How much time do you devote to being a good citizen?

Occasionally I push the seek button on the radio, yesterday morning I overheard that Fisher show talking about Joe's get out the vote offer. I paused just a bit and caught them discussing that they don't vote, and that really don't know what's going on with local politics. As things often do, that got the old gears turning. What should a person's commitment to staying informed be if they're to be a good contributing citizen? Unquestionably, there is too much information to gather, collate, and absorb it all, but shouldn't we all be setting aside at least part of our day or week to know what's going on around us? Used to be we could count on reading the morning paper and watching the evening news and feel at least partly that we were getting objective reporting of events. Now everything is slanted, skewed, interpreted, and spun. It takes some concious effort to dig through the fluff just to know what's happening in our local, state and even federal government. I reckon the blogging world is a little better plugged-in than most folks, since that's pretty much what most blogging is, and bloggers tend to dig around non-traditional sources for their info. But what about the other folks, still reading the paper and getting the sound bites between the Anna Nicole and Diaper Astronaut stories? Working full time, raising a family, and managing a home doesn't leave a whole lot left in most folks day. Trying to stay informed is a form of work just the same as cooking dinner, taking out trash, changing diapers, or going to the office. Do any of us set aside time specifically for being good citizens? Do we make sure when we manage the hours in our days, that there's at least part of that time for either reading about or(even better) discussing what's happening in our world. The older I get the more I found the drive to stay in touch with current events, real current events, not the tabloid crap we get fed these days. I consider being informed a minimum level of participation as a good citizen. We should all be doing it. After that, what do we do about it? Some folks volunteer, some go into politickin', a few attend meetings, others write letters, some of us blog. There's all sorts of ways we can contribute and get involved. I know that most folks may never even find the time or ambition to even reach the first level, but I've learned something else as the years have kept on coming. The more I know, the more I want to do something about it. (I hope that isn't the Achilles' heal to all this, maybe ignorance truly is bliss) After a time though it becomes rewarding, and even fun at times. Granted there's only so many hours in the day, and like goldfish, tasks always seem to grow to fill whatever time we allot them. I figure in a lot of ways I'm just preaching to the choir by posting this on a blog, because I guess if someone's here they're already getting more informed than the papers and TV allow, but maybe we can all take the next step and get involved as well as get informed. Gotta go, American Idol is on. Just kidding folks.