Citizen Ninja: Stand Up to Power

By Mary Baker

CITIZEN NINJA stand up to power in pursuit of freedom, truth, and justice. Citizen Ninjas speak up; they don’t wait for others to speak for them. Citizen Ninjas are prepared, discerning, self-reliant and assertive. They step out of their comfort zone to nimbly challenge powerful entities that disenfranchise the public and reduce citizen power.

Citizen Ninjas respond to community issues and actively engage City Hall to make a difference. They pay attention to government business and actively direct elected public servants to create policies that benefit the interests of the whole community. They are the activists who demand government transparency and are the watchdogs who speak out when there is corruption or ethical wrongdoing.

Citizen Ninjas are passionate. They know that their civic participation places them in a better position of influence when new regulations, mandates, and ordinances are enacted.

Citizen Ninjas are activists who strive to preserve the power of self-governmenta representative republic that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. They actively engage in the public square rather than passively allowing government agencies to make decisions on their behalf. While being passionate, Citizen Ninjas avoid throwing vitriolic word bombs like fascist pig” or baby killer” and instead build trust, find common ground, and work toward constructive solutions.

Showing up at a city council meeting, a public workshop, a rally, or a town hall meeting to express dissatisfaction is the right thing to do, but being effective takes more than good intentions. Citizen Ninjas are smarter, more cunning and strategically savvy in approaching highly organized government agencies, powerful corporations and established non-governmental organizations they partner with.

In CITIZEN NINJA author Baker presents a peaceful approach to political activism espousing an exchange of ideas, robust debate, respect, and tolerance as opposed to tactics which promote violence, hatred, prejudice, and bullying. Every two years, many Americans get busy and campaign for the candidate of their choice. Activity ranges from simply speaking to friends and family about their choices, to donating money, walking precincts, and voting. Then after the election the majority go back to working, playing, and raising families.

CITIZEN NINJA explores the importance of continuing participation in government after elections. Baker stresses that We the People keep informed about what is going on in local government agenciescity council, school board, county board of supervisors, and metropolitan planning organizations, to seek opportunities for civic participation.

In CITIZEN NINJA shows that we are the boss, politicians are the employees who require supervision and guidance and are more effective when having our support and attention. When we are part of the process, we are part of the solution.
In CITIZEN NINJA readers learn how to speak up in public without being scared or intimidated. CITIZEN NINJA shows that to be effective in civil discourse, we must transform the way we think about activism. Standing up to power is not about acting out in anger, condoning violence, or relying on mean-spirited tactics. Rather it is about honesty, building trust, treating others with respect, working towards constructive solutions, and effective communication.

With practice, CITIZEN NINJA readers will master skills that enable them to respond intelligently rather than to reacting to stimulation or provocation. These skills include how to seek opportunities for engagement, assess a setting, ask a question, discern a person’s knowledge on an issue, neutralize a bully, and more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronin Publishing
• Release date: Mar 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781579512217

Mary Baker

My name is Mary Baker and I am a full time, professional freelance writer, journalist and editor. I have been blogging and doing social media for ten years. (Yes, really.)I currently live in Tucson, Arizona with my retired California winery dog Rebel Rose and her feline assistant Bossypants. My motto is “Food, wine, repeat.”

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Preface

I was born in the United States but grew up in Europe—Belgium, France, and Switzerland—and for nine years I attended French-speaking schools. At age 13, when my family moved to New York, I struggled to assimilate. I didn’t fit into American culture, and my peers showed no interest in knowing about the one I had grown up in. To fit in, I dumped my European persona and superficially embraced this new world, but in my heart I was a teenager with no identity.

It wasn’t until I was 22, in 1986, when I attended a professional baseball game, that I became an American in my heart. Tom Seaver was pitching one of his last games for the Red Sox against the New York Mets; the team he propelled to the World Series in 1969. The New York Mets fans were ecstatic because they were going to see Tom Terrific pitch his 300th win—he was still their hero. For the first time since moving back to the U.S., I stood up with over 60,000 American baseball fans and sang the National Anthem. Tears rolled down my cheeks as the powerful lyrics overwhelmed me. In that moment, I became not just a fan of baseball but a fan of America! I felt the surge of patriotism that would drive my devotion to this exceptional and inspiring country.

Over the years I reintegrated the European culture I had left behind and came to discover this blending of cultures was part of the U.S. immigrant experience. Though I have always been an American citizen on paper, at first I wasn’t an American patriot. Like other naturalized citizens, I made the choice to learn about the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. I memorized the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. I studied America’s system of government and participated in elections. Eventually, I realized I was a citizen who had a role to play not just in my community but in the society of politics.

I am still learning and understanding the covenant of liberty our Founding Fathers and Framers forged for us in the nation’s founding documents. The work I do as an activist, author, and educator is now part of my civic contribution to safeguarding the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—for all citizens and future generations.

Introduction

Do you worry about being marginalized for expressing your opinion in public? Have you been bullied in a town hall meeting or witnessed unethical behavior by your elected public servants? Are you fed up with politics but don’t know how to effect change? Do you wonder if civil discourse is even possible? Are you passionate about a cause but don’t know how to communicate it effectively? Do you feel powerless? If you answered YES! to any of these questions, then you are poised to step out of your routine to learn how to speak up with confidence, activate your civic rights, stand up to influential government agencies to effect change in your community!

A guide for budding activists—of any age—who want to engage but don’t know how to start.

Citizen Ninja teaches powerful strategies and tactics to help navigate the unpredictable world of politics and government. It’s a guide for budding citizen activists—of any age—who want to engage but don’t know how to start, what to do, or how to think about political activism. Citizen Ninja will educate, motivate, and activate you! By the end of the book you will understand why it is important to be involved in the civic process, you will see yourself as a Citizen Ninja with civic powers who can effectively stand up to dominant entities—including individuals, and governmental and non-governmental agencies—and you will be prepared to use your new skills to engage confidently in civil political activism.

What is a Citizen Ninja?

So what is a Citizen Ninja? While I was setting up a new domain name, a young sales rep helping me asked me curiously: What is Citizen Ninja? I don’t know what it means but I want to be one! I explained that a Citizen Ninja is a person who is jealous of his intrinsic sovereign, independent and self-determining rights and whose temperament burns for freedom, truth, and justice. Citizen Ninjas don’t wait for others to speak or stand up in their place when something alarms them; they are prepared, discerning, self-reliant, and assertive. They step out of their comfort zone and nimbly challenge powerful entities that disenfranchise the public and reduce their citizen power.

Citizen Ninjas are the people who respond to community issues by actively engaging city hall to make a difference. They are the Softball League coaches who talk to city council to address financial and field mismanagement issues, or the parents who demand that the city perform criminal background checks on their children’s summer camp leaders and instructors. They are the elderly property owners who organize neighbors to testify at the city council meeting that new weed abatement ordinances are cost prohibitive for seniors on a fixed income. They are the young adults who request a town hall meeting to discuss the increase in gang violence and use of psychotropic drugs in their neighborhoods and how the city plans to curb the trend and provide a safer community.

Citizen Ninjas respond to community issues by actively engaging city hall to make a difference.

Citizen Ninjas pay attention to government business and actively direct elected public servants to create policies that benefit the interests of the whole community such as balanced budgets, justified spending, public safety, natural resources management, and quality of life. They are the activists who demand government transparency. They are watchdogs who speak out if there is corruption or ethical wrongdoing such as misappropriation of funds, a conflict of interest that leads to personal financial gain, or back room deals with preferred developers and builders. Citizen Ninjas are passionate about many different topics and know that civic participation places them in a better position of influence when new regulations, mandates, and ordinances are being considered.

Citizen Ninjas are smarter, more cunning, and more strategically savvy.

Citizen Ninjas are activists whose objective is to preserve the power of self-government: a representative republic that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. They preserve it by actively engaging in the public square instead of passively allowing government agencies to make decisions on their behalf. They have passion but know that strong feelings are not enough. To be effective, Citizen Ninjas avoid throwing word bombs like fascist pig or baby killer to communicate their passion. Instead they strive to build trust by choosing words that find common ground and work toward constructive solutions. To gain respect, Citizen Ninjas focus on real problems that are tangible and have a direct impact on the community rather than arguing conspiracies or ideologies. Even when they can prove a conspiracy to be true, they are stealthy in their approach by using carefully chosen semantics so as not to diminish their credibility. They avoid having the tin foil hat placed on their heads if at all possible! They use the Citizen Ninja way to keep the lines of communication open so that all groups can progress toward tolerance, understanding, and solutions.

Citizen Ninjas have to be smarter, more cunning, and more strategically savvy to defeat highly organized government agencies, and powerful corporations and their non-governmental organizations partners. Showing up at a city council meeting, a public workshop, a rally, or a town hall meeting to express dissatisfaction is an important first step but good intentions don’t make an effective citizen activist.

I became a Citizen Ninja

I didn’t start off as a Citizen Ninja. I was just a regular member of the public who gradually became concerned about the direction the city was taking on proposed land use and zoning plans. I was particularly concerned about their economic impacts on small business in the region. My husband owns a small business and we were surprised to discover that the city’s only business representation was a large electrical distribution corporation. It definitely was not small business! We decided I should attend the upcoming public workshop; a meeting where the public would have an opportunity to listen to a presentation of the plans and provide the working group with feedback.

As soon as it was obvious to the meeting facilitator that I was challenging some of the proposed plans and was not in support of them, she became unpleasant. In a kindergarten teacher voice she made light of my concerns, demeaning them as trivial. When I persisted with my comments, she responded in a derogatory tone accusing me of being naïve with no understanding of the issues and judged me to be someone who didn’t like change. Her attempts to discredit me were vexing. My efforts to get back on message and away from the attacks were met with more verbal assaults by other attendees who demonstrated they had a stake in the project being approved. Two women sitting nearby barked orders at me to shut up and sit down so the meeting could proceed. I was not alone in this treatment; other people who disagreed with the plans being presented were treated with the same disdain. I left shortly after the encounter because I was startled and feeling like our citizen rights to voice our opinions had been entirely squashed by bullies.

Bullies in public meetings squelch efforts to stand up to power.

I went into that public workshop with the expectation that self-government—the indispensable partnership between the government and the public—was still a foundational structure. Yet it seemed to be missing at this meeting. Why would the city call for a public workshop to get feedback from the community and then shut down opposition to the plan? Why not just take everyone’s comments—for or against—and log them objectively? Why judge the opponents?

Predetermined Outcomes

The facilitator’s approach made me wonder if there was an agenda, a desired outcome. Who were the players? Why was this plan so important to the working group and the city that they felt they had to marginalize its opponents? Why were the nonprofits and the experts mainly in support of the plan? Where was the small business spokesperson? Where were the citizens? Was this an isolated incident or is suppression of opposing views going on everywhere? I felt utterly powerless, naïve, unprepared, and disillusioned. I could see others felt the same way. Maybe you have felt silenced in public meetings. If so, you are a candidate to become a Citizen Ninja.

Facilitators of public meetings often have an agenda to get public compliance.

That shocking experience did not thwart my desire to be involved; it had the opposite effect. Following that I attended other public meetings to see if they were equally predetermined and unjust. I discovered, that while not as extreme, they definitely had more subtle variations on the same theme: pressure to be a team player, little opportunity to speak—let alone to discuss the pros and cons, misleading information was given, instead there were prepared talking points with manipulative language, plus far fewer citizens compared to non-governmental organizations and experts who are pressing the proposed plans. These meetings led to more questions. Where is the tolerance for divergent opinions? Why not present the plans directly? Why the obfuscation?

Since then, I have worked diligently in civic and political affairs to safeguard fair and ethical political practices, to insist on a strong deliberative process during public meetings, and to teach others the importance of civic engagement and civil political discourse.

Stand Up to Power

How to Become a Citizen Ninja is a workshop in which I teach civic-oriented citizens—who wish to participate in the business of government and the political process but have no experience—how to speak up to power effectively and how to neutralize bullies. I explain that having passion is not enough to counter the agendas of large governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations. Let me repeat that—passion is not enough!

I have a passion for local issues, like land use, property rights, and quality education. To exert influence and effect change, to stand up to entrenched power, expose corruption and unethical practices, and stop government dictates I have civic knowledge, direction, strategy, tactics, and a network. Otherwise I am rendered ineffective and paralyzed like I was at that public workshop. I knew I was onto something with real impact when other activists flocked to my workshops to learn the Citizen Ninja way.

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Be a Citizen Ninja

Becoming a Citizen Ninja takes practice. When you dedicate time to this endeavor you will learn to confidently navigate the wild political storms ahead. As a budding citizen activist you should know right off the bat that Citizen Ninjas are not engaging in the public square to force an agenda or an outcome that benefits their self-interests. Such motivation is insincere and results in frustration and loss of will to persevere because people resent being forced or controlled.

Citizen Ninjas are motivated by justice and truth and the unwavering belief that we, the people, are sovereign beings who have natural rights—rights that cannot be taken away by any person or government. We have the right to think independently, to determine our own course, and to make choices—good as