“Deliberately Diverse” represents the individual thoughts and opinions of a group of Taylor friends who almost never completely agree about anything but are gratified by the opportunity to stimulate deliberately diverse discussions in our beloved community. Today’s column represents the thoughts and opinions of Mitch Drummond, not the Taylor Press.
I recently attended a city council meeting where I had to watch my fellow citizens verbally attack their elected representatives. Every time the speaker, and there were many, issued a zinger, the crowd went wild, clapping and cheering. It was akin to watching a hockey game but without the physical contact, fortunately. I came away wondering what happened to civility, decorum, and respect, not for the person but for the position. Can we discuss our disagreements and persuade others without berating and beating them down? One would hope.
Civility is more than just behaving properly but showing respect for the other especially when we are in disagreement. Civility is required to create good public policy; recent history has shown us that if we cannot speak respectfully about our firmly-held differences, we cannot accomplish much and we end up treating each other as enemies, and you know what they say about a house divided.
And what are we teaching our children, if we as adults cannot have a civil discussion, how can we expect our children to be any different. Civility requires discretion, the ability to discriminate between audiences and what is appropriate for each audience and situation.
I found something that might be helpful; I’m going to print a copy for myself.
The Ten Commandments of Public Civility
(www.trentonian. com/2004/12/14/the-10-commandmentsofpublic- civility/)
1. Thou shalt not rudely interrupt a colleague midsentence; nor “speak over” a colleague while she/he is speaking. (Good example of behavior: Meet the Press; bad example of behavior: Crossfire.)
2. Thou shalt not assume that shrillness of tone is a substitute for substantive dialogue.
3. Thou shall treat the members of the public with the same courtesy as you would if they were members of your body – and perhaps more importantly, require that they treat you and your colleagues the same way.
4. Thou shalt not resort to “zingers” designed solely to embarrass your target.
5. Thou shalt, where possible, explore areas of common ground where legitimate disagreements exist, in an effort to move forward on matters of public importance.
6. Thou shalt not allow legitimate critique of policy and practice to become a personal attack aimed at the person who devised the policy or implements the practice.
7. Thou shalt always recognize that your colleagues were also elected, just as you were, and deserve the same level of respect for having run and won. (Remember that the members of the public who elected the colleague that you don’t like, may be the same folks who send you packing next time around.)
8. Thou shalt not ridicule or belittle a colleague, or a member of the public, simply because he or she disagrees with you on an issue.
9. Thou shalt not pretend something is much more important than it really is, simply to score points with an audience.
10. Thou shalt always remember that it is okay to agree to disagree, and that reasonable people can indeed disagree reasonably.
