A matter of civilty.

With the understanding that what I am about to say may seem crass or exasperating to some, I feel compelled none the less to pen my frustration at the incessant calls for a return to civility in our political discourse. Yes, I for one am sick to death of hearing this reproof not so much because I would gainsay the notion but rather because it is an odious obfuscation of what is really going on in our public discourse. Unless of course, civility suddenly became the synonym for honesty, in which case I would not only laud the effort but jump at the opportunity to account myself in that accord. Honesty however, is not the buzzword of the day. In fact it seems not only lost but little missed, upon the people at large and downright abhorred by those who populate our seats of government. Much has been made about the possible causes leading up the horrific shootings in Tucson, earlier this year. Nearly immediately, the charges of rhetoric being the complicit accomplice were thrown around and then countered and re-countered again until it would seem a consensus formed. Civility or the lack thereof became the underlying reason whether it could be directly linked or not. Finally we all were treated to the admonishment of our most upright in civility, civil servant, the president. Once given a time for reflection we have now been offered some comic relief it would seem, in the painstaking methods that some are trying to take in blazing this new road of civility. There are some who feel their best means of adding to public discourse is by simply editing their lexicon of any words that may in any way be also used in describing any war time campaign. “I wonder if that word will be taken off the table now. A campaign is after all what you call an advancing army.” From cross hairs to battle ground states, we are now being asked to reexamine the terms we use when discussing such weighty matters as our own government. To what end? Where will this lead us? In all my short life, I have seen little that is more frustrating than the political discourse of my country. Never once though, was I under the impression that it was a lack of manners that kept conversation in a stalemate. If anything, I have at times winced to see one so prolific in debate be dissuaded from furthering their position at the deference to decorum. In these times I am reminded of our congress’s counterparts across the pond in the English parliament, bantering back and forth most heatedly in discussion of their nation’s politics. Have we come so far as to forget the passion of debate that founded us? It was not by sword or musket alone that we took on that empire to form our own country but most assuredly by means of the men whose passionate debate and diction awaked in ourselves a notion of liberty. Our congress, once known as the greatest deliberative body on the face of this earth, has also it seems become entangled in this farce of civility being somehow the most righteous cause above all else. I beg that you consider an alternative to this fruitless pursuit and cast aside the notion of politically correct speech in favor of a stringent demand of the truth. This I would argue is what we have been missing most in our dialogue concerning government. From empty and quickly broken campaign promises to a misrepresentation of an opponent’s stance on an issue, the lack of honesty we hold our officials to is shameful. We are so conditioned to lying and being lied to that we hardly ever make the effort to see the truth, when most often it is the glaringly obvious. Let each of us then pledge one to another, a return to honesty and let us furthermore hold it dearer than any semblance of civility, though we must not consider either to be exclusive of the other. If on occasion they are at odds then let honesty always win out. If we can do this simple thing then we may yet bask in a place of honor among the generations of Americans as have gone before us; if we cannot, a brief spot of shame I fear is our due record. Let it not be said that we counted semblance over substance or that we coward from the truth for an easy repast of empty, though colorful, words.

Brutus Sophos Monticello