As a reporter in local news, you get to learn a lot about what makes small towns run. Recently, I attended and covered my first political candidate panel, and I was surprised by the level of engagement that I saw in the room.
For me, politics has always been a rocky beat to cover considering how difficult and tense situations can become, but my experience covering the candidate panel gave me a new outlook on just how much we need communities engaged in their local government activity.
For the majority of my life, I've followed national and international politics and governmental actions but had very little education on local government until I got into college. Through reporting in my own hometown on how local government can take positive action to improve a community taught me the power that people have on the decisions our local leaders make.
Some of the impacts I've seen communities have on local politics include witnessing an entire community rally to oust a racist road commissioner within a matter of days, a voting rally that succeeded in funding the major remodeling and upgrading of the high school that I graduated from, as well as several instances of community efforts to protect the shoreline and beach access in northern Michigan.
These are just a few examples that I've been able to see just within my local community, and since the beginning as a reporter in the Big Rapids area I've seen even more examples of how government can make a difference for its people, but if we want to see more of this kind of positive action we're going to need to work on how we can increase community engagement on a regular basis in local government.
When I attended the candidate panel, I genuinely anticipated some major sparring between candidates and big community issues argued over, of which there are many in Big Rapids. I was surprised immediately to witness the amicability of every candidate towards one another and appreciated the open discussion that occurred on a wide range of issues that impact the community.
What followed in the next two hours was genuine engagement and concern on community issues and how to address them. I anticipated a sparsely filled room but was faced with a packed house featuring residents of all ages, public servants, police officers, and concerned citizens who came with specific questions. It was refreshing to see that there are people in every community that still care about being involved with local government.
In my mind, local government is one of the places that some of the greatest impact and change can be made in communities. It's where decisions are made that impact local businesses, parks, residents, students and government workers. Local government impacts the daily life of communities across the state, and if we got even 2% more participation communitywide in meetings and events, I think that the improvements to be made could be vastly more substantial.
Accessibility issues are one of the biggest roadblocks for communities getting engaged with their local governments, and maintaining an online presence is something that can be extremely beneficial for government branches and officials. For someone who's extensively educated on social media and the internet, a great way to make meetings and government work more accessible would be to increase online presence.
This could be done any number of ways, but one that I see as important is making sure that there is consistent online access to commissioner meetings or at the least recordings of them so that interested parties are able to go back and watch the coverage.
As much as I love to think that reporters are able to capture every single action a local government takes, this just isn't feasible. Increasing online accessibility could make it possible for people to attend or view meetings from their couch, and the more people watch the more potential for ideas to arise on how to solve community problems or make improvements.
So, my message to those in the Big Rapids community is to get vocal about the issues you want to see addressed in your town. Instead of getting on Facebook to make a complaint, why not attend a commission meeting to make your voice heard? Real change comes when people use their voices and power to make the change they want to see. I think it's high time for the American people, in general, to stop complaining on Facebook and get out in their communities to make a difference.
The bottom line, you can't make change when you don't engage with the people who are able to make it. Keep getting involved, get talking, so that we can make Big Rapids a better place for everyone, one meeting at a time. You could be the change.
Olivia Fellows is a reporter for the Pioneer. She can be reached at olivia.fellows@hearstnp.com.
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September 27, 2021 at 07:11PM
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