in addition to citizenship rights citizens also have responsibilities and obligations now obligations are those activities that citizens must do or they'll face legal repercussions but responsibilities are activities that citizens should do to be good and productive members of society so you won't get in trouble with the law if you don't do them but your community will be a better place if you do we'll talk more about the obligations of citizenship in another video so for now let's just focus on the responsibilities what are those responsibilities first there's voting it's not legally required that citizens vote in the united states unlike in some other countries where citizens can get in trouble if they don't vote but responsible citizens get involved with the decision-making process through voting and to be a good voter it's important that citizens are informed they stay up to date on the issues that government is facing and they research candidates and ballot measures before they vote but voting isn't the only way to be a responsible citizen you can also do so by voicing your concerns for example something i did recently and this is true was emailing my city's transit department about a street light that wasn't functioning properly near where i live the transit department came out and fixed it and now there's less of a chance that an accident will happen in that intersection so when you notice a problem that may affect others it's responsible to speak up and try to fix things you can also act as a responsible citizen by volunteering if you have a skill to teach others or time to give for a good cause you can make your community a better place through your service lastly good citizens respect the rights and beliefs of others they understand that in a democracy not everyone may have the same opinions or concerns as they do but everyone else is entitled to the same rights as they are so that's a quick rundown of the responsibilities of citizenship which one do you think is most important what other things can you do to improve your community