our sense of self, it is time to see that our quality of life can only improve if we take on responsibility for being informed and contributing to our community. There is no better time to consider your own personal contribution to your local government than this year, as municipal elections take place this autumn in Ontario.
Perhaps you are surrounded by people who say you, too, should enter the political arena. Yet it is surprising how many of us consider certain ways of serving our community as an unwelcome burden instead of the privilege it should be.
Consider what you have to offer to your community.