I love books.

Whether I am listening on Audible, reading on my iPad or reading a good, old-fashioned paperback, books are something that I love.

In our Leadership Dallas County class, we just finished our final discussion of a book that we read as a group.

“For Communities to Work” by David Mathews spoke volumes to us as a class about the issues that we face in our community.

Mathews opens up the book saying that he has spent over a decade studying communities at the Kettering Foundation, which is a non-partisan organization, and “has discovered an unrealized potential for constructive community change – the power of an engaged public. Lasting improvements are probably impossible without one.”

What is a public?
Mathews defines a public as a diverse body of people joined together in “ever-changing alliances to make choices about how to advance their common well-being.”

“Communities must have citizens who will take responsibility for what happens and who can make sound decisions about their future,” he wrote. “By an ‘engaged public,’ we mean a committed and interrelated citizenry rather than a persuaded populace.”

Mathews notes the difference between the two.

“Members of an engaged public have decided among themselves on a course of action and are political actors directly involved in making changes,” Mathews wrote. “An engaged public owns its problems and its institutions. A persuaded populace has been convinced by leaders to let them implement certain programs.”

Any of this sound familiar?

Are we actors directly involved in making changes or are we only convinced by leaders to let them implement certain programs?

Disclaimer: I doubt that Mathews is calling for an all-out overthrowing of the government.

I think he is mainly trying to prove a point that we can all be involved

I think we can all agree that Selma is a diverse body of people that have come together.

It is true that communities have to have citizens who will take responsibility for what happens and who can make sound decisions about their future. One could argue that these citizens are our elected officials, but they also could be all of us in one way or another.

Mathews described the term “political practices” as ways “people relate to each other and their problems that have intrinsic worth.”

He also describes “politics” as the things that citizens do both with other citizens and with governments to change their communities.

We have heard about the need for change in Selma.

What I’m looking forward to sharing with you for the next few weeks is how Mathews explains different ways that politics doesn’t belong to only officeholders, but how it rightly belongs to everyone.

Think about the changes you want to see in Selma and Dallas County.

What can your part be in the grand scheme of things?

How can you become more involved in the community?