Letter: Civility is the remedy – Concord Monitor

Published: 3/28/2022 7:01:06 AM

Modified: 3/28/2022 7:00:10 AM

Back in December of 2015, then-President Obama was speaking to both Houses of Congress on national health issues when a loud voice shouted out, You lie! The disruption, in this setting, by Rep. Joe Williams (R-SC) was condemned by all members of the Senate and House. However, if I remember correctly, he was able to raise a considerable amount of campaign cash from the Republican base. I mention this as a possible starting point to the present discordant state of our attempts at political conversation.

The ever-present use of verbal and other forms of violence in America is troubling. Look at just some of the incidences of this in our history since then. The Stop the Steal lie, the subsequent attack on our nations capitol building, the wild statements of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others on both the left and right, and now the loud and disruptive trucker convoys in Washington, D.C. Good grief, even on the tennis court, a player was subject to the abusive, You suck! Honestly, I realize that it is simplistic, but the common remedy is plain old ordinary civility. Civility, a beautiful word with connotations of the Golden Rule. Civility, the core of the dynamic of democracy. Without it things seem to fall apart. It would appear that in the U.S. we have lost, to a degree, our sense of civility. No human society has ever been perfect, however, I believe, that we, especially those with governmental responsibilities, should try harder.

Charlie Stepanek

Concord

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Letter: Civility is the remedy - Concord Monitor