Civility Needed

I’ve been writing this blog daily since October 4, 2011. Over 1310 postings on many different topics. Some were human interest stories. Others were reflections on deeply personal topics that we all struggle with and often never come to grips with. Of course many postings focused on political commentary. Remember we have been through a few elections and the assorted dreaded campaigns related to them! It is part of American life, but not always a very nice part of it.

We Americans grow up knowing we have a tongue, a mind, and facts enough to make an opinion. Those with nerve spill their opinions in every direction. The careless do so with ease and sass. Some are so good at it they become journalists and TV news journalists. A few wind up as news commentators or political pundits.

When I was a kid there was a polite process in news gathering and delivery. We looked forward to each day’s newspaper. It carried the main stories, headlines, sports scores, and news of our community. The comics were good to follow, too! Even parents loved the comics. That’s how the kids learned to like them, too.

Mom was a great fan of the crossword puzzles while dad poured over the financial pages and analysis. In school our teachers asked us to read the paper daily and cut out articles that pertained to lessons in school. Social Studies made current, classroom discussions were up-to-date with our cuttings. Often those discussions spilled over at the family dinner table. That was a good thing when it happen; most of the kids didn’t know what their folks felt about the same issues.

Our home talked about the Korean War, the chafing over the Cold War, Khrushchev, political campaigns, mostly about international policies and defense safety (it was the Cold War era, after all!). We also talked about race relations, discrimination and prejudice. Dad shared our family’s early history in America. We immigrated in 1630 from England and were identified with the Congregational Church (now known as the United Church of Christ). The church favored abolition of slavery. Staunchly so. And our family tradition followed suit.

Dad’s carefully researched genealogy uncovered many connections with learned churchmen, authors and statesmen of the day. Harriet Beecher Stowe is of our family tree, so, too, Aaron Burr. Mostly the family remained glued to the Congregational church and served it for many generations as ministers. Dad broke that calling by being a defense engineer.

Although the abolitionist movement led to the horrors of the American Civil War, most of our modern day political discussions and debates within the family were polite and logical. At school the same temper persisted. Later, in college, our discussions took on more heat but still remained cordial.

Concurrent with these norms were the ‘rules of engagement’ in the halls of congress. Madam and Sir were common appellations, as were My Good Friend the Senator, or Congressman from West Virginia, etc. Rules of etiquette mattered. Civility was expected and enforced.

Evidently not much these days. Both in congressional circles as well as on the campaign trail, anything goes, anything gets said, and facts are not respected, nor civil regard for other speakers. The electronic communication age has spun its speed exponentially and now Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and emails (to say nothing about Instagrams!) whiz through our public life at the speed of light and without much thinking about civility.

No wonder so few understand so little. They are too busy debating people harshly and making fresh enemies of them all. They are skewing the logic of decent discourse. They are cutting short logic or proper reasoning, too. Anger, vitriol and spittle hurl through space.

Even the evening news is infected. The newspapers as well. Talk radio is hard to digest any time. I find this turn of events degrading to our nation and demoralizing personally.

I know others notice the same things I do. And they are not happy about the incivility we encounter daily. The Oregon Campus shooting last week is a good example. The public debate is engaged once again as to how to control against mass shootings, and whether gun controls are in need of an overhaul. Of course sides are quickly chosen and defended. Even reasonable questions are not listened to. Rather another diatribe is begun.

Mass shootings are not normal for any society, least of all America’s. I feel this deeply. I think most of us do. Why then, can’t we sit down and define what might be wrong, what could be changed, all in the hope of finding a solution to mass shootings and what causes them. What can we do to lessen the danger and frequency of mass shootings?  Anything?

I think America can get this right if we put our good heads and hearts together, remain civil, and attack the problems logically and sensitively. We can find a solution. We can take small steps. But we must stop shouting at each other!

We must embrace one another to remind each other that we care for common civility and safety. Now. What options do we have to solve this hideous problem?

Cool the rhetoric. Stop the blaming. Put on our thinking caps and get down to business.

Now that’s more like it!

October 6, 2015