LOGIN NOT A MEMBER? REGISTER

FOR PRESS CONTACT US  SUPPORT

The Maryland Public Policy Institute

• RESEARCH
• Criminal Justice
• Economic & Fiscal Policy
• Education
• Environment
• Gas Tax
• Government Transparency
• Health Care
• Transportation
• Welfare
• EXPERTS
• EVENTS
• MPPI PRESS
• ABOUT US
• POLICY BLOG

Practice civility

Originally Published in the Frederick News-Post

Criminal Justice

by Marta Hummel Mossburg

OP-EDS

Columbia offers wide boulevards, easy access to nature and a promise to welcome all races and income levels, sheltering residents in what looks like a few steps up from communist-era monolithic design.

It was and is supposed to be a paragon of civility, the motto of Howard County within which Columbia sits. The conspicuously engineered communitarian utopia has always seemed vaguely creepy to me. But practicing civility, the catch phrase of the country since Jared Loughner allegedly murdered six people in Tucson Jan. 8, is a worthy goal. As President Barack Obama said, "Let us remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy -- it did not -- but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud."

But it is not something that the government can mandate or design can dictate, as I was reminded when leaving a Columbia library last Thursday. A man in a Lexus SUV pulled out in front of my family, without looking, in the parking lot and then screeched off at about 50 mph in a place teeming with pedestrians.

That type of behavior happens all of the time, everywhere. But it stuck in my mind because of the place, because of the Tucson murders and because it is one more example of how grand intentions often fail to change personal behavior.

I have no doubt the driver of the SUV thinks civility is a good thing. I also don't doubt that in a few months when the memories of the Tucson victims start to fade, so will talk of civility.

In some ways it is a good thing. The nation should not try to squelch debate on major issues like health care and the economy -- one of the ways the meaning of civility is being misappropriated by national commentators. In that version civility would mean cowardice and leaving everyone dissatisfied with the outcome.

But it will be a tragedy if Americans forget to cultivate real civility, the kind that forms friendships with people of different religions and political views, the kind that offers a seat on a bus to an elderly person, the kind that uses blinkers when turning a car, that says please and thank you to service people and that writes a heartfelt thank-you note.

That is the kind of civility that does not immediately assume evil motives or that someone is an "idiot" for thinking differently. It is also the kind that guards against the "factions" the Founding Fathers worried would rend the country if it were a democracy instead of a republic and that still threaten us today in the form of groups that want to eliminate others' rights for a perceived "greater good."

It is the kind of civility that will help Maryland's elected officials openly debate tough questions about how to balance the budget, fund Medicaid and pay for state employee pensions and health care.

And it is the kind of civility that needs to be practiced, not discussed. So for the sake of the Tucson victims and for the future of our republic, finish writing Christmas thank-yous and don't tailgate.