What It Means To Be An Effective Citizen Essay

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Citizenship is a concept that gets thrown around here and there in popular media, words like immigration, refugee, and of course the important one, voting. Although you can find this concept of citizenship riddling the headlines, many actual citizens lack the knowledge to what the responsibilities and actions it takes to have “effective citizenship” or to be an “effective citizen.” Being an effective citizen could mean just paying taxes and showing up to vote every two years, or to the other extent it could entail venturing out to town budget meetings and obscure town forums. What does it really mean to be an “effective citizen?” In regards to the population as a whole, interpretations of effective citizenship are far from black and white. …show more content…

To be considered a legal citizen of the United States of America, one must have been born or naturalized in the United States. This making everyone born in the united states a citizen at birth. This, however, can be revoked from an individual barring tax evasion or various other felony offenses. Thus giving a citizen one legal responsibility as a citizen, pay your taxes. If one pays their taxes and abides by the law the government is required to give a citizen protection by the government. Also, this being a democracy, the citizen then receives membership in the political system if one so chooses to utilize it. This membership results in the right to vote, a right that is not only underused but undervalued by the American people.
As the next American presidential election is nearing (a mere seven and a half weeks away.) More and more people are going to be venturing out and exercising their right to vote. This would be an effective system if everyone used this and voiced their opinion to the ballot box. This is, however, not the case. According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate only 57.5% of eligible voters actually voted in the last presidential election in 2012. This is not an effective way of being an effective

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