CIVILITY n. practice essential for democracy (obsolete)

Last weekend was a busy time for less-than-tolerant people in Washington, D.C.

First, there’s this from McClatchy Newspapers [2]:

“Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted ‘nigger’ Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

“The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said.

“‘They were shouting, sort of harassing,’ Lewis said. ‘But, it's okay, I've faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.’”

Another black congressman was spat on and his attacker arrested.

Then there’s this from the same source:

“Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an openly gay member of Congress. A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a ‘faggot.’”

Frank told the Boston Globe that the incident happened as he was walking from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building, both a short distance from the Capitol. Frank said the crowd consisted of a couple of hundred of people and that they referred to him as 'homo.'”

Apparently, calling Frank the F-word got a big laugh from the crowd of protesters.

And then there’s this from Politico [3]:

“A health care debate marked by episodes of ugly rhetoric took another turn for the worse late Sunday night when a voice on the Republican side of the House shouted ‘baby killer’ at Rep. Bart Stupak.

“Stupak—a leader among anti-abortion Democrats—was speaking at the time in opposition to a Republican motion to recommit that would have added the text of the so-called Stupak Amendment to the Democrats’ reconciliation bill.”

In other words, Sunday was not a banner day for civil discourse. Of course, Democrats are perfectly capable of behaving immaturely. But Sunday was a Republican-dominated show. "The difference between some of the Republicans [in office] and some of their raucous followers appears to be, unfortunately, diminishing," Frank said. "Obviously, that's not the whole party, but there's a disturbing tendency to forget about civility.”

Most people will just tsk-tsk the name-calling and let it go. But last weekend’s news presents a classic teachable moment for classrooms across the country. Teaching Tolerance offers articles [4] and a new curriculum [5] on the subject of civil discourse. Use them and let us know what your students think.

Most of all let your kids know about what happened over the weekend. There’s no excuse for the behavior the nation witnessed. Maybe some intelligent teaching can keep it from happening again.