Are you in control of the direction your life is headed?  

Do you feel that your voice is diminished at the capital, as if you didn’t matter in Frankfort and Washington? Well then, this article is gonna be for you. In the next few paragraphs, I will describe three main components of S.E.E.K.C.I (South-Eastern and Eastern Kentucky Cooperative Initiative), and how I believe it will be a useful tool for regular, ordinary citizens to be active and involved in the development of legislation that is meaningful to them, their families, and their communities.  

     Arguably, one of the most important components is what the program aims to achieve and how it intends to do so. The idea is to put LEADERS- people who are elected, unelected, business owners, pastors, school teachers, shop clerks, and regular people in the community into a combined group. This group will focus on creating, understanding, and building meaningful relationships and legislation to support funding needs, local development, education programs, and anything and everything else needed to bring Eastern Kentucky up.

    The goal is to create community-based legislation, acquire funding for local projects on a larger scale, create legislation to hold public officials accountable, and pursue anything else that would improve our region and the communities within the commonwealth. The power is in the numbers. Data show that the most effective way to solve issues such as the water crisis is to put pressure on public officials to act. Without centralization on that push for change, you will lose the battle. S.E.E.K.C.I is looking at a way to combat this closed-off system. Through creating our own legislation and lobbying for that legislation, we will find greater success in achieving our goals. No one knows better about these issues than those here at home. 

     Beyond that, I believe it is in our written and extensive history as a nation, a state, a city, and most importantly as a PEOPLE, to innovate the way we live, not just with new technology and invention, but the way we allow ourselves to be fundamentally governed. It is very clear in our founding documents that all power is derived from THE PEOPLE and without the consent of the governed, THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT. Your voice matters, and even if someone who stands beside you doesn’t always agree, you are united by shared values that have long been constant in the mind of free people everywhere.

     The second component to S.E.E.K.C.I is need and viability. The two largest issues I have encountered inside my community surrounding legislation and functions of government: First - people not knowing or not having access to information about government and policy. Second - People choosing name and familiarity over candidates' policy and objectively measurable statistics and data sets.

     How would we combat this with S.E.E.K.C.I particularly? One big step is transparency and real-world experience; it is vitally important that the public knows what your goals are for the legislative process, information they could provide relating to this issue, maybe it's road funding, and citizens can upload images and locations, giving the public ports of access for real public input. These simple yet powerful ways of communication with the public will help widen the conversation, increase the amount of awareness, create future opportunities for funding and other efforts to many different issues affecting the entire region, using localized hyper-specific information as needed. S.E.E.K.C.I is about achieving success for the people.

    Secondly, I think it’s equally as important to get out in the communities that the members of S.E.E.K.C.I would reside in, see it firsthand, take pictures and videos, and use the opportunity to create informative posts about the issue, legislation around the issue, as well as other relevant information that will help create and spread awareness in the community. This will also allow us to highlight the need for funding and other initiatives to the ones who cast their votes in Washington and Frankfort, giving us firsthand experience that will be vital to winning over the legislators who make or break deals.

     The third main component that truly would make this work is YOU. There is a theory that says 3.5% of a population could radically or dramatically transform government; this could be used in highly positive manners, such as through an organizational idea such as S.E.E.K.C.I. A little over 162,000 Kentuckians could theoretically put enough pressure to make our state and local governments cooperate with the people! Although this is more of a rule of thumb, you should always strategize and plan.

     As President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said:

    “Plans are useless, but planning is essential”

    I think that it is possible; it simply requires individuals who are passionate enough to simply say how they feel, share a post or make a video, take an action, and try to create something productive. And truly, in the end, that is what S.E.E.K.C.I is all about putting productive actions behind the words; without action, we have nothing.

    S.E.E.K.C.I would improve people’s lives by putting them first, including their input, their firsthand accounts, and allowing them to give vital access to knowledge and insight, such as where we need to be investigating. Whether it be for road repair or citizens needing help in their community for local projects, we want to create broad legislation with precise information and locations or any other relevant information. Using localized information but presenting it in larger legislation with multiple related issues from other counties and districts in the hope that the wider pressure will see more success. The state has promised $1.7 billion in local project spending and still has over 2 billion in savings; it’s up to us to make something happen with it.

About The Author 

Christian McGilton is the Founder and President of the McGilton Advocacy Group. In addition to leading the organization's strategic direction, authoring public statements with the goal of advancing the group's mission and policy objectives.

Portable Document Format (PDF)
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