Among the several possibly contentious themes I'll be wading into in this space is citizenship.

(See me try to toe a culturally sensitive line here with a piece based on "cargo cults.")

I'm not going to be talking about citizenship from the standpoint of legal status, though. When I use the term, I'm not talking about immigration or the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Rather, I'm talking about "citizen" as a verb — that is, as a range of habits and behaviors, a lifestyle even.

In my book, legal status notwithstanding, a citizen is someone who contributes to the collective good and the nurturing of the fabric that holds us together, especially at the local level.

One of the organizations that I admire and think is doing incredible work in the area of helping neighbors become impactful citizens is a Denver nonprofit called Warm Cookies of the Revolution. You will hear me talk about this outfit a lot, and not just because their name is awesome. They also produce some simple-yet-amazing tools to help people reclaim their power as citizens.

"Vote Every Day" is one of those tools. It's basically a children's-style board book that serves as an excellent reminder that, while elections might only happen one or two times a year, there's a lot we can do on the 363 other days that can shape our community and its well-being.

The video above is a reading of "Vote Every Day" by one of Warm Cookies' founders, Evan Weissman.

Want your own copy of the book? The folks at Warm Cookies offer it on their website — in eight different languages — for a "name your price" cost.

Vote Every Day Book - Warm Cookies of the Revolution
Vote Every Day explores what it means to be Civic and how regular people can use their power to keep or create the communities they want. It is the product of over a decade of artistic community engagement and we’re thrilled to finally have it available for you! Vote Every Day is short and lighthearted (it’s a cardboard book-like the ones you read to babies) and we are so thankful to have versions in 8 different languages. We offer this book at a “pay what you can” donation so that we can be as equitable as possible and get this book into as many hands as we can. We put a lot of hard work into it: Writing, illustrating, editing, designing, translating, printing, and shipping it. We hope you appreciate this model as much as we appreciate you donating and supporting us.
Warm Cookies of the Revolution