Citizens in Charge

Here at Citizens in Charge Foundation when we talk about petitioning, we usually refer to the formal petitioning done in the 24 states that have ballot initiative and referendum rights. This type of petitioning is great, and people in those states are more empowered to control government than in other states. But petitioning is really about people coming together to express their concerns - and show their numbers - on specific issues. It doesn’t have to be a formal petition for an initiative to have an impact: citizens can, and should, use informal petitions to show their concern to officials.

A piece from the Washington Examiner talks about one place this is being done. After seeing video of an Oklahoma State Trooper assaulting an ambulance driver on You Tube, a Miami man has started an online petition to get the trooper fired. Whether the petition will be successful, no one knows. What is for sure is that people who are separated by thousands of miles were able to use a petition to come together on an issue that they were very concerned about, and show those concerns to officials in a constructive manner.

Maybe what we need is a wave of petitioning. Not your grandmother’s petition (no offense, Grandma) that has to get approval from the government, be on a certain size sheet of paper, or can’t be carried from someone who lives in another state. Make your own petition about something you think is important and take it down you street to your neighbors. Or save some paper - and probably reach a wider audience - by doing a petition on one of the many online petition sites.

So go on, what are you waiting for?