Is incivility becoming the rule of the land?

I don’t know if you favor the health care reform bill or not.  That’s none of my business and this blog is not intended to be political.  However, whatever side of this particular issue, or any issue any of us happen to favor, our thoughts can and should be expressed in terms that are not hateful toward one group of citizens or another. What we all saw on cable news over the week end, the mean-spirited placards at the rallies, the spitting on an individual congressman, the extremely vile name calling, are all examples of behavior that’s shameful.

A democracy allows for differences in opinion; that’s the good news.  But when the attacks become as vitriolic as those we all observed, it’s time to take stock of who we are as a nation.  The yelling and name-calling sets a really bad example for our young people too.  We wonder what could ever drive kids to set a classmate on fire, (as happened not so long ago), or what could possess a fifteen year old boy to nearly kill a young girl he didn’t even know.  She may well not survive.

Does seeing their parents, or other adults the same age as their parents, behave obnoxiously on the street corners of myriad cities around the country convince them that they can do whatever they want to do with no thought of the consequences?  One can’t know what’s in the heads and hearts of others.  But we certainly aren’t seeing the expressions of kindness, tolerance, and hope that’s so necessary if we are to ever have a peaceful world, one that benefits all human-kind.