What would my life be like if I were the mayor of my town? Who is the mayor of my town? Wait, why don’t I know that?

Those are all questions that teenagers, and adults, quickly search online out of guilt for not knowing this relatively simple fact. The truth is, if I were the mayor of my smallish town just outside of coal country, I’d be forgotten. I’d be left in the dust just like all the other small-town and lower government officials in America. Traditionally, we as a country pride ourselves on our democracy, a government made up by the people—but does it really matter if those people are being ignored and forgotten? The truth is, yes. When we as a people ignore what is going on in the lower chambers of state congresses and small meeting rooms, the American experiment fails. In short, if this was a lab class in high school, we’d all be failing. Hard.

If I were the mayor of my town, I would have to deal with big issues in small ways. Are we facing another wave of homelessness after a big factory closed on the other side of town? Guess I’ll have to fire my secretary and cut the budget for sewage management—they aren’t in the budget. I say this because of the increasing amounts of strain that the national government has put on lower government. This strain doesn’t always come straight from the president’s desk, it’s mostly formed in back meeting rooms between members of the upper government looking to increase their own paychecks. This strain forms in the gaps between annual budgets, with the cuts wildly outnumbering the increases of funding. This strain is one of the more visible power imbalances between the lower and national government. And if I as a mayor am not careful, this strain will hurt the town I promised to govern.

On the other hand, being the mayor of my town would give me the opportunity to shape it into the amazing place I know it could be. I could influence the direction that my city will take for potentially decades. I might even get rid of that one stupid, unnecessary stop sign about a block from my house, albeit that might be a little ambitious—but I could still do it if I tried. And trying is essentially the most important aspect of any government job, for if one does not at least attempt to right the wrongs in our society, why even waste the community’s time?