Citizenship

1. Citizenship Myril Stewart September 23, 2003 Public Affairs Week

2. CITIZENSHIP • Today I would like to discuss two questions regarding citizenship. • What is citizenship? • How do we develop good citizenship in our community and promote it at SMSU?

3. Citizenship defined • If we are going to discuss citizenship, we first must define a couple of terms: • Webster defines citizen as “A member of a state or nation, especially one with a republican form of government, who owes its allegiance to it by birth or naturalization and is entitled to full civil rights.” • And Webster defines citizenship as “(1) the status or condition of a citizen; (2) the duties, rights, and privileges of this status; and (3) a person’s conduct as a citizen

4. Citizenship poll I asked several people what citizenship meant to them and had quite a few different perspectives. A few examples are: • Standing at attention with your hand over your heart when the national anthem is playing. • Citizenship means giving. Giving to your country, community and family. Taking care of our own. • Citizenship means being responsible, everyone trying to improve the environment and society in general. Being unselfish and charitable. • Belonging to the community. Enjoying the privileges and accepting responsibility.

5. Dr. Keiser’s ideal I asked Dr. Keiser what he thought being a citizen meant and he said “American citizenship is based on understanding and enacting the American Creed which affirms those truths our founders held self-evident: justice for all, because we are created equal; and liberty for all, because we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

6. When Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its Creed,” he recognized his dream would come true when all Americans accepted their duty as citizens to understand and practice the American Creed. Citizenship occurs when an American recognizes that his public purpose must be fulfilled before his private aspirations can be guaranteed.”

7. The American Creed • Accepted by the US House of Representatives on April 3, 1918 written by William Tyler Page. It was meant to be a brief summary of the American political faith founded upon things fundamental in American history and tradition. • “I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. • I therefore believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”

8. Discussion • What do you think about some of the responses? • What do you think citizenship means? • I think that if I had to come up with one word to describe how I felt about citizenship, that word would be “participation”. I think it is important that citizens participate in processes of their choosing thatsupport and improve their governments and society in general.

9. Let’s think about some identifiers for the letters in the word CITIZENSHIP • Creed • Involvement • Teamwork • Individuals • Zodiac (everyone is different) • Environment • Nation • Sharing • Helpful • Interest • Participation

10. What are some ways we can demonstrate our citizenship? • Voting is one of the first things that come to mind. • Charitable organizations that help support our fellow citizens. • Adopt-a-school, mentoring • Support of our troops • Support of our government

11. What are some other ways to demonstrate citizenship? • What about your career choice? • If we agree with Dr. Keiser’s statement “Citizenship occurs when an American recognizes that his public purpose must be fulfilled before his private aspirations can be guaranteed.”, can we assume then that careers that support a public purpose, rather than simply a business purpose, demonstrate citizenship?

12. I believe each of you working at SMSU are demonstrating citizenship through your career choice. Many of our employees at SMSU have had opportunities for better paying jobs in the business sector but they feel strongly that they are serving a higher purpose, a public purpose, by being a part of the education of our students. • What about the military? Military reservists won World War II, after which Winston Churchill called reservists “Twice a Citizen”. The Japanese thought we would never be able to assemble and train enough troops to defeat them. Reservists were called up and volunteers joined by the tens of thousands. Mentoring was what got us ready so quickly. “Each one teach one” was the motto.

13. What are some other careers that demonstrate citizenship? Government leaders, police officers, etc. • Now that we have identified ways to demonstrate citizenship, how do we develop good citizenship? (discussion) • Certainly, our form of government, the civil rights and privileges we enjoy, would not continue to be possible if it were not for the demonstrated citizenship of our citizens. Government alone cannot sustain what we have, nor can government alone develop its citizens.

14. The SMS mission • How does SMSU’s mission contribute to citizenship? • Let’s go over our mission: • “Southwest Missouri State University is a multi-campus metropolitan university system with a statewide mission in public affairs whose purpose is to develop educated persons while focusing on five themes: professional education, health, business and economic development, creative arts, and science and the environment.”

15. The SMS purpose To elaborate: SMSU’s purpose is “to develop educated persons.” The characteristics of an educated person are clear, assessable, and recognizable: • An educated person is someone who is literate in the broadest sense. • An educated person has an appreciation for the responsibility of lifelong citizenship and an awareness of global issues. • An educated person seeks solutions to problems by means of a broad base of knowledge, as well as in-depth mastery of at least one specific academic discipline. • An educated person has the skills and motivation to continue to learn after leaving the university, thus being prepared for both lifelong learning and lifelong productivity.

16. A little history of citizenship • Is developing educated students a relatively new idea as it relates to citizenship? (discussion) • Let’s look back a couple of hundred years ago and see what Thomas Jefferson had to say about it? • “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.”

17. Can we take this to mean that we have a responsibility to “inform” or educate our citizens so they can “exercise their control with a wholesome discretion”? • As he says, the remedy is not to take control away from the citizen, but instead, to ensure they have the knowledge necessary to make responsible decisions in electing government officials, in living their life so it contributes to the betterment of our country.

18. Citizenship & our mission Since this is public affairs week and our University has a public affairs mission, let’s see if citizenship and our public affairs mission ties together. The public affairs mission at SMSU seeks to: • Develop an increasing awareness of the public dimension of life. • Produce a broad literacy in the primary public issues. • Establish a campus environment where the awareness of public questions is nurtured and their discussion is encouraged. • Create the capacity for and the interest in doing voluntary public work. • Provide community service learning opportunities as a significant component of disciplinary instruction

19. Certainly each of these contributes to SMSU’s development of citizenship. • Develop an increasing awareness of the public dimension of life. • goes back to the belief that the public purpose must be fulfilled before private aspirations can be guaranteed. • Produce a broad literacy in the primary public issues.keeping public issues in the news and ensuring our community is knowledgeable on information germane to these issues will allow our citizens to make responsible decisions. • Establish a campus environment where the awareness of public questions is nurtured and their discussion is encouraged. • what would be the opposite of this? Censorship, no freedom of speech and the press. Certainly it’s important that SMSU continue to bring guest speakers to campus that bring attention to national discussions affecting us as citizens, and allow freedom of speech and of the press.

20. Create the capacity for and the interest in doing voluntary public work. • work that supports a public purpose is one of the cornerstones of citizenship as we have discussed. • Provide community service learning opportunities as a significant component of disciplinary instruction.community service is an important part of what we defined as citizenship. Giving to the community through its various service organizations is important as is having programs that make our students aware of these organizations and service opportunities.

21. As I conclude, I would like to leave you with something Margaret Branson, Associate Director, Center for Civic Education stated in one of her articles on citizenship: “It is relatively easy for a society to produce technically competent people. But the kind of society you and I want to live in and the kind of government we want to have requires effort and commitment on the part of its citizens. We want a society and a government in which: • human rights are respected, • the individual’s dignity and worth are acknowledged, • the rule of law is observed, • people willingly fulfill their responsibilities, and • the common good is the concern of all. Making that kind of society, that kind of government a reality is the most important challenge we face and the most important work we could undertake.”