Currents September 2018 11
> continued from page 10 States , we have this history and this aspiration for government to be democratic . It ’ s about all of us and what we can do together . So if we become more and more antigovernment , we ’ re against ourselves . We ’ re against our own collective capacity to do anything .
So , it really doesn ’ t matter what it is . It could be economic inequality , it could be climate change , it could be restoring the infrastructure . We can ’ t solve any of these problems without government . And if individual citizens withdraw from public life , the only people in society who have power are those with lots of economic power . That ’ s why I find this profoundly troubling .
We have to change the narrative . We have to think about the role that government has had in our own lives . We have to talk to friends and family members about what role government has played in their lives , and help them see the connections .
I have my students do interviews with a family member , preferably the eldest member of their family who has grown up in the United States , and ask them about government ’ s role in their life through public policies . They come back having learned all sorts of things they didn ’ t know about how a public policy like the GI Bill enabled that person to be the first in their family to go to college , and how that changed the fate of the family forever .
So , we have to find a way to recapture that sense of the government as an instrument of good in our lives , and we have to stop thinking of it as the enemy . Otherwise , we cannot make reforms and move forward as a democracy .
Gene Suppell Editor & Publisher
Dr . Daniel S . Brandwein , D . P . M .
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