The South Dakota Capitol is reflected in Capitol Lake. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)
It seems that South Dakotans are going to be good citizens … or else. There are plenty of efforts to get us all to learn about civics: new social studies standards for the public schools, plans for a Civic Engagement Center at Black Hills State University and even new college course requirements .
One thing about being a journalist is that, like it or not, civic engagement is part of the job. Because of my job, I have been to more than my share of public meetings. Over the years I’ve learned some lessons that should be included in any sort of civics curriculum.
1. Keep your eyes and ears open.
As a reporter, I was from the Jack Webb, just the facts ma’am, school of writing. That meant avoiding too much capitalization or the overuse of certain punctuation marks. I mention that so you’ll know I mean it when I say that good citizenship starts with PAYING ATTENTION!
As a reporter and editor, I saw this scenario play out too many times: A city, school or county would have a big project that depended on more tax dollars and a vote of the people. They dutifully held multiple public meetings to discuss the options and provide their reasoning for the project. Of course someone — sometimes me — would have to cover those meetings for the newspaper.