Are You a Good Citizen? (1949)

[Music] no one was more surprised than Mr heinan when he heard the news his young half priz too but here where the rep Mr heinan had been chosen to preside over the top celebration of citizenship day they had brought along an advanced copy of the day's paper in making their selection the committee had followed a checklist which was published in the paper a good citizen will perform basic Civic duties take part in group activities know and obey the law keep informed on public affairs be a good neighbor when the committee left Jim began to think about those qualifications and as he went on to study more about citizenship and think back over the events of the past year he came to understand what a good citizen really is a good citizen will perform basic Civic duties what are they you know one pay taxes it's your duty to pay and know why you pay you pay for federal courts of justice state universities Municipal Waterworks you pay for thousands of other services which the voters have elected to receive before you complain about taxes think how much it would cost if each of us had to buy these Services separately ask yourself which of these benefits you'd care to sacrifice would you close the local library let the state highways go to ruin forget about National Defense there is a second basic civic duty your duty to serve on the jury goes with your right to trial by jury it's also your opportunity to learn your own rights and privileges under law along with these basic duties comes the duty and privilege of voting and voting intelligently this meant a great deal to Jim when I'm old enough to vote I'll use my ballot for all it's worth I'll listen to the claims of all parties and all candidates then I'll try to get behind the vague promises and the aliis and get the facts so I can judge the real issues and the real candidates and I'll be willing to get out and work for good candidates that brings us to our second point a good citizen will take part in group activities there are all sorts of groups associations to Foster better government welfare organizations labor unions religious groups fraternal orders Men's Clubs women's clubs political parties when you work with any such group you benefit and the community benefits through combined effort for the common good good a good citizen will know and obey the law that may sound easy but well it's against the law to break a window but Jim broke one that's how he happened to meet Mr hinan you know a piece of glass isn't very important what matters is that it happened because you were breaking the law what law we weren't doing anything wrong honest it's against the law of this town to play ball all in the street I didn't know it nobody ever told me about it look ignorance of the law is no excuse whether you break a law through ignorance or carelessness or wickedness it's all lawbreaking you make me sound like a criminal sometimes it's hard to draw the line breaking a window pane breaking into a bank vault cheating in a school examination forging a check having a parking ticket fixed bribing a jury the only way to be sure for you stand is to get into the habit of obeying all the laws I don't think much of that law about not playing ball in the streets nobody asked you but wouldn't things be a mess if each of us decided which laws to obey and which to ignore yes I guess so but there's no place else for us to play in the neighborhood what about the playground down the street well it's not very big and it's always full of little kids and they might get hurt we've been playing on that Big Empty lot down at the corner of 12 and Grove but somebody put up a no trespassing sign and the cop chased us off so what are we going to do I don't know yep you keep the fellows off the streets I'll look into this come back Saturday morning maybe I'll have some news for you all right I'll do that bye Mr hunman goodbye say that's a neat job you're doing all the fellas chipped in to buy the glass that's good but as I was saying I had a talk with Mr Carpenter who owns that property where you fellows used to play ball trouble was the neighbors were complaining that you ran all over there property tearing up their lawns and breaking shrubs and flowers did you well yes I guess so well I'm afraid they had every right to do as they did call upon the law to protect their property there how's that very good say you're quite the handyman but where is that leave us with a place to play I've been looking into that come on in I've talked it over with some people Town officers school officials members of the par board look here here's the playground where the little kids play originally the town owned all this property which was to be made into a big playground what happened oh some shrewd operator moved in and bought the property because the citizens weren't alert to what was going going on he persuaded the town that it needed his money more than it needed land and now everything else is built up that's right all but the carpenter property and that's where they won't let us play no but if the town were to buy the land and build a good high fence around it yeah sure that ought to do it but the town doesn't have any money thought it sounded too good you know you're like a lot of other citizens in this town and everywhere you haven't taken the trouble to inform yourself about how democratic government operates what's that got to do with it the way is wide open for citizens to get what they want from their government all we want is a place to play it's a good thing you want good for you and good for the community so I think we can get it for you you can I said we can if we're willing to work for it I'll work for it what do I do so we can have our playing field see this petition we have to get signatures so they can hold a referendum at the next town election gee that's great therefore be it resolved that this organization go on record as favoring the proposal to float a bond issue to provide a playground and for a few more Pennies on your tax bill your children will have a safe place to play you will vote on our side won't you Mrs Stein well yes I will well what I don't understand is why you're going to all this trouble you don't have any children why should you worry you might say that I want to get the kids off the street so that I don't have any broken windows or you might say that I'm just a busy body with nothing better to do than work for the good of our Community either way we're going to get that playing field well Jim and his friends got their playground they got it mainly because Mr hunman knew how to go about it and went to work to help them get it that's what it means to keep informed on public affairs and be a good neighbor so it's really not surprising after all that Mr hinan was named first citizen of the town he meets every test of good citizenship as outlined in the checklist how about you are you a good citizen you see Jim citizenship carries with it many rights and many duties the rights follow the duties and are dependent upon them don't be a part-time citizen thinking only of your rights if you neglect your duty you may forfeit your right think it over