ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
YAWN. At Virginia Tech Aug. 19-21, they plan to ``explore strategies for increasing citizen participation in policy-making.'' Probably no need to get an early start to avoid traffic jams. It's (ho-hum) a public-policy discussion, after all, not the Tech-UVa football game.
And if people stay away from this conference in droves - no surprise. Public policy-making implies government, aka ``the damn government,'' and everyone knows how cranky that subject makes us. We don't trust democratic institutions, have no confidence in them to solve our problems. We think they're leading the country in the wrong direction, and we lack any control over them. Year after year, opinion polls confirm it.
But what if ...
What if we could have a public discussion that didn't begin with the assumption that the whole of government is nothing but fraud, inefficiency, incompetence and oppression?
Suppose we began with the premise that not all political faults can be laid at the feet of prevaricating politicians and jack-booted bureaucrats - that citizens also share responsibility for the actions and afflictions of the body politic?
Take back City Hall? Take back Richmond? Take back Washington? It's not likely to happen if all we do is rant and rave about government's failures and express our disgust or apathy, in large numbers, by refusing even to vote. Neither is it likely to happen as long as we cling to the expectation that government can and should solve all our problems - of course, at no cost whatsoever to us.
The confab at Tech, in partnership with the National Issues Forums Institutes, doesn't promise solutions for all problems, nor is it expected to advocate points of view on public issues. Its purpose is to teach concerned citizens strategies and techniques for finding and implementing solutions through greater involvement in the policy-making process.
The catch phrase is ``concerned citizens.'' Let's hope conferences such as this can help nurture more of them, as many perhaps as those who care passionately about the outcome of football games.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB