undefined undefined My Work, Your Work, Everyone’s Work
1976
My Work, Your Work, Everyone’s Work
June 1976


“My Work, Your Work, Everyone’s Work,” Ensign, June 1976, 54

My Work, Your Work, Everyone’s Work

I first became involved with politics at the university where I spent three years studying the subject. Active participation, as opposed to passive learning, began during a period of unemployment when I discovered that the gentleman across the road was a local candidate; and I volunteered, or rather had my services volunteered, in the pre-general election campaign. Writing electioneering material was useful preparation for my present full-time involvement in politics as a party information officer at the head office.

I started this job the week the prime minister announced the date of the general election. This was the signal for all systems go, and I was left very much to sink or swim. By election day I felt I was crawling to the shore line. I had been very surprised at being offered the job, for though I had qualifications in politics and information work, my knowledge of actual party policy was scanty. Like so many people, I fear my reason for supporting the party was more disillusionment with what had been happening in British politics than a sense of commitment to that party.

This lack of knowledge, however, did not last long. Sitting at the end of a telephone answering questions on party attitudes toward everything from second homes to Israel to taxation forced me to examine and crystallize my views. I developed new ideals, but I knew that these ideals would never become reality without my work, your work—everyone’s work.

Someone once said that a country gets the government it deserves. Apathy and fatalism breed tyranny and repression. Freedom, like everything good, has to be worked for. I knew that if I awoke one morning and found that the Church had been outlawed, it would be my own fault if I had not worked to prevent it. I love the gospel and all it stands for, but am only too aware that what it stands for—the freedom I hold so dear—is being gradually whittled away. The gospel is a gospel of love and we can show that love in many ways, one of which is being an involved citizen.

  • Rosalie English, information officer for the Liberal Party, serves as ward librarian and stake Relief Society spiritual living leader in the Ilford Ward, Romford England Stake.

Rosalie English