Welcome to CivicSources.com Issue #1
Who Are We?
I believe that the internet, with all of its downsides, presents most of us with an incredible opportunity to explore, learn and improve our daily lives. CivicSources is a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) web portal designed to move us toward discovery and solutions for civic, social and political questions. My vision is that CivicSources will become your gateway to civic information in the same way that the AAA is often used as a starting point for planning a road trip or webMD is a site to begin the exploration of a medical question. In addition, I believe that CivicSources can also be a starting point for conversation and consensus.
On our site, there is a variety of information which can be found in each issue, such as: answers to questions you send in, (Q & A), a resource section which includes links to news, podcasts and fact checking sources (News & Media), primary sources which reflect our specific history as a nation, such as, The Bill of Rights and Constitution ( American Sources) and a page which features a person, place or thing in the United States today. (Geo-Source) . For more on CivicSources, see the About section on our site. Contribute to the discussion with corrections, an opinion piece or comment through our Contact page. We look forward to posting readers’ views on books, articles and other issues. Finally, check back here, at our blog, the Civic-Scroll, often for discussions and comments on current issues.
The Journey of CivicSources:
If you scroll-down and a see the dates for previous postings, you will discover that not only have I been thinking about doing this site for at least the past year, but for so long that it is almost embarrassing. I have thought about what this site could look like for at least the last six years in some way shape or form. I used the confusion and contentiousness of the Trump Administration as an excuse to freeze in place. The transition to the Biden Administration has loosened my desire to discuss, and analyze our last few years and the present- and so here we are, finally.
Even now, I can remember the excitement I felt in my tenth grade civics class when our teacher assigned the book Today’s Isms by Alan Ebenstein, (which I still have with me to this day). This class, this teacher and this book introduced me to a whole new way to view the wider world and introduced me to new ideas and different ways to see the connections between ideas and the world around me. I was introduced to ideologies such as socialism, communism, capitalism, fascism and libertarianism, all of which triggered my desire to study political science, to travel and to become an educator. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer of us have the opportunity to take civics classes as part of a high school curriculum. Whatever your status, new immigrant, soon to become a citizen or merely looking for how to contact your particular congress person; my hope is that CivicSources will answer. many of your specific civic questions and inspire and encourage your passion for politics, history and ideas…
Finally, civics and civic engagement is particularly complicated and confusing during this time of covid, the time of Trump, the time of Biden, the epoch of “fake news,” and government gridlock. The ground beneath us seems to be constantly shifting and swaying with temporary, tentative truths and the astounding emotions surrounding “today’s isms.” CivicSources is here to provide specific information, to temper the extremes and begin a dialogue using reliable information and knowledge.
Ground Rules:
Disagreement is to be expected and welcome as long as we all begin with presumptions of the “truth” as far as we know it. In this case we mean knowledge that is peer reviewed and judged to be the best results at any particular moment. For our purposes, therefore, we recognize that a political statement such as the “Big Lie,” is just that. It is a “big lie” and meets the standard of statistical and/or objective truth. For example, most recognized and authoritative political and journalistic outlets agree that the results of the 2020 presidential election was fair and certified fairly by all fifty states. The conclusion therefore, is that Joe Biden is the legitimate President of the United States. This is a given fact then, regardless of what one feels about the ways in which voting laws should be changed. The “Big Lie” therefore, that Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential election and that the election was stolen from him, is in fact, just that, a “Big Lie.” Whether or not one chooses to take the Covid vaccine, the scientific evidence of vaccine effectiveness has been proven. In other words, a majority of scientific and epidemiological peer reviewed studies have concluded that the existing MNRA vaccinations for Covid are effective to prolong life and decrease hospitalization. In these as in other areas, CivicSources will use as much publicly vetted and fact checked information as possible. We also give you the resources to check facts on your own (News and Resources). Our goal at CivicSources is to learn and to discuss ideas and policy as long as our conversation can be respectful and contribute to consensus - as opposed to friction and division. Disagreement can be rooted in respect for differences of opinion rather than disparagement of character.
An Invitation:
This is an invitation to all readers of every stripe and political persuasion. Please contribute, ask questions, talk back, write editorials, corrections, comments and opinion pieces.
Let’s exchange ideas and make sure we all get smarter in the process.
Let’s make sure we know our rights, how to find them, our responsibilities and the benefits which accrue from being a US citizen.
The Future:
In the future we will further develop our website, continue to build our board, create an app, make the site available in other languages, enable web-ex features with experts on specific civic topics and most important, be responsive to issues of importance to you. We are a 501c3 non profit and can always use your contributions towards our future development .
Thank You:
Finally, I’d like to thank all of those who have inspired and helped me to put this site together. In this camp are definitely all of my current and former students whether they were high school, adult, community college or incarcerated. All of them have been fantastic to teach and I have learned from each and every one and continue to do so. Thank you to all of my family and friends who have continued to encourage me to create this site, especially without rolling their eyes too much, given the length of time it has taken me to “produce.” To Ian, Hina, Cullen and others who have helped me through the techno aspect of this process, thank you. You have helped me transition from luddite to a mere, semi luddite. Thank you Cami, who made sure I knew the difference between “that” and “which,” which I’m still not sure that I know? And finally, to Nina whose confidence in me and first contribution has enabled me to put pen to paper/screen.
Enjoy,
Suzanne Rosenberg, M.Phil.
Join Us @ CivicSources.com
