Last month, I talked about the importance of knowing your local elected officials and being involved. It was brought to my attention that many people don’t know how to find out who their local reps are. Well, we can fix that. The best place to start is usa.gov/elected-officials. From there, you can find all your local reps right down to your local elected officials in your county, city, or community. In Canada, you can use oncanadaproject.ca/findyourrep to find your local reps. February is when I start my plans for the year ahead. If it’s gardening, I start my Spring plants indoors from seeds I select based on my local community. If it’s political, I look at what bills are being submitted or what local statutes are being proposed. Either way, it’s local topography that dictates what I will plant or what a local representative will choose to introduce. Community standards apply to what will fly in terms of laws introduced, as well as what will take root and grow. Sometimes a wild idea may pop up in terms of what I may try to grow. The same holds true to what a politician may introduce. I live in California where recreational marijuana is allowed. My local community has chosen not to allow local dispensaries within the city limits. The local politicians feel it sets a bad example to allow recreational dispensaries. Some citizens of the city have expressed an interest in having a local dispensary and now there is a local group trying to get them to allow one within the industrial-zoned area of the city. This is a local issue, one that raised local citizens to take sides. This is the same thing that happens with our concerns for nude use. Some local politician decides the city doesn’t want nude use and others take sides. This is why we need to have already talked to our local politicians about our concerns. As good citizens we need to cultivate local interests and support the things we feel are important. For me, nude use is a primary concern. I engage with my local elected officials on my preferences for leisure activities within my community. I don’t really care if my town has a pot dispensary, but I do care if they ban nude use of public places that we can rent for winter pool parties or other activities. So I know who my local officials are and they know how I feel about the topics that are of primary concern to me within my community, because all politics is local.