A local group is hoping to mend what they see as an ailment of the political system — citizens’ attitudes toward their government.
The Lee County Spirit of Democracy is a non-partisan grassroots group with the goal of encouraging Lee County citizens to get involved in civic life.
On March 4, SOD held their first Civic Saturday in Opelika, a public event that SOD co-founder Thomas Penton described as a “patriotic church service.”
SOD started to form two years ago when Gerald Johnson, now SOD’s president, and Penton, now SOD’s treasurer, began to meet monthly to discuss problems they saw arising in the political climate of the day.
“There was so much complaining about politics and government, but no one was offering a solution,” Johnson said. “We came up with this idea of ‘what can be done’ is to restore the basic values of democracy based on the office of citizen.”
The office of citizen, according to SOD, is the highest office in a democracy. SOD aims to strengthen the office of the citizen through education by holding public forums like Civic Saturday, providing resources and supporting programs and actions for the citizens of Lee County.
“We feel that democracy right now in Alabama is not in a particularly healthy state,” said Christy Dittrick, who serves as secretary for SOD. “It’s become very polarized and for a true proper democracy to function well, we need to have common ground, and we need to lead from the center, rather than from the extremes.”
While one of SOD’s objectives is to demand accountability of elected officials and government, they stress “politics” and “politicians” shouldn’t be considered dirty words.
“We need good people to run for office,” Johnson said. “And to get good people to run for office, you’ve got to respect the office. You’ve got to believe that politicians are good ones, not the bad ones — quit demonizing the whole process, and then we’ll get good ones.”
At SOD’s coming-out party on Saturday, speakers read excerpts on democracy from famous American figures, including Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. In between the readings, the crowd sang renditions of "America the Beautiful," "My Country ‘tis of Thee" and "Alabama," the official state song.
At the end of the event, the presenters turned to the crowd to hear their feelings about the role of democracy in America.
Attendees spoke about the importance of compromise and fact-based discussion in democracy, the
“See, this country, you want to be here,” Edgar Thomae, who spoke at the event and is a native of Guatemala who became a naturalized U.S. citizen 10 years ago, told The Plainsman. “It’s like you win the lottery. You can vote. You have rights. It’s just a good feeling to be part of a great nation.”
Dittrick said they hope to grow to encourage more people to get involved with civic duty and will continue talking to different civic groups, holding forums on specific issues and hosting more Civic Saturdays in the Lee County community in the future.
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