We talk a lot about rights. They’re at the center of most national debates. From time to time, those debates even trickle into our Legislature. Just this year, Republican legislators sought to establish a universal parental right and expand the right to use deadly force for self-protection while Democratic lawmakers moved to protect abortion rights and proposed a right to clean water and air.
Actually, most of our political differences come down to what we think we deserve and what we should be entitled to. These are important things to discuss. Rights are the foundation of a fair, democratic society. Yet I worry that we’ve become so focused on what we’re owed that we forget to consider what we owe each other.
In his new book, “The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens,” Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, reminds us that society is under threat from our own apathy, anger, selfishness and division.
We quickly argue about our rights without ever thinking about our obligations. We’ve lost sight of the spirit of civic duty and self-sacrifice that was meant to be the foundation for democracy. So, to help reverse course, Haass proposes a set of 10 habits, aka obligations, that citizens should follow.
While I highly recommend reading the book in its entirety, I won’t be recounting Haass’ full thesis here. Rather, I’d like to focus on where we’re excelling and falling short locally by considering our performance in three categories of obligations on Haass’ list.
First, let’s consider education. Haass says that staying informed and encouraging civic education are two key habits of good citizens. Globally, Hawaii’s civic engagement ranks in the bottom 24%. Yet we’re one of the most educated places in the world with more access to information than many others in the U.S. In other words, we have no excuses.
That said, general education doesn’t always translate to civic education. We can and should funnel more resources into teaching political participation, government and media literacy.
This year, education advocates, including former Mililani High School teacher Rep. Amy Perusso, pushed measures to increase resources and expand civic education. Their efforts didn’t survive the Legislature’s money committees. On a high note, the News Literacy Project has announced a partnership with Hawaii’s Department of Education to increase media literacy in local schools.
How we act in public spaces is another important category of obligations. According to Haass, a good citizen should remain civil, reject violence and respect government service.
In October, I wrote a column about political violence in the U.S. and Hawaii, and little has changed since then. Actual instances of political violence remain extremely rare in Hawaii and rare but rising nationally. Bullying, on the other hand, seems to be increasing. Public servants, including teachers, are more frequently encountering harassment and hostility.
Despite this disturbing trend, we’re doing moderately well in this category compared to what we see unfolding in other states. But we can do better, particularly in how we treat government service.
Most government workers are underpaid and overloaded with responsibilities. As citizens, the least we can do is be kind when we show up to get a copy of our birth certificate or wait in a too-long line at the DMV.
This summer, I had a resident come up to me in Zippy’s Mililani just to say that he thought I did a good job. As a legislator, those were the basic acts of kindness that got me through the rough patches. It may sound trivial, but your interactions do make a difference. Letting public servants know that you appreciate their work helps us keep good people in government.
The final category of obligations focuses on prioritizing the common good. Haass says that getting involved, staying open to compromise and putting the country first will help get democracy back on track. In Hawaii, we should excel at these.
One of my most frequent arguments with Hawaii Republicans was that the national party’s focus on individualism and self-reliance didn’t fit within a local culture that I felt chose to prioritize community over individuals. There’s a reason why we see “Kodomo No Tame Ni—For the Sake of the Children” on at least one mail piece per election cycle. Many of us grew up being taught that good citizenship meant making sacrifices to improve the lives of others.
Maybe our multicultural influences and our location in the center of the Pacific do enable us to inherently understand what many across the mainland often seem to miss. Democracy does not work if you only take what you can get and don’t give anything back.
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