RSSThe Essence of Incivility
Gene Lalor | January 29, 2011
Is it civil or uncivil to abruptly tell a young woman that she is not welcome because she wanted to say things you didn’t want to hear or to praise someone who preaches hatred because you like him? Is it another Sputnik moment when you overtly display incivility in the midst of President Obama’s declared new age of civil discourse?
You make the call.
There has been precious little civility shown by Obama’s mainstream media toward the first female nominee for the vice presidency and now that incivility has been extended to Sarah Palin’s eldest daughter, Bristol.
The now-21 year old Bristol Sheeran Marie Palin has had more than her fair share of adversities in her short life and has more than overcome them as she still struggles as a single mother of 2 year old Tripp. However, some students at Washington University apparently and very uncivilly felt that Ms. Palin didn’t quite measure up to what their Sudent Health Advisory Committee believed when she was invited to speak at the school’s Sexual Responsibility Week symposium.
Perhaps just the thought of “sexual responsibility” spooked the kids at Washington U or, more likely, the thought of Sarah Palin’s daughter appearing and speaking on their campus spooked and scared the bejesus out of them. Whatever the cause, Bristol Palin’s invite was revoked.
Allegedly, the revocation impetus wasn’t Bristol’s message advocating sexual abstinence, which would go over as well on today’s university campuses as a lecture on abusing animals for fun and profit or a wake-up call on the fallacy of global warming. Rather, Ms. Palin was dumped as a result of a Facebook petition complaining she was just too expensive. The petition to force the school to cancel Palin’s appearance drew hundreds of signatures which was more than sufficient in a university with tens of thousands of students to pull Bristol’s rug.
“It’s not necessarily in opposition to the ideas that are being presented,” explained Philip Thomas, the Washington U. student who initiated the petition. “People are getting so angry because of the opposition to Palin’s lack of expertise and the high cost she is charging:” http://tiny.cc/1xrcy
There was a high cost involved, far and beyond Bristol Palin’s speaker’s fee. It’s called civilly adhering to an agreement and paying for and listening to information Washington University didn’t want to hear and having the child of the repulsive Sarah Palin on campus.
Meanwhile, over at MSNBC where heads are more often in the sand than not or located in cavities designed for elimination purposes, commentator Ed Schultz has done it again.
Already on record screaming such less-than-civil outrages on “The Ed Show” as, “The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her,” the rotund one has taken his gross incivility to an even lower level.
He also ragged and raged on former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom he had previously and very uncivilly labeled a “dirt bag,” as “an enemy of the country” who should go “to the Promised Land,” i.e., die. However, it’s all good, according to actor Richard Dreyfuss who just happens to be ”spearheading a nationwide initiative on civics education and civility in political discourse.”
Dreyfuss defended Schultz’ eruption by saying, “No, that’s not uncivil. That’s actually kind of a beautifully phrased way of saying something that could be uncivil.” He clarified that inanity with a more profound and pretentious inanity by adding, “Civility is not not saying negative or harsh things. It is not the absence of critical analysis. It is the manner in which we are sharing this territorial freedom of political discussion. If our discourse is yelled and screamed and interrupted and patronized, that’s uncivil:” http://tiny.cc/8ad4o
Dreyfuss makes a person wish that the great white had eaten him, and Schultz, in “Jaws.” Or, is that uncivil?
Maybe President Obama should qualify his call for more national civility and make exceptions for MSNBC, for Richard Dreyfuss, and for mush-brained college students.
Contributor's website: http://www.genelalor.com/
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