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September 18, 2006

Sunlight Foundation and Citizenship

Driving home yesterday afternoon, I swear I heard a story on MPR about a program of the Sunlight Foundation called "Punchclockers" or "Clockpunchers" or something along those lines. Today, I can't find the story - or the program - on npr.org, mpr.org, or the Sunlight Foundation website.

I thought I heard that the foundation was offering $1,000 to any citizen who convinced their member of Congress to put their daily schedule online (and $250 to anyone who convinced a candidate for Congress to do the same) - the point being that greater transparency would bring better behavior.

But the program itself wasn't what interested me (although I could use $1000 as much as the next guy). It was what the speaker (Zephyr Teacherout, the foundation's national director) said about citizenship. She pointed out that the narrow definition of citizenship that we use today (voting, jury duty, etc.) is a relatively recent phenomenon. She quoted a statistic that I can't remember correctly now; it was something about how, in the relatively recent past, a surprisingly high percentage of Americans were not just members of a community organization but actually served as presidents of those organizations. The Sunlight Foundation, she said, is not just trying to change the behavior of politicians; it is also hoping to change the behavior of citizens by asking us - and giving us the tools - to do more than show up on election day.

That's what we hope to do, too - with different tools and a different overall agenda - so it pleased me to hear her say it.

Let me know if you track down the story!

Posted by Victoria Ford at September 18, 2006 3:42 PM

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