九乡新闻网青岛市立医院官网:公民社会
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Basu: Our civic duty to find civil ways to resolvedifferences
REKHA BASU rbasu@dmreg.com
The Des MoinesRegister
February 16, 2011 ET
An inspiring sight from the Egyptian revolution came in a snippet capturedon video. People who hours earlier had been protesting were returning toTahrir Square armed with mops, brooms and dustpans. They had marched andrallied, then danced in the streets as a 30-year dictatorship reached apeaceful end. Finally, they returned to restore order and cleanliness totheir staging grounds. You might say this is where revolution met MissManners.And there are lessons in it for all of us. Even as we passionatelypursue our agendas, we can and must remember to be careful how we do it. TheEgyptian protesters embodied the meaning of personal responsibility. The massmovement was made
up of thousands of individuals determined to forge a better future fortheir country. Yet they didn't lose sight of the details of acting civilly.
Civility has been the subject of soul searching in our own societylately. The president devoted a poignant speech to it on the heels of the Tucsonshooting rampage last month, calling on Americans to "listen to each othermore carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselvesof all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together." Members ofCongress heeded the call at his State of the Union address, breaking politicalranks to sit with each other. Here in Iowa, several civic-minded groups haveteamed up and sponsored a civility lecture series at Drake. P. M. Forni, authorof "Choosing Civility" and co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility
Project, wrapped it up this month. Building on his 25 rules to live by, theWallace Centers of Iowa are holding a series of Civility Dialogue Lunches totake the dialogue into the community. Attendees are asked to sign a CivilityPledge.
We live in a time when polarization and vitriol are ubiquitous, andrandom incidents of rage make the news daily. In New York, Maksim Gelman goeson a stabbing spree and rails about a conspiracy when he's caught. InDubuque, Josh Jasper gets death threats for making a video urging men not toteach their sons violence.The civility movement has its detractors. Somecall it censorship. Some see it as a politeness campaign that tries to treatthe manifestations of a problem without getting at its roots. When peopleare jobless and
homeless, when politicians pen bills that deny the humanity of entiregroups, and talk shows bring in ad revenues by insulting people, why botherto talk about civility? And indeed, if saying hello to co-workers and mindingyour cell phone etiquette were all it was about, those criticisms would bevalid. But at its best, the civility movement could prompt personaltransformations that lay the foundation for societal ones. Maybe, in the courseof making ourselves perform small, selfless acts of consideration to thecommunity, we'll start to see its interests as our own.
Ultimately, of course, concern for othersis not just in how we talk but in the laws and policies we institute. This iswhere it gets tricky. It's easy to agree that cutting someone off in trafficis uncivil. But it's harder to find agreement on what some see as the incivilityof cutting vulnerable people off government aid, and others might say is incivilitytoward unborn life. And while Forni urges respect for the environment andcare for animals, does that unfairly put the onus on individuals, whencorporations might pollute with impunity, emboldened by lax laws?
We can always pass the buck and shrug off responsibility.But at its best, the movement could inspire people to be responsive to differentopinions, and to hear each other's hopes and fears even as we disagree onoutcomes. That would certainly be progress.
REKHA BASU rbasu@dmreg.com
The Des MoinesRegister
February 16, 2011 ET
An inspiring sight from the Egyptian revolution came in a snippet capturedon video. People who hours earlier had been protesting were returning toTahrir Square armed with mops, brooms and dustpans. They had marched andrallied, then danced in the streets as a 30-year dictatorship reached apeaceful end. Finally, they returned to restore order and cleanliness totheir staging grounds. You might say this is where revolution met MissManners.And there are lessons in it for all of us. Even as we passionatelypursue our agendas, we can and must remember to be careful how we do it. TheEgyptian protesters embodied the meaning of personal responsibility. The massmovement was made
up of thousands of individuals determined to forge a better future fortheir country. Yet they didn't lose sight of the details of acting civilly.
Civility has been the subject of soul searching in our own societylately. The president devoted a poignant speech to it on the heels of the Tucsonshooting rampage last month, calling on Americans to "listen to each othermore carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselvesof all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together." Members ofCongress heeded the call at his State of the Union address, breaking politicalranks to sit with each other. Here in Iowa, several civic-minded groups haveteamed up and sponsored a civility lecture series at Drake. P. M. Forni, authorof "Choosing Civility" and co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility
Project, wrapped it up this month. Building on his 25 rules to live by, theWallace Centers of Iowa are holding a series of Civility Dialogue Lunches totake the dialogue into the community. Attendees are asked to sign a CivilityPledge.
We live in a time when polarization and vitriol are ubiquitous, andrandom incidents of rage make the news daily. In New York, Maksim Gelman goeson a stabbing spree and rails about a conspiracy when he's caught. InDubuque, Josh Jasper gets death threats for making a video urging men not toteach their sons violence.The civility movement has its detractors. Somecall it censorship. Some see it as a politeness campaign that tries to treatthe manifestations of a problem without getting at its roots. When peopleare jobless and
homeless, when politicians pen bills that deny the humanity of entiregroups, and talk shows bring in ad revenues by insulting people, why botherto talk about civility? And indeed, if saying hello to co-workers and mindingyour cell phone etiquette were all it was about, those criticisms would bevalid. But at its best, the civility movement could prompt personaltransformations that lay the foundation for societal ones. Maybe, in the courseof making ourselves perform small, selfless acts of consideration to thecommunity, we'll start to see its interests as our own.
Ultimately, of course, concern for othersis not just in how we talk but in the laws and policies we institute. This iswhere it gets tricky. It's easy to agree that cutting someone off in trafficis uncivil. But it's harder to find agreement on what some see as the incivilityof cutting vulnerable people off government aid, and others might say is incivilitytoward unborn life. And while Forni urges respect for the environment andcare for animals, does that unfairly put the onus on individuals, whencorporations might pollute with impunity, emboldened by lax laws?
We can always pass the buck and shrug off responsibility.But at its best, the movement could inspire people to be responsive to differentopinions, and to hear each other's hopes and fears even as we disagree onoutcomes. That would certainly be progress.