“From Leadership to Citizenship”

Peter Block wrote the eighth essay in Insights on Leadership titled “From Leadership to Citizenship”.

One section of his essay that spoke to me was his statement on citizenship responsibility and costs where he wrote “Without getting lost on the definition, citizenship is our agreement to receive rights and privileges from the community and, in so doing, to pay for them through our willingness to live within certain boundaries and act in the interest of the whole. At the core of citizenship is the desire to care for the well being of the larger institution, be it an organization, a neighborhood, or a country. This requires accountability. This is the purchase price of our freedom.”

In these days were I have read many signs and bumper stickers reminding me that “freedom is not free”, it is refreshing to read another reminder about what the true cost of citizenship really is. Citizenship is about accepting our responsibility to the communities we belong to and acting accordingly. It is also about accepting our fellow citizen’s place and role in these communities. I also do not believe that citizenship means simply sitting back and allowing our communities to not thrive, whether the community be our family or our world.