All Politics Is Local

Over the last decade or so it feels to me like American politics has become a swampy mess of incivility. We have all heard the name calling, the personal attacks and the outright lies shot back and forth across the right and left bow of the electorate. When the last presidential election cycle was over, I was so relieved to see the end of the nasty, tiresome political ads. They exhausted me with their simplistic messages and personal attacks wrapped up in a patriotic red, white and blue bow. It would be so is easy to pass this off as"Washington" as usual, but it is not. It is a symptom of a much larger problem. Each "side" has their political pundits who make a living off of cheap shots, distortions and mean spirited jokes. These pundits are celebrities with thousands, if not millions of fans and followers. The messages of intolerance and outright hate have become so commonplace that were rarely pay much attention to them anymore. The deluge of this type of discourse is taking its toll. We are slowly devolving into a culture of angry, intolerant, plain old mean people. How do I know this? Just take a look at my local school board.

I pride myself on living in a well educated, literate community. There are professors, doctors, lawyers, business owners and every type of conceivable professional living within the confines of my community. I see many kind, interesting people at my elementary school, the sporting fields and the local farmers' market. As in all politics, local, state and national, a big controversy cropped up. It began brewing for a while and them then it boiled over. I don't know all the intricate details, nor do I need to for the purposes of my point. I do know that things got ugly. Not just run of the mill, "we are no longer friends ugly," but criminal prosecuting, threatening ugly. I have been told that members of the school board have been threatened with physical harm as well as told their homes would be burned by angry and disgruntled citizens. This to me is absolutely inconceivable. What happened to educated, literate community in which I live?! I am convinced it is a direct result of the times in which we live. It is a time when it is easier to send hate thorough a laptop than it is to actually sit down with someone in a room and have a civil discussion. It is a time in which children send mean, nasty messages over a website or in a text message instead of standing in the hallway at school and looking each other in the eye. It is a time in which it is easier to hate someone without knowing them. It is socially acceptable. Just turn on your local t.v. or radio news channel and listen to the commentary.

What is this doing to our community? It is creating rifts, fear and anger. There is no getting around the fact that some issues are going to push emotional buttons. That doesn't change the fact that everyone in this community are in the same virtual boat. We all live here. We all want a safety, security and peace. We want our children to be accepted, to be educated and to be happy. We want to walk down our small main street or through our local market and have the people we recognize say hello, be friendly and be polite. The only way we can accomplish this is with civility. All of us that are involved with local politics are adults. We sit at the big kids table. We pay our taxes, we raise our children, we care for our elderly parents. We know right from wrong. In the words of every kindergarten teacher that ever taught, treat people the way you want to be treated. Just because someone is an elected official, it doesn't give anyone the right to threaten them, harass them or instill fear in them. It is our right, our civic responsibility, to question each and every person we elect on any issue we find troublesome. It is also our moral obligation to do so with civility. It takes much more strength to see someone we don't agree with, even someone who makes us boiling mad, as a human being with the same aspirations, frailties and needs as we have. When we do that, a real conversation can take place. We can understand each other's point of view, yet still disagree. We can compromise, or decide we cannot. But at least we can have the discourse that would make our mother's, our children and ourselves proud.

In the end, it is up to each and every one of us to decide not only the type of community we want to be a part of, but the type of America in which we live. Freedom of speech is a precious, God-given right, but it does have its limits, for a very good reason. We need to live together. We can't get around that. We need each other. If you don't think so, think back to 911 and Hurricane Katrina. Did anyone care to which political party the victims belonged? Did everyone question the voting record of the dead before lighting and candle in our windows or wearing a ribbon on our chest? Did we stop and decide if we liked everything about those who lost everything before donating money, time and effort to rebuild those who were destroyed? No. My America is that America. At the very least, let's all try to remind ourselves of that at the next school board meeting.

*more information on this topic can be found at:

"Speak Your Peace: The Civility Project"

www.speakyourpeacewc.org