Civility and grace - a shining example
Did you catch Vice President Joe Biden on the PBS News Hour tonight? He had the duty of swearing-in a Speaker and Members of Congress today. A lot of them. And most were members of a party other than his.
If you want to see grace, sincerity and just plain good upbringing in action, check out this 2 minute video clip, 50 minutes into tonight's broadcast of PBS News Hour in the new "Shares" feature.
In a time of dysfunctional government, our seeming inability to compromise and displays of ugly public behavior, it is indeed heartening to see how adults SHOULD behave.
Check it out for yourself. It's a lesson well worth sharing with family, friends and yes, those you disagree with politically. As our former Mayor Chuck Rose, and current Mayor Dickson often remind us, we are ALL family and small town neighbors.
We owe it to ourselves and others to think in the moment, put our best face forward, and set aside differences that after all, are far outweighed by what we do agree on.
Take a look. Perhaps it will take the chill off a winter day and help the New Year start off on a better foot for us all.
pbs.org/newshour/episode/pbs-newshour-full-episode-jan-7-2015/
Comments
Another example of civility and grace would be the wonderfully transparent, participatory and considerate budgeting process used by Buena Vista's administration in making its 2014 budget. BV's administration provided numerous options to citizens for spending discretionary funds, and asked them to prioritize amongst those options.
And, of course, BV's budget provided detail and accountability in past and future spending.
Civility comes in many flavors.
Good point. Among other things, safer districts, more time spent raising money, and fewer opportunities (and decreasing incentives) to build relationships lead to less civil interactions by our elected officials. If we want a different outcome, we need to also think about structural changes.
We created The Citizen, in part, to allow people to participate in their local democratic process. Using The Citizen (we) can help facilitate an unbiased discussion about spending priorities. Let's all use this tool to make things more transparent. You now have the ability, and responsibility, of posting information that allows people to offer educated opinions on how to best move forward as a community.