Civics + Democracy + Freedom = Responsibility

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, YUMA COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Social media is driving political hysteria to a brand new high. National politics is cluttering most Facebook and Twitter feeds which is akin to pouring gasoline on a fire. Resist, Tweet, Hate, March, Bite, Impeach, Imprison, STOP, STOP, STOP!!

We get caught up in the soundbite of the day regarding the left or the right or the red or the blue and it can be mis-spent time and emotion!

I think we get fired up on social media because we will never meet those people we are “hating on” in the grocery store or at church. Maybe it’s because our personal social media network thinks the same, so we get all hot and bothered at the same time about our common partisan politics. In my opinion, many of us are wasting our time on stuff that does not directly affect our day-to-day life. We could spend some time and effort on city, county or state government issues.

We all should get connected on local issues with the media of your choice: newspaper, local TV and radio stations, City 73, the county’s website, AZ.gov, and get informed. Ninety percent of what affects our day-to-day lives is local! Local decisions direct something as simple as the day the trash gets picked up, to how and why your property taxes could be changing. Sales taxes, property zoning, road maintenance and planning, basic civic services, first responders, licensing, and more, all get decided on within a few miles of your front door.

Local issues might not be filling your Facebook feed because they aren’t sexy, or do not incite polarizing emotions, but these decisions can be far more important, and have a far greater impact than what is happening in Washington D.C.

Of course, there are those who will argue a base closure or government shutdown has devastating effects in Yuma and they do, but local government affects kitchen table decisions with a deeper consequence than federal decisions. Unfortunately, unless a meteor crashes through your roof and smashes that kitchen table, 86 percent of you are completely ambivalent to local issues and decisions. (Statistics show that half of us are registered to vote and only 28 percent actually vote = 86 percent apathy). Those of us who vote could help that problem by convincing a non-voter to learn the issues, get registered, and then, of course, vote!

Go to a Yuma City Council meeting. They are conducted on the first and third weeks of the month on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall in the Council Chambers. Your Yuma County Supervisors meet every other Monday at 9 a.m. in the board room in the facility on Main Street, and, at both gatherings, citizens can participate in the “Call to the Public” and be heard. Go to any school board meeting and listen in on how your property taxes are being spent and invested. Email works, too!

I want to personally thank all the city council members and members of the Board of Supervisors who have been most responsive to questions I have posed to them. I may not always like the answer, but we are engaging in discussions without rancor or vitriol because we all want the same thing: a Yuma community that is a wonderful place to live, work, play, raise a family and run a profitable business.