This is NHPR’s The Big Question. We ask you a question about life in New Hampshire, you submit an answer, and your voice may be featured on air or online.
Granite Staters are heading to the polls to cast their votes in local and national elections. Voting is one important way to be civically engaged, but it’s not the only way.
For October’s Big Question, we asked you: How do you stay civically engaged in New Hampshire?
Here’s what some of you said.
Peter - Greenland, NH: I'm a board member of the Japan American Society of New Hampshire, which seeks to keep the Treaty of Portsmouth alive, which was signed in 1905. I'm also a board member of the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire, whose motto is ‘We bring the world to New Hampshire and New Hampshire to the world.’ I work with some of my fellow citizens on two Greenland committees, and I get a lot of satisfaction from that one, that I'm making a difference and not just sitting and complaining about things and the people who are similarly motivated as I am are really interesting people that I am glad to include in my circle of friends.
John - Londonderry, NH: I've done a number of other things. I will be a poll watcher on Tuesday. I have written letters to the editor a few times. When we moved to Londonderry, I attended the deliberative sessions just to see what the town issues were like. I guess I just find the time because it's important… I feel it's important for the community. I try to listen more than talk. I think I try not to get into heated discussions with anybody about politics, and I just try to do little things that I can. You don't have to spend a lot of time writing a letter to the editor. [It] takes a little time or a little thought, and often it's not just sitting down, but while I'm out walking or something, thinking about it so it doesn't have to take a lot of time. It just takes some thought and willingness to do it.
Katie - Durham, NH: I started volunteering at the polls a few years ago and found that that was just a fun way to see all the people in town that you only see once every four years. But I volunteer at the polls and most of all, what I've really started doing lately is canvassing, because it's one of the most effective things you can do for your candidates. Everybody thinks it's a terrible thing to do to go up and knock on strangers’ doors, but it's actually really fun to get to talk to people and hopefully make a difference in who you're trying to get elected. What's amazing to me is people actually recognize me or recognize at least my name from the town council. And some people will talk to you for 20 minutes and some people will talk to you for a minute and a half. But it's a connection of some sort, because we're either talking about their Halloween decorations or their dogs and then politics, too. But it is building connections in the community.
Eric Baxter - Manchester, NH: I created a small little free art gallery and it had some surprising dividends. I opened it up because I thought it was interesting and I thought people would appreciate art, but since then it's become sort of a community fixture, and I think it's helped build the character of the neighborhood and the fabric of the neighborhood. So it's nothing that would be, I guess, could be characterized as like strict civic engagement where you're going out and getting people to vote. Or at least that's what I would think. But it is getting people to take an active interest in where they live, and improving the streets and making it seem less just like a place to exist in, more like a place to call home.
