Tony Ford

                                                                                      CIVILITY

                                                     A

                                                                        CHOICE

                                  

                                                                                      By Tony Ford

 

     Has civility in government died? Do our elected officials even understand the definition of civility? Civility comes from the Latin word – Civilis. Civilis means citizen, and in a broader sense an ideal citizen. Courtesy, politeness, pleasantry, consideration, attentiveness, and graciousness are all interchangeable with the word civility. The definitions suggest that a good citizen will act as such, as this would be the ideal state of a citizen.

     Viewing the current behavior of many politicians at all levels of government, we observe the exact opposite of civility. Arrogance, disrespect, and discourtesy seem to reign high. At their lowest, their behaviors reflect insolence and indecency and clearly not exemplifying ideal citizenship. The intensity at the highest levels on the national scene is alarming. There is no difference between Democrat and Republican. These behaviors are strategically positioned to discredit the opposing side, similar to adolescents yelling at each other on the playgrounds. The playgrounds are the seats of our government.

     Their energy and focus is expended on attacking each other in our public forum, the media.  Political talk shows are not new. In recent years their media popularity has exploded. They have compounded the incivility issue by multiplying the venomous attacks by the opposing parties. Our society has become fascinated with confrontation and comes to expect it. Increased conflict draws a larger audience. A majority of Americans now believe that being passionate about your belief relates to how well you verbally attack an opposing view on television.

      Throughout history there has always been conflict and controversy between the parties. Some of it has produced very beneficial results for our nation. With the complex problems and threats that face our nation in modern times, our government needs to be more united and less divisive.

     I am a concerned citizen, a political moderate and philosophical centrist. I believe that is a good position. I see very valid points in both parties’ passions but also observe that their arrogance blinds them from seeing viable actionable consensus. Bipartisanship and consensus have come to mean being a traitor to your party. Bipartisanship and consensus resulting from civil discourse is the only way we can have a productive government.  As long as neither party has an overwhelming majority, there must be consensus to minimally run the government. We are in crisis. Government shutdowns not only impact many of our citizens but also show weakness to our enemies who are pleased to see such divisiveness between our parties. It creates opportunities for them to exploit our weaknesses.

     Consider the achievements if there was cooperation between our parties. Amenity, not enmity should be the basis for discussions. The positive power that the combined parties could offer our country’s major problems is limitless.

     The confrontation on immigration is a national emergency, in the forefront. Surely there are enough members of both parties that can unite behind basic answers:

• As the leading country of the free world we should always be able to expedite the citizenship process for immigrants from politically oppressed countries, if they are not a threat to our national security.

• Starving families with children from war torn countries should be expedited through the immigration process, if they are not a threat to our national security.

Please note that I said “expedited” and “not a threat to our national security.”

The current influx of immigrants in the numbers across open borders is not sustainable without a significantly more robust security system in place to prevent criminals and terrorist from entering, yet allow the above mentioned groups.

I am not in favor of totally open borders in part because it demeans the efforts of those that came before that followed the clear path to American citizenship.

Immigration done properly helped build our nation. America is America in part due to the efforts of immigrants in our history. I would point out that had we Americans emigrated from England. Even more importantly, we did not ask the Native Americans if we could immigrate here, their land was taken by force.

     I sometimes ponder that we as citizens, and our elected officials, have forgotten that elected officials are civil  servants. Let us examine those two words.  It is amazing that the definition simply states that a civil servant is a government worker. Can we define them by the words themselves? Civil can mean acting in a civil manner. Servant can mean that they serve us, the citizens of our country.  Many of our elected civil servants are neither civil nor do they serve us. They serve their own agendas, special interests, or political party hidden strategies. 

     Our nation’s motto is E Pluribus Unum Latin for “Out of many, one.”

     One means one. One nation. One government. Why can’t our government act as one? The political parties are so polarized that they have ceased to function as a productive governing body. They derail each other’s initiatives for the sake of derailing them.

     I like the bible verse, Matthew 5:37, “but let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No”; anything more than this comes from evil.  Why can’t Conservatives and Liberals let their positions stand alone on their merits without bombastic and unprofessional behaviors and speech? Why can’t Republicans and Democrats state and support their views with facts and plans? I believe many positions on both sides are strong enough to do just that.

     Our nation fought a terrible internal war. Interestingly, that war was called The Civil War. It was by no means civil. Two groups of politicians could not determine how to keep our country together while facing very deep seated issues. Had the South been helped to understand the devastation it faced to defend a defenseless principle, maybe the war would not have been necessary. I’m sure that arrogance, insolence, and disrespect were the most visible behaviors of those politicians. I pray those patterns do not repeat themselves.

I will leave you with a quote I penned.

“Arrogant demands fall on deaf ears, only to doom the purpose of their words.” – Tony Ford