The Importance Of Maintaining Civility

By Susan Dohrman[1]

Many years ago there was a Latina singer, Selena.[2]  Sadly, her life was taken in a senseless act by someone very close to her.  The whole world was in mourning for this rising star who lost her life while still so young, with so much life to live.

The reason I’m writing about her is that prior to her murder, I’d never heard of her.  I realized with the enormous outpouring of love and sorrow that I had been living side by side with an entire community of people about whom I knew nothing.  And they had been there all along.

Now, we Americans are nearing the end of the campaign for President of these United States.  And once again, I’m struck by the numbers of people, with whom I share this great land, about whom I have known nothing.

I am a lifelong Republican.  I thought the mainstream GOP believed as I believe, hoped for what I hoped for, understood the proper role of government as I do.  I was wrong.  Dead wrong.  There are many within this party who are very angry and seem to have no filter on their speech or conduct.  The GOP nominee is among them.

But it’s also present in the Democratic party.  I am hearing horrible hate speech from them as well.  When I have dared to engage a liberal Democrat in conversation, usually within moments I am being called an idiot, a zombie, and many other names I wouldn’t want to put in print.  This is shocking behavior.  It’s a playground mentality that as adults should have been abandoned long ago in the name of decency.  But there it is.

Apparently, there’s an America that is not united; and I shudder to think what will happen post election because at least half the population is going to be saying the person sworn in is not their President.

There’s a deep wound that’s growing day by day.  How in the world did our Founding Fathers, as divided as they were on such subjects as slavery and whether or not there should be a central bank, etc., how did they manage with civility to come together and agree to those precious principles laid out in our Constitution?

We’ve lost something, something precious.  We don’t respect one another.  We don’t see the importance of maintaining civility and discussing issues in an intelligent manner.  We don’t have an ability to see the other person’s point of view or appreciate it.  We don’t seem to understand how precious our liberty is, and that it can and will be lost if we do not change our hearts and minds and come together.

© 2020, Susan Dohrman

[1]  This article was submitted originally on October 14, 2016.  Unfortunately, it “fell through the cracks,” and was not published then.  However, it is as timely today as ever.

[2]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena