Oct 10, 2015
A few months ago I found myself with a pair of 3D glasses watching the latest Avengers movie. A couple of things have stayed with me. First the Age of Ultron had too many special effects, which left me dizzy. And second superheroes, for all their strength, are woefully ill equipped to make a positive societal impact beyond pounding bad guys into oblivion. Sure stopping crime is great and useful, but when Superman keeps seeing the same type of crime does he stop and wonder if he’s only attacking the symptom and not the underlying cause? Does Daredevil wonder why crime seems so prevalent in Hell’s Kitchen in comparison to other parts of his city? Does the Hulk think about the long-term consequences of nuclear energy? Does Wolverine ponder the issues of experiments with human subjects and informed consent? Does Batman wonder why Arkham Asylum, home to the criminally insane, has such a bad track record of discharging criminals that re-offend?
These questions do not occur to our heroes because the answers are boring and mundane (in comparison to street brawls). Solving the issues of crime, nuclear energy, biomedical ethics and proper detention of criminals require complicated research and thoughtful debate. There are often multiple courses of action, each reasonable, that we must fight over. These fights occur not in the street, but in the political arena.
Youth engagement comes up during every election and then is usually forgotten after election day. If we’re serious about youth engagement, beyond paying lip service, we must understand that political engagement isn’t built overnight. It’s a capacity that we must slowly instill in each generation.
There are many reasons why young people are less politically engaged, but one of the problems is that we’ve done a poor job of teaching them what important work politicians engage in – this diminishes the dignity of public office. Kids idolize superheroes for stopping crime, but how much more important is it to fight crime (and other social ills) at their root causes through sound policy!
Most of us become more and more politically aware as we get older. This is partly because we have to teach ourselves as most parents don’t spend time educating children on politics. We take our children to church, but we don’t take our children to city council meetings. But why not? Think of what we’d gain. Taking children to council meetings would begin to teach them the fundamentals of political action. It would take away the mystery of the place, while installing an understanding of our political processes. They would see firsthand how we govern ourselves. It’s a proactive way to build this knowledge and habit for each generation. Surely we can find two hours every month to attend one city council meeting and teach our children about their civic responsibility?
And what would these children see? They would see our elected representatives grappling with real world problems. For instance, during the April 20 council meeting, council and the public gallery were giggling over the confusion of the order of motions and amendments. Councilor Friesen interjected and passionately drew our attention away from the Byzantine (yet crucial) rules of order and back to the serious issue of a tax increase that was before council. When the urban chicken pilot project first appeared before council on Nov 17, 2014, Councilor Cocks keenly saw the fatal flaw of requiring neighbor consent before a person could have chickens. When the chicken project returned to council some months later, it was this issue that ultimately doomed the pilot project. Watching councilors in action would lead to kids developing their favourites. Kids would idolize the ever-passionate Julie Friesen or the ever-sharp Bill Cocks. They would be awestruck with the superhuman memory of Mayor Clugston, whose command of the Rules of Order and knowledge of the history of by-law amendments is truly impressive.
Take kids to city council meetings and I guarantee we’ll be able to see youth more politically engaged the next time Halloween comes around. It’ll be obvious because kids will be trading superhero costumes for city councilor getups. They’ll be trading Superman suits for Bill Cocks bowties and Wolverine claws for Brian Varga moustaches. Because now they’ll know who they should look up to.
Medicine Hat News. October 10, 2015