In his first visit to Sacramento, former Florida governor and former United States Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., encouraged Sacramento State students to be active participants in influencing public policy decisions.

“(We should) attack a fundamental program, and that is the problem that says ‘You can’t fight city hall,'” Graham said. “Let’s get in the arena as informed, motivated citizens, and we can begin to save this country from a death spiral of citizenship.”

The address was held Oct. 7 at the Hinde Auditorium in the University Union before a roomful of students, faculty members and university officials.

Graham authored the book “America, The Owner’s Manual: Making Government Work for You.”

He said he goes to universities and talks about his book to students to “to reverse the decline of citizenship in our democracy.”

Graham served for three terms in the U.S. Senate. Prior to that, he was governor of Florida for two terms and was in the Florida Legislature for 12 years.

He said his book offers two basic lessons: citizens should know they can influence government policies and they should be persistent in trying to do so.

“I think it’s very important that our citizens, particularly our younger citizens, be taught these lessons,” Graham said. “You can be a successful citizen, but to do so, you have to be prepared to be an effective citizen.”

Over time, Americans have grown more indifferent about politics. Current surveys show that more Americans know little about government policies and their communities, Graham said.

“Citizens had gotten much less exposure to what’s happening in their own community, and if you aren’t alert to what’s happening, you’re not likely to be motivated to want to do something,” Graham said. “In civic organizations and a whole array of institutions, which have traditionally been an important part of the civic fabric in America, their membership has collapsed. We have, I think, a serious situation.”

Graham addressed this in his book by using real-life situations, or what he called “models of success.” The situations he used aim to demonstrate how civic-mindedness and political activism can influence public policy decisions at all levels of government.

One case study in his book involves a Sacramento woman, Candice Lightner, one of the founders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Lightner’s daughter was killed in a drunken driving accident in 1980. MADD pushed for legislation that raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 21.

“One woman was the prime source of saving 11,000 American lives a year by reducing the number of persons killed by drunk driving,” Graham said. “She decided she wasn’t going to stop at grieving, that she will actually do something about the slaughter through drunk driving.”

Graham said his passion for active citizenship started 30 years ago when he accepted a challenge to teach civic education for 18 weeks to 12th graders at Carol City High School in Miami.

He was a member of the Florida Legislature then.

“It’s emotionally different to learn by actually experiencing the issue that you would like to become more familiar with,” he said. “That experience was so meaningful to me that I decided there were other areas in which you could learn by doing.”

Graham then started his “workday” program where he took different jobs every month, with the first one at Carol City High School. After 30 years, Graham said he has worked 408 jobs. These jobs vary from fisherman to police officer.

“I think it’s a great reminder that if we want something changed, we need to be active,” said Ramon Gabriel Figueroa, senior film studies and psychology major and recipient of the William R. Hearst/CSU Board of Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement. “We need to educate ourselves so we know what we’re talking about and the reason why we want things changed.”

Figueroa said the forum inspired him to be more politically active.

“I enjoyed the conversation, and I thought he (Graham) brought up a really interesting analysis on the current political system as it is and the context of citizenship today and civic engagement overall,” said Brendan McVeigh, community partnerships coordinator at the Community Engagement Center at Sac State.

Graham said he was “especially gratified” with the response he got from Sac State students.

Kristine Guerra can be reached at [email protected]