
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994                   TAG: 9411100050
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETH CARLSON NELSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOOD CITIZENSHIP IS HARD WORK

A FIERCELY patriotic background and the influence of a family steeped in deeply felt religious beliefs has provided me an abiding faith in democracy and a respect for the institutions that support it. I was taught that voting was a privilege and a responsibility. I was further taught that a duly elected official was to be respected, not vilified. To defame a president was neither Christian nor patriotic.

What has happened to us? I fear we've lost, as a people, the virtue of restraint and respect for differing beliefs and opinions. The venomous verbal attacks and disrespect shown our president during the just-ended campaign aren't characteristic of a civil and rational populace. Adults who defame him and other elected officials set poor examples for our children and youth.

Young people need to hear and see - at home and in their community - how a democratic system functions, and what a citizen's rights and duties are. They should know that government, by and for the people, is successful to the degree that the people become and remain informed and involved.

Such citizenship is hard work. It isn't fostered by watching sitcoms, unending sports broadcasts and rented videos. If left to the few, the political and economic distance between the haves and the have-nots becomes a troublesome and sometimes explosive problem. All the people need to be heard.

Fellow Christians who have recently become involved in the political process appear to view an election as a holy war. We who have been long involved have reason to resent implications that we're somehow at fault for government's flaws and problems. We're aware that problems become evident at every level. We join coalitions in attempts to remedy them, i.e., the deficit, environmental dangers, etc. It is, indeed, hard but important work - influencing government - and every newly registered voter is important to the process. Any less than full and equal electoral participation puts democracy at risk.

I don't think I've failed to vote in an election since reaching the age of eligibility. I've felt very passionately about some issues and worked hard to help my preferred candidates. Sometimes they were defeated by an opponent I didn't consider as worthy or as qualified as the one I had supported. Nevertheless, I respected the democratically elected official and accepted him as my president or representative.

I didn't vote for President Nixon, but he was our president, and I was saddened by the events that led him to resign. I didn't vote for President Bush, either. But I gave both Bush and Nixon credit for the positive things they did for our country and the world.

It's a democratic principle that a candidate, properly elected, becomes a representative of all the people - those who voted for him or her, those who voted for someone else, and those who didn't bother to vote. They're accountable to act for the public good and should be challenged when they fail in that responsibility.

Beth Carlson Nelson of Radford, now retired, was a professor in the College of Education and Human Services at Radford University.

by CNB