Citizens of the Lunar Colony

What types of citizens does a democracy need?

If you could think of one citizen, who is the first to come to mind? Is it the
president? A senator or governor? Newscasters? Do you think of your neighbors or
family? All of these examples of citizens can be classified into three types of good
citizens. There are personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented citizens.
This categorization is essential to the population composition of the new lunar colony.
1000 settlers will be sent to establish the new colony. The question is, how many of each
type of citizen is needed? I think, that in order to be most successful, the lunar colony
should have 600 personally responsible citizens, 200 participatory citizens, and 200
justice oriented citizens.
Personally responsible citizens are usually the citizens we meet and talk to on a
regular basis. Our nation has the most personally responsible citizens out of the three
types. It is important to form a strong foundation of these citizens. 600 out of 1000
citizens is 60% of the population, more than half of the citizens already. 600 citizens are
needed to maintain clean property, pay taxes on time, obey the law, attend school, and
have a regular job.
Personally responsible citizens are the ones who try to be self-reliant, honest, and
respectful. The fulfill their duties and common responsibilities of paying taxes, obeying
the law, getting an education, keeping property clean, voting, serving on jury duty, and
having a regular job. They also may volunteer, donate money, and contribute resources
to support community projects. These citizens give their best effort to stay informed and
vote at each election.
My parents are personally responsible citizens. They pay taxes, serve on jury
duty, contribute to the common good of our community, and send my brother and I to
school. My mother donates on a regular basis to Goodwill, teaches privately and
performs for shows on flute, and votes. My father mows the lawn every week, keeping
our yard clean, and works as a computer security manager, traveling if needed to
represent the company at meetings.
The majority of the citizen chosen for the colony need to be personally
responsible. Power of the people comes from these citizens who live responsibly by
staying informed, voting, completing duties, and volunteering within their communities.
Citizens like these can represent their views of living as common citizens by voting.
These perspectives are needed to influence the decisions that affect the entire colony. 600
of the citizens should be personally responsible.
Participatory citizens organize community events and serve on councils. The
creation of projects and youth clubs is important to the collaboration of communities. At
the same time, having too many participatory citizens might defeat the purpose. What if
your neighborhood of thirty families had twenty of these citizens? All the coat drives,
book clubs, blood drives, cancer awareness volunteerism, and after-school events every
week would get old. Having these events occasionally, however, provides all citizens
with opportunities to donate and volunteer with others. In the lunar colony, 200
participatory citizens are needed to volunteer and settle across the different communities.
Participatory citizens serve actively in their community by volunteering for
committees and organizing opportunities for people to work together towards a cause. A

participatory citizen would organize school clubs, community park festivals, a shelter
project, or a canned food drive. Recently, my friend Kennedy Joy Foristall has taken a
part in supporting breast cancer awareness. She founded the organization Bring Joy to
the World, created a website, and started projects involving selling rainbow loom
bracelets. Her latest project that Ive been helping out with is making pink and white
bracelets with ribbon charms. She received $1000 to make the bands, and at the last
event, there was a pure profit of $388! She has inspired many people in the Central
Florida community to support this project that started with a twelve-year old girl. The
project still has about a year to raise funds until the Cure Bowl, the ultimate end goal. I
think Kennedy Joys role through her organization makes her a participatory citizen who
contributes to the common good.
(In case you would like to check out this lovely participatory citizens website:
http://www.bringjoytotheworld.org/)

200 participatory citizens should be sent to the colony in order to lead the
communities in special events and benefit the common good of the society. The reason
there is less than half of the population with this role is because having too many leaders
can engender confusion and chaos. 200 is just the right amount of these citizens to
organize the communities, and it leaves enough room for the justice oriented citizens.
Justice oriented citizens of the colony should be assigned to different departments.
In all, there should be 200 justice oriented citizens. 80 of the citizens will work in the
courtrooms and enforce the laws. Their duties will rotate every 6 months. The other 120
citizens will be in charge of creating laws following public policy to benefit society.
After a law has been written, the legislative citizens vote on it. 2/3 of the group is needed
to come to agreement before the law can be voted on by all of the other citizens, in which
case the side with half or more voters wins. As another privilege, I think that justice
oriented citizens should be provided access to becoming newspaper editors and writing
articles on economic stress and other governmental topics.
Justice oriented citizens could be described as looking towards the central
conflicts of problems in society. A justice oriented citizen critically analyzes economic
and social problems and takes action to fix them. One of these citizens might have a
radio talk show, television channel, or a newspaper to voice their concerns with.
The first justice oriented citizens that come to mind for me are Mike Huckabee,
Bill OReilly, and Rush Limbaugh. Even when there is great controversy, these
politicians stand strong in their principles and moral beliefs. Mike Huckabee hosts the
television talk show Huckabee, presenting his insight on hot topics in the government.
Before his political career, Huckabee was a pastor. Later, at age 37, his political
convictions led him to run in an election for Arkansass governor. He won the election
and became lieutenant governor. He ran for many other elections, including the president
election in 2008. Now, thousands of U.S. citizens watch Huckabees show on television
at 8:00 PM to hear Mike explain his logic behind the ISIS attacks, Ebola outbreak, and
protesting atheists.
200 justice oriented citizens are needed to take legislative and judicial jobs in the
lunar colony. This is 20% of the population in charge of creating the laws and enforcing
them. The other 80% has the power to vote on laws assented by the legislative branch. It
is important to include a large portion of citizens in the justice oriented citizens group
because if fewer people had this power, the system of democracy would be more likely to
fail. It would be an oligarchy, gradually gaining power until the small group had sole

control over laws. At the same time, if too many people have that direct access to
creating laws and sharing with the entire legislative body, the process for laws becomes
more complicated and confusing. It would be similar to a direct democracy, where
everyone is included on the suggestions and voting for ideas.
Some people could argue that more citizens should be assigned roles in legislative
government or being participatory leaders, because it would give government more
people and power to organize the new colony. The colony could have more along the
lines of 400 justice oriented citizens to be in control of law-making, and 300 for
participatory citizens. The disadvantage to that, however, is laying out too much power
out to the people. In order to keep a stable system of democracy, the majority of the
people need to be personally responsible citizens.
With the ratio 600:200:200, over half of the population is personally responsible,
and the other two types are equal at 200. The numbers of the participatory and justice
oriented citizens are low enough to prevent a chaotic atmosphere. 200 participatory
citizens is just enough to keep an organized and active society. The legislative body is
large enough that the power is distributed without room for singular rulers or an
oligarchy. The lunar colony will be most successful with 600 personally responsible
citizens, 200 participatory citizens, and 200 justice oriented citizens.