Being a citizen of the United States includes following the rules and guidelines established by our laws, while fulfilling responsibilities and obligations and understanding the government and what rights are guaranteed by the Constitution.

     Regarding the difference between being a citizen of multiple communities including my country, my state and my local community I believe that the differences are most significant where personal impact is concerned. Personal impact is the relationship between the individual input into the community, the ability to create change, and the speed and extent of the impact on the citizen who initiated the change. In a close community, like home and school, personal impact is very high: one can nearly directly see and experience the result of their action in society, both good and bad. As the environment expands from the intimate to local communities out to the state and finally to span the entire nation, the personal impact gets progressively smaller until, at the national and global level, it is increasingly rare and highly improbable to experience any large change as a direct effect of one’s actions.