It was dreary that day before the November election, and it was not a good day for my 83-year-old father. He had been told following eye surgery that he might lose the sight in his left eye - bad news for someone whose sharp mind and wit are fueled by reading newspapers cover-to-cover and watching every news program he can.

"What time do you want to vote tomorrow?" I asked as we arrived at his home.

"I don't think I'll vote," he said, with the first hint of despondency I had ever heard from this normally buoyant man. His reply prompted a quick reminder from me.

"You always told me that if you and mom didn't vote, the bad guys would take over," I said.

He smiled.

"I guess I will vote," he said. "Let's go at seven."

My father is of a disappearing breed. Although he hasn't read a book on politics and it's unlikely that he's had a civics class, he has an innate sense of the importance of voting. Nothing - not even painful recovery from surgery or the prospect of blindness - could stop him.

Unfortunately, far less stops most of us today. Statistics tell us that our country ranks 103rd of 131 democracies in voter turnout. A lot of that is the result of cynicism about government.

Because of his life and upbringing as a poor kid in Depression-era eastern Kentucky, my father possesses a belief in the basic goodness of government. He sees it at best as a safety net for those who need it and, at worst, a cup that is at least half full.

Make no mistake: Because he is as "tight" as they come and cares deeply about how his tax dollars are spent and how many tax dollars are raised, he often does see the cup as only half full. He worked hard in a factory all his life and never relied on welfare. But, that being said, he believes in government.

Can we say the same? We have reached a difficult time in our country's history. In an era of superficial sound bites and information overload, we are woefully uninformed about the proper role of government. We express our distrust and even hatred of it. The more confused or disillusioned among us say, "Why vote? I can't make a difference."

The most pessimistic view is that the prophets are correct, that our lives have become so broken down into special interests that our entire system of government is in peril. They see the waning of what many like to say is (or was) the greatest civilization on the face of the earth - America.

The more optimistic view is that through a revival of citizenship we can turn this thing around. But it must be citizenship of a special kind, tailored to meet the needs of life in the 21st Century.

A new kind of citizen seizes the opportunity for which surveys tell us they are yearning. While they are not returning to small towns across America, they know instinctively that they are searching for community life.

There is a caveat to this new search for connection. While it might look a lot like the good old days of community life, it is anything but. Our sense of community is very different because our mobility lets us live in one place and work in another if we choose, or easily move to a new locale. And that makes our loyalty to place dramatically different.

But we must begin somewhere to plant roots. New citizenship suggests you can begin at the local level by understanding the fundamentals of building community in a 21st Century setting. That means that while we still build around things such as local quality of life and economic opportunity, those opportunities are re-defined in the context of a global economy and worldwide connection. And we must adapt.

It is not sufficient, for example, just to build a great neighborhood with all the amenities. That same neighborhood must find ways to relate to the city as a whole, which in turn must relate to its region, which in turn must relate to the world. If we've learned anything with recent world events, it is that we are not alone anymore.

Finally, great citizenship is about participation in our workable system of representative democracy. But here in the United States, we aren't very good at it. Otherwise, we wouldn't have such an abysmal voting record.

For a community to thrive and survive in the 21st Century, its citizens must have an impact in a global context. It is not enough to lament the loss of factories to overseas markets. While we should affect economic policy at state and local levels, we also must find ways to build resilient jobs and opportunities to thrive in the worldwide marketplace. That requires a long hard look to discern a local community's gifts and limitations.

I attended a rural chamber of commerce annual banquet on a recent Friday night. The room was packed. A small town that many of the experts might write off as dying is actually growing.

The mayor was asked to identify the key to the city's economic success. He noted that there was literally a "town full" of people who cared about their place. And he added that vacation homes were sprouting on the nearby banks of a well-known lake, bringing new life and dollars into the community.

No, these homes didn't belong to refugees from New York City. Retirees from adjoining counties - where the lake is a short distance from home, where their heartstrings are still tied - were building them. Such local growth and development is a great example of taking advantage of what you are and not trying to be what you are not.

Take your pick of world crises and pay attention to what occasionally shows up on your TV screen in between the horrific scenes. You may see Iraqis crowded into small town halls to elect mayors and councils, or Haitians trying to restore community life amidst terror.

Could it be that at the grand old age of 227, our country could learn a thing or two from those who so desperately wish to have what we have? There was a reason my father went to vote that day, despite his personal pain and doubts.

You vote to put people in office to make decisions for the good of the community. And if you're dissatisfied with those decisions, you vote to replace them with someone better. It's a good system. We need to preserve its integrity.

Sylvia Lovely
President, NewCities Foundation
Lexington, Kentucky

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