A letter Arthur wrote to the 2012 Urban Go-Team students:

How do we talk about expectations and not cover it with an icing of guilt? How do we share with you as a student thoughts about what we think are opportunities in this program and not sound like a nagging parent or teacher? We don’t have answers to these questions, so we’ll go with the adage that when you don’t have the answer to a question, it’s better to just say so rather than uttering something that is false, ill-advised, or just plain b.s.

1. Becoming more of an active citizen. What does this mean? Here are a few thoughts:

• Caring enough about what’s going on in the world around you to actually pay
attention to it.

• Seeing a connection between yourself and what you do and what happens in the world around you.

• Developing thoughts about what aspects of our society you want to change and which ones you want to maintain.

• Raising your expectations about yourself. Instead of waiting for someone else to demand something of you, taking the initiative yourself to make things happen.

• Consider being an active player in trying to make a difference in the world around you. If you have thoughts about promoting justice, economic fairness, tolerance, and promoting human rights, you can best help that happen by being an active player. This is often challenging work. Unfortunately, people who undermine improving the quality of our society have it much easier; they don’t have to think about what they’re doing and almost by nature it’s easier to act without thinking. This is why your thoughtful, active participation can make a positive difference.

2. Developing and refining the skills to be an active citizen. Again, what does this mean? Having goals about making our society a more fair and just one is important; in fact it is vital to change. However, having goals, wishes, aspirations, and preferences is not enough. To be a player as an active citizen, there are a couple of things that are important in order for you to be an effective “agent of change.”

• Paying attention. We mentioned that above with regard to how you see yourself as part of the world around us. Now we’re talking about paying attention to further developing and utilizing the skills that will allow you to be a more effective “player” or “agent of change,” if that is what you want.

• Recognizing that while there is a great deal that you can do alone, your ability to effect change is limited if your don’t work with others. Whenever you can, staying in a responsible, effective, and efficient communication loop with other people who can be “change agents” with you. If experience is of any value, it has been our experience at Civitas that we provide much better programming and services for participants (adults and students) who are diligent about ensuring that lines of communication are open and active. 

There is an old saying that “90% of life is showing up.” I don’t know if that’s true or not (and as Yogi Berra said, what about the other half?). However, I do think that your effectiveness as an active citizen and your generally sense of courtesy and responsibility will be tremendously increased if you practice the two suggestions listed above.

We say this in part because we truly care about your well-being and also for the selfish reason that Civitas can be more effective in its work if the people with whom it works are actively and conscientiously in the communication loop. It’s your choice; we just ask that you think about it.