Civility is the essence of debate and discussion.

And yet, our country is on the brink of moral collapse – we continue to sink into an abyss of war like words and militant actions – because of the refusal by some to separate opinions from facts, and disagreement from a disagreeable personality; because of the rejection of manners, in favor of a deranged sort of missionary zeal; because of the reversal of respect, by and to our fellow Americans, since both sides renounce compromise as a sign of capitulation and cooperation as treason; because one camp thinks it should fear negotiation, while the other believes those who negotiate only do so out of fear.

Welcome to the state of modern discourse, in which the masses and the media are in permanent conflict.

Welcome to the Disunited States of America, where almost everything is a matter of red states versus blue states.

Welcome to a civil war, where one group reduces governance to a catchphrase and the other tries to have its cause catch fire by starting fires – by setting Berkeley, California, ablaze.

How can this nation survive half-blind and fully deaf?

Unable to listen to criticism, and unwilling to see the flaws of their leaders, these individuals view dissent as a form of destruction.

When you apply that attitude to the classroom or the living room, when you transfer that ideology to a dormitory or a dining room, when you surround yourself with the champions of hatred, do not expect there to be an atmosphere of humility.

Do not expect the impolitic to be polite, the belligerent to be beneficent, and the revolting to be warm and receptive.

Therein lies the point: We can have all the rights our constitution promises – we should have all the rights our constitution guarantees – but none of it means anything if we will not acknowledge the rights that precede the existence of that document.

I write about those unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

For we need not worry about an allegedly fascist government, when we already have partisans who act like fascists – from those who seek to criminalize speech to those who commit crimes in the name of speech, from those who enforce conformity among our colleges and universities to those who try to sow chaos and violence in our cities and streets.

Let us find a way forward by remembering this passage – so representative of its time, and so timeless in its relevance to our time – from President Kennedy’s inaugural address from over a half-century ago:

“So let us begin anew – remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

“Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.”

To paraphrase another president, Abraham Lincoln, it is our responsibility to nobly save – or intentionally lose – the last best hope on earth.

 

Elizabeth Rice Grossman

Kailua, HI