Power to the people!

Well, that’s the idea, right? All of us, as American citizens, have a lot of power to choose our government and those who govern us.

And in turn, as Spiderman’s grandmother taught us, with great power comes great responsibility. Citizens have responsibilities, too – but we often forget or lose interest.

The intention of many political rallies, campaigns and polls is a need to promote awareness of the citizen’s role in the government and for every citizen to participate.

This was one of the primary focuses of the Illinois Girls’ State that met several weeks ago in June. At the camp, nearly 500 high school junior girls learned how state and local government works and how to be good citizens.

What, exactly, does being a good citizen involve? Again, the emphasis on being involved in voting and participating in the political and legislative process comes up.

As I’ve found out in many journalism and history classes the last few years (thank you, Dr. Voelz), many students my age and younger are not as up-to-date on current events and political issues facing the nation as we thought we were.

We’re talking university students who, presumably, are taking our education seriously. Just like the 456-some high school girls who participated in Girls’ State.

We can safely agree that in order to vote on governmental candidates and laws, we as citizens need to be well-informed on current events. Certainly not spending most of our time playing strictly party politics and mud-slinging the rival party.

Unfortunately only a small percentage of Girls’ State students this year focused on current events and lawmaking related to national and state issues.

Only twenty student senators and thirty student house representatives – 50 of the 456 students at Girls’ State – are elected to the General Assembly, a mock governing body that makes and votes on bills to become proposed laws.

The whole process of being concerned about these issues is great – the fact that just over 10 percent of the student body cares about these issues is not.

Sure, the students do become aware of the issues come time for the elections of these party members for somewhat prestigious Girls’ State positions, but outside of elections it seemed they could care less.

Party rallies and parties were focused on making fun of the opposing party, jeering, and promoting and cheering on the party mascot. The intention was to keep both the parties (the pandas and the bunnies, as opposed to the donkey and elephant) concerned with silly material rather than current issues like abortion, immigration laws, and Iraq to avoid bias and Republican-Democrat animosity.

That’s a good intention, I guess. Pitting high school girls against each other with the chance to voice their actual opinions on these matters could devolve into party politics.

But that’s the thing. This country and its governing body thrives on voicing its opinions and discussing current issues with each other – not devolving into party jeering.

Girls’ State made a tough call to avoid the roughness of party conflicts, but instead of encouraging awareness of current events among all the girls and letting them openly debate about it like our government today does, the students focused exactly on what is frowned upon in a citizen.

I was hoping to see at least a hint of interest among the students at Girls’ State, but it seemed that anyone not a member of the General Assembly was very sure they weren’t thinking about issues. Nope. Only pandas eating bunnies, bunnies not getting sunburned, voting on who should get the comfy office chairs, and who should go to the end of the lunch line, among other things.

Girls’ State achieved its goal of informing high school girls how state and local government works, but miscalculated in its attempt to inform girls that how good citizens should behave.

American citizens can’t make reasonable decisions thinking only about party jeering or mud-slinging the opposition or by not thinking about current issues.

Political awareness and open debate are founded deep in our country – those are what make a good citizen, and need to be emphasized just as much as being a participating voter.