A lesson in high-school civics

Because WCBU's indefatiguable News Director is taking a well-deserved vacation today, I'm at Peoria City Hall tonight, overseeing our live broadcast of tonight's City Council meeting. Council meetings are not necessarily the most exciting way to spend an evening, but the last time I was in this position -- back in March -- I did find myself curiously intrigued by the proceedings.

At one point in my sordid past, I had aspirations to a career in politics. I was a longtime member of the Student Senate back in college, even ran for student body president at one point. I was a delegate to a model state legislature for North Dakota college students, and was appointed to any number of faculty-student committees. This phase lasted about three or four years, until I eventually came around to the conclusion that my talents, and my best chance of career success, lay elsewhere.

Along the way, though, I spent a LOT of time in public meetings, debating policy. I learned more about parliamentary procedure than I will ever need to know. So when the Council goes half an hour on a request for an increase in water rates, or starts digging into proposals on how to close a ten-million-dollar deficit in next year's budget (both of which are on this week's agenda), my eyes don't immediately glaze over. I'm actually kind of interested: If I were a Council member, would I vote for or against this? Who's making a principled stand here, and who's just trying to score points for the next election cycle? Is the city better or worse off if it re-zones a residential street to allow for more bicycle traffic?

I also come back to two observations that gnerally hold true for most public bodies I've seen in action: 1) Most members of the Council genuinely want to do what's right and best for the city, but they occasionally disagree strongly about what constitutes the "right" action; and 2) Most of these guys aren't really any smarter or more civic-minded than I am. I could run for City Council and do about as good a job as they do. The real difference is that they're willing to get out there and ask for votes, and they're also willing to give up an awful lot of time sitting in meetings and having potentially tedious discussions about policy.

I actually find this reassuring, as a validation of Jeffersonian democratic sentiment. I could be a city councilman, or a school-board member. And so could you. And, overall, we'd do an okay job most of the time. Everyday citizens like you and I are capable of exercising personal judgment to make decisions for the collective good. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people ACTUALLY WORKS! Right?!

Right?

If I had to do this EVERY week, I might feel differently, though...