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This is 1A. I'm Jen White. When

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I say the words civic duty, what comes

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to mind? For many, that means

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voting. For others, it's volunteering in the

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community or showing up to local government

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meetings. No matter how

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you choose to exercise your civic

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duty, what matters most is that you're

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showing up. Last month, 1A

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returned to Texas as part of

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our Remaking America collaboration with six

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partner stations across the country, including

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KUT in Austin. Remaking

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America looks at how our democracy is or

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is not working for all of us. As

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the country gears up for another presidential

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election, what role does civic duty play

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in getting people involved in our democracy?

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Today, we bring you a special conversation

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from Rollins Theater at the Long Center

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in Austin, Texas, all about what

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it means to exercise your civic

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duty. We were joined on

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stage by Amy Stansbury, the editor-in-chief of

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the Austin Common and co-author of A

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Beginner's Guide to Local Government. KUT

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Austin's city hall reporter, Luz

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Moreno-Luzano, also joined us, and

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Megan Diaz. She's a Ph.D. candidate in

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political science at the University of Texas

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at Austin. She studies the policies that

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city governments across the country have put

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in place to help integrate immigrants

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into local politics. I'm

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really curious to hear from each of you

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how you define civic duty, what it looks

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like in action, and you're like, Luz,

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I'll come to you first. Sure.

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For me, when I think about civic duty,

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the first thing that comes to mind are

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the folks who show up at city hall.

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You know, the people who are commenting during

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public comment, who are staying through the meeting

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to hear what people have to say. But

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I think the first thing

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that we learn about civic duty and the first thing

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that we can do as just

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individuals and