101 Ways to Show Public Virtue
Improve the World, One Small Act of Service At A Time
Public virtue, voluntarily sacrificing personal benefits and desires for the good of society, can be a tough concept to grasp and believe in.
This may be so because it can seem like a daunting task; we may feel like small and daily sacrifices just don’t cut it. We may read accounts of men like George Washington suffering through Valley Forge and think that comparatively our daily efforts are insignificant and meaningless.
I don’t think this is the case at all; in fact, I believe the best way for us to show public virtue is by making a small yet significant effort every day to make the world a better place. Without public virtue, our republic cannot last.
With this in mind, I have compiled a list of 101 ways that contemporary Americans can display public virtue in small, significant, practical, and consistent ways:
1. Vote
2. Pick up garbage in your neighborhood
3. Read to a child/teach a child how to read
4. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
5. Attend a city council meeting
6. Make a meal for a struggling family
7. Donate money to a non-profit organization
8. Get out and stay out of debt
9. Study the Constitution
10. Volunteer at your child’s school
11. Spend more time with your family
12. Forgive someone who has hurt you
13. Develop a better relationship with God and make an effort to be more religious, i.e. attend church regularly, pray, meditate, read sacred works, etc.
14. Teach a free community seminar on something that you’re passionate about
15. Feed a homeless person
16. Teach a work skill to someone struggling in their career or with finding a job
17. Learn how the electoral college works
18. Write a letter to the editor bringing something important to light
19. Join the political campaign of your choice and volunteer your time
20. Take your neighbor’s garbage can to the street on garbage day
21. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
22. Give anonymous Christmas presents
23. Memorize the Declaration of Independence
24. Memorize the Bill of Rights
25. Run for office
26. Counsel with someone struggling with abortion or an addiction
27. Donate blood and/or plasma
28. Start a community crime watch program
29. Start a local club on financial or constitutional literacy, or anything that contributes to society in a meaningful way
30. Start a book group that reads classics and discusses them at least monthly
31. Join an “Adopt-a-Highway” program
32. Make and keep a goal to eat more nutritious food
33. Make the leap from employee to business owner
34. Make time to call a friend just to tell them that you appreciate them
35. Make a goal to write a gratitude note to one person each day
36. Write a book and donate a percentage of the profits to a non-profit organization
37. Get a college degree, no matter what it takes, and no matter how old you are
38. Urge your family and friends to vote
39. Start a non-profit organization
40. Overcome an addiction
41. Choose a job/career/business that aligns with your passions and life purpose
42. Face and overcome a fear, such as public speaking
43. Read the Federalist Papers
44. Make new friends deliberately and consistently
45. Tell your parents that you love them
46. Tell your children that you love them
47. Give someone a ride that needs it
48. Watch less TV
49. Stand up for someone who is being harmed
50. Write a letter to your senator or congressman to express your views about something important
51. Say you’re sorry to someone you have hurt
52. Start a community organization to help with the problem of pornography
53. Visit people in a convalescent home
54. Learn a new skill
55. Commit to ongoing education, attend seminars, read at least a book a month
56. Babysit for friends so they can go on a date as a couple
57. Forgive a debt
58. Smile and laugh more
59. Do the estate planning that you’ve been putting off, make a will and trust
60. Stop to help someone who is stranded on the freeway
61. Start a garden
62. Put together a one-year supply of food and water
63. Homeschool a child who is struggling in school
64. Make a concerted effort to listen to others better
65. Help someone move
66. Commit to not watch movies, read books, or visit websites that excessively portray violence or sexuality
67. Spend more time in nature
68. Commit to spending at least a half hour every day of quiet, introspective, and reflective time
69. Develop more patience
70. The next time you’e tempted to engage in road rage, even a little bit, don’t
71. Keep the speed limit
72. Study the Federal Reserve (I highly recommend The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin)
73. Do a material resources purge: go through your house and find all of the stuff you don’t use anymore and donate it to a thrift store
74. If you’re considering a divorce, try marriage counseling instead
75. Read biographies of great men and women (Recommendations: The Real George Washington, Up From Slavery, And There Was Light)
76. Start an emergency fund by saving 10% of your income
77. If you’re in a job that you hate, quit and find something that you love to do
78. Volunteer to go shopping for someone who is aged or disabled
79. Visit a developing country
80. Plant a tree
81. Start a family blog that brings your immediate and extended families closer together
82. Start a “Citizen’s Journalist” blog: write about one positive thing you observe in your community every day
83. Write down how you would like to be remembered in detail and share it with everyone you know so they can hold you accountable to bringing it to pass
84. Commit to not duplicating or using music or movies that were not purchased legally
85. Write a letter to yourself
86. Keep your word: if you tell anyone you’ll do anything at any time, do it no matter what
87. Post what your grateful for at World Gratitude Journal
88. Remove graffiti in your community
89. Organize a community concert to benefit a cause
90. Organize a local food drive
91. Volunteer to be a Big Brother/Sister
92. Clean up a local cemetery
93. Help out with an Eagle Scout project
94. Organize a neighborhood garage sale and donate the proceeds to charity
95. Get CPR certified
96. Sponsor a scholarship for a child to attend school
97. Adopt a child
98. Do your genealogy
99. Consistently write in a journal to be used for posterity
100. Adopt a senior that has no family nearby. Take them for rides, shopping, and lunch or a special dinner.
101. Help a single mother with home repairs
What have I missed? What are your favorites? Please contact me or add a comment below to add your idea to the list, or to share your favorite.
Recommended Reading:
A Renaissance of Kings by Andrew Groft
The Triumphs of Joseph by Robert Woodson
The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist
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Written By Stephen Palmer. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Steve, thank you for addressing such an important topic. Public virtue is an essential ingredient for society. Those are some excellent suggestions of ways we can all daily exercise public virtue. However, I would like to expand on your definition of public virtue.
I believe that public virtue is ever so much more than “voluntarily sacrificing personal benefits and desires for the good of society.” The good of society is such an ambiguous term, that it is easily exploited by unscrupulous and power hungry individuals seeking to exercise unrighteous dominion. There is a danger when you try and divide virtue up into types or classifications. You could potentially put the two types in competition with each other, making people believe that they have to choose between public and private virtue. Public virtue and private virtue are both virtue, they are defined, not by what is sacrificed or who benefits, but by who or what has it. They are not about different acts, but different actors. When an individual has or demonstrates virtue, it is private virtue. When a group of people has or demonstrates virtue, it is public virtue. This then leaves us with the task of defining virtue.
I believe that virtue is defined by the benefit to others. I don’t believe that the intent of the law of sacrifice is for us to learn to forgo our own personal benefits and desires (value for myself), but to subordinate them when they are in conflict with the creation of value for others. It is not what is given up that matters, it is the willingness to give it up based on faith that the Lord has a better perspective of what is virtuous.
Not to diminish what our founding fathers went through and suffered to bring to pass our great nation, but their virtue is not found in, or defined by what they gave up or were willing to give up, but in what they accomplished and sought to bring into existence. It is found in their dedication to accomplishing something truly great, even when it meant that they did have to temporarily subordinate their own personal benefits and desires.
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