A few days back I went to our local city council’s weekly meeting. I have been in this country for over 20 years, 18 of which I have lived in Fremont, CA, and this was the first time I attended the meeting! This meeting is open to public and provides a forum for citizens to speak out their concerns, issues etc. Plus, we get to see what business is being conducted by our local government.

It is a shame that I did not attend it earlier. And I must commend those who took the time and effort of going there to speak out. The burning issue amongst the citizens here is their safety. A few armed burglaries and gun shootings has made the people very insecure and are demanding action by the authorities. Then there was a brief speech by the friends of a high schooler who lost his life in a traffic accident very close to his school. They were urging the authorities to make the roads around there more safe etc. In spite of their grief, they wanted to ensure that no more such tragedies take place.

Just this one time attendance of mine made me ask a number of questions to myself. Why don’t we attend these meetings? Why don’t we engage our civil officials, elected officials, etc.? Does our duty end with merely casting our vote? Even that (casting vote) we don’t do. How many of us go to vote unless the Presidential Elections are taking place? And if by chance we do go and vote, afterwards we just sit back, patting ourselves on the back that we voted!

What after that? Shouldn’t we see what those who we elected are doing? Note merely as a watchdog but also to see if they need any help in fulfilling the promises they made in their election campaigns.

I believe a strong progressive society can be achieved only if the government and its citizens from all walks of life work hand in hand to take the community forward. If we want to see meaningful changes that benefit a large section of the society, then everyone needs to do their bit and not merely depend on the elected officials. Complacency on the part of common citizens leads to local issues such as increased traffic, overflowing schools, lack of infrastructure development to match the residential developments and so on, and at a national level issues of lack of gun control laws!

How has this country stayed so insensitive to gun violence that we are not able to do anything to eradicate the root of the problem? – Something to contemplate, perhaps in the next blog post!