Being a Good Citizen: An Open Letter to President Obama and Justice Thomas

Dear President Barack Obama and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,

I hope this letter finds you both in good health and spirits, especially in the midst of such a contentious and divisive presidential election.

Over the summer, I read an article in The Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf aptly titled “Good Citizenship as Barack Obama and Clarence Thomas See It.” The article was excellent in first detailing the different areas of citizenship that you each focus on in your commencement speeches at Rutgers University and Hillsdale College, respectively: President Obama, you stress that each person competently performs their functions as a citizen, indicating that a citizens participation is not only limited to “voting…compromise…organizing…and advocacy,” but also “…listening to those who don’t agree with you.” Justice Thomas, you emphasize that citizens reflect the moral promise of our country within their personal character by being “law-abiding, hard working, disciplined.” By mirroring these values within one’s own individual conduct, a citizen would find themselves “consistent with the ideals that the duties of our country demanded.” I find myself in agreement with both areas of citizenship that each of you espouse that a good citizen would demonstrate.

Not only was Mr. Friedersdorf astute in recognizing the divergence between both of your examinations on good citizenship, but also he keenly states the power of both viewpoints joined as one: “Taken together, their advice encompasses the personal and the political, affording a better portrait of the whole citizen than either offers in isolation.”

Mr. Friedersdorf’s composition of both of your complimentary views on good citizenship is an oasis of unity surrounded in a desert of division.

You two are great men who I both admire greatly, not only for your public accomplishments and service, but also your private demeanor with your peers, respectively. I’ve read nothing but good things in the various papers about each of you when regarding your relationships with your peers and contemporaries, especially with those that you disagree with.

Praise be unto both of you for not only talking the talk, but also walking the walk.

As exemplars of what it means to be a good citizen, you two set an extremely high bar when it comes to perfecting one’s competence and character in such a role. And for good reason – that benchmark has to be set high in order for us to come together in order to form a more perfect Union. The greater hope is that as we achieve this sought after perfection, perfection becomes the standard to which our individual character and capability as citizens is measured against, rather than being the goal.

The standard you two set through your daily actions is one that I hope to meet during my lifetime, but there is a certain question that puzzles me in the pursuit of being an excellent citizen.

Is being a good citizen solely based on factors that we can control such as fulfilling our duties and improving our individual character, or are we also responsible for maintaining others' perception of us being a good citizen?

Consider this example: you live in a town called Ballotville. The Ticket River separates the town, and on the right side of the Ticket lives one group of citizens called the Reds, and on the left side, the Blues primarily reside there. You, on the other hand, belong to neither group – you were born a Purple, due to having one parent from the Blues and one parent from the Reds act on a forbidden love and eloped. Thanks to your parents, you grow up with a deep understanding of both Reds and Blues, especially what they believe in, why they believe in those things, and how those beliefs influence their actions and obligations to one another.

It’s safe to say that the Reds and the Blues do not share many of these beliefs.

Unfortunately, because you’re a Purple, outside of your immediate family, no one fully trusts you to be a good citizen in Ballotville. Sometimes, you’re even mistreated for not belonging to either side. Regardless, you, as a Purple, believe deeply in the ideal that Reds and Blues must work together in order to improve the general welfare of all citizens, regardless of their shade or hue. Your beliefs come to inform and shape your personal character – your conviction towards fulfilling your duties, demonstrating your honor, and putting your town of Ballotville first never wavers. Your actions are derived from what you as a Purple believe in – on Sunday mornings, you help Pastor Crimson organize the morning and afternoon service in Reds’ side of town, meeting and rejoicing with the Reds. Then on Monday afternoons, you dutifully head downtown to Blue side of town to volunteer and provide much needed help in the understaffed food pantry run by Mother Navy. Throughout the week, you are found to be assisting or associating with both Reds and Blues, building your bonds with both communities.

Assisting or associating with either group was never something you as a Purple would have to think twice about – it’s just a function of who you are as a person and what you do to benefit everyone you come across.

Surely, you, as a Purple, are a model citizen in which both groups can look towards as an example. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although each community loves when you are together with them, they abhor your interactions with the “other.”

When it came time for a town hall meeting (both parties agreed to meet on a boat in the middle of the Ticket River), tensions were at an all time high. Both the Reds and Blues had been excessive in their criticisms of the other, and there was no common ground or trust to be found between them. Several major decisions were riding on the outcome of the meeting, and your goal as a Purple was to listen and challenge both sides to come to an agreement, where the majority would decide the outcome. Interestingly enough, you happen to be the tiebreaker as an equal number of both Reds and Blues showed up. However, as the meeting progressed, both the Reds and Blues came to trust you less because you had been helping and associating with who they perceived to be the “other side.” You try your best to broker a deal between the two based on your deep understanding of both sides, but neither side will budge, instead redirecting their anger and mistrust at you.

The meeting unfortunately ends with no agreement being established, and both sides are deeply distrustful of you since it’s not clear to either faction where your loyalty lies.

As a citizen, your loyalty lies to everyone in the town of Ballotville, not just to the Reds or to the Blues. Yet, because of your personal convictions and subsequent actions, you failed to bring the Reds and Blues together because each side perceived you as being loyal to the other.

If one of the aims of a good citizen is to work with others in order to advance your country and society as a whole, would it not be fair to blame you, as a Purple, for not making sure the meeting concluded with a deal beings struck? Of course, the Reds and Blues deserve a majority of the blame, but one could argue that this deal failed because you, as a Purple, did not account for either sides perception of you as a trustworthy person to shepherd compromise through such a nasty, bitter debate. If you had been more aware of your perception, then would it have been more prudent to take a side and get any deal established?

If good works and good character alone cannot bring people to work together, then what else is required to be a good citizen?

President Obama and Justice Thomas, thank you for reading this letter in its entirety. I know you both have more immediate, pressing matters to attend to, but I hope to receive a response with containing either or both of your wisdom as to how you would have navigated this situation as a Purple.

Sincerely,

Frederick Daso

#StudentVoices

This post was written as part of this month’s #OpenLetter topic, which is tied to LinkedIn’s student editorial calendar on #StudentVoices.