#justice oriented

It is important to think of the question “What kind of citizen do we need to support and effective democratic society?” When thinking about the three types of people that Kahn and Westheimer speak of. First they discuss the “personally responsible citizen” who acts responsibly in their community, works and pays taxes, obeys the laws, and recycles/gives blood/volunteers in crisis. These type of citizens are definitely crucial to having a democratic society.  Second they discuss a “participatory citizen” who is an active member of community organizations and they organize community efforts to care for those in need/promote economic development/clean up environment. If there were not people like this in a democracy the system would not be as effective. Finally they speak of the “Justice Oriented citizen” this is the type of person who critically assesses social, political, and economic structures to see beyond our surface causes, seeks and addresses areas of injustice, and knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systematic change. I believe that while all three of these citizens are important to this type of society and will definitely help to make a system like this run effectively, there are also people who do not fit in this description that are necessary. I didn’t think I fit into any of these categories specifically. However, I think I am just as important as any one of these types of people to a democratic system.

                I personally believe that I am not only one of these citizens, but I am two. I am a “personally responsible citizen” because I take part in all of the different digital medias I am a part of. I am an active member of twitter, facebook, and now tumblr. I always obey the laws of each of these different types of media. I never post unnecessary pictures, harass fellow facebook friends, or use unnecessary language. I believe I am also a “participatory citizen” because I have had to promote events on facebook as well as Kickline, or in other words promoting development. I had to not only promote our tryouts to a wide group of people, but find out information about individuals who would be interested in our team and help them understand who we are.

I think these three types of citizens, personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented, are the representative good citizens in a society. Each of these has their own identities which lead to a good direction of developing society.

I think the most important one is personally responsible, because the whole society is based on the individuals. So if everyone has personally responsibility, our society could be managed better without many troubles.

Maybe well self controlled is also an identity for citizens, because I think everyone has their own desires. How to control people’s desire is a tough problem, so well self controlled can be a kind of citizens.

For me, I am a well self controlled citizen, because I can always control my desires. For example, when I was under 21 years old, I wanted to get some beers, but I know I was illegal to drink so I did not do that. Moreover, I just want to keep my identity to be a well self controlled citizen.