With the most
contentious campaign winding down with election day a little more than a week
away, civic engagement and an interest in the civic process appears to be at an
all-time high.
Early
indications are that the voter turnout for the 2016 election will be the
highest in 56 years when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon ran for president.
It
seems ironic, if not timely, that the Village of Buffalo Grove held its annual
Civics Forum Monday night. This event,
long coordinated by Village Clerk Jan Sirabian, gives students from Buffalo
Grove and Stevenson high schools the opportunity to work cooperatively in
practicing the civics process.
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| Students act as the Village Board during the Civics Forum |
This
year’s forum had a different flavor with students taking on the roles of the
various village staff members and Village Board members. Yes, there’s comedy in that, but the reality
is that the students stepped up and addressed various issues in a masterful
way.
“The students did an outstanding job of
reviewing the proposals they were given, and made an informed decision as to
how to spend the finite amount of money they had to spend.” Sirabian said part
of the new format is that the Village allotted the students $2,000 to spend.
“Five departments presented
proposals for things they needed for their respective departments. Each student
department head made a presentation to the student board, after which the
student board discussed the proposal and ultimately voted on the proposal they
felt was the best use of their funds.
“It was an excellent exercise in
learning the types of decisions that have to be made in government”.
And that it was.
The goal,
Sirabian says “is to teach them
how municipal government works, to teach them how easy and important it is to
become involved in your community, and finally how important it is to vote in
municipal elections.”
Great idea, great goal.
However,
the unfortunate reality seems to be that to many residents,
local civic
engagement is limited to showing up at Village Board meetings to whine about an
issue that impacts their own self-interest or to showcase themselves as an
expert or otherwise concerned citizen.
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| Students listen to a presentation during the Civics Forum |
Some,
to their credit, do their homework and present a logical argument. Others, however, bypass the opportunity to
attend village meetings, opting instead to incessantly post venomous and
unfounded comments on social media.
Whether
you agree or disagree with them, those people who serve on village boards,
commissions and committees do one thing most people don’t – get involved.
The
same can be said for the small group of residents who attend Village Board
meetings. They’re there, you would hope,
because they are interested in what is happening in the town of big bison. While some may come across as being in the
fourth dimension (thank you Rod Sterling), a least they are trying to get
information first hand.
So you
would think that when more than a dozen high school students take to the dais
and run an unscripted, well-researched “village board meeting” without any
self-interests, you would think residents, parents and village staff would be
interested observers.
You
would think.
Once
again, as was the case last year, the village staff not only worked with
students preparing for the forum, but showed support by attending.
Residents? There was a scant showing of folks, mostly a
few regulars.
Parents?
Few and far between. Seriously.
As I
said last year, it is a pretty sad commentary on things when soccer games,
football games, concerts and performances appears to have more interest than watching
students get involved in the basic root of the tree of our democracy.
And
while it is disappointing in any year, you would think the cantankerous nature
of the 2016 campaign would provide a spark of interest.
Guess
not.
No
doubt there are more important things to do.
Besides, it’s just a boring meeting.
Darn
those founding fathers who wrote the First Amendment. Couldn’t they have come up with something
more exciting?
