It's 12:15pm and after a good morning at the Children's Museum, both kids are asleep. This would be a perfect time to read some parenting books, or make some calls to set up the next social justice playdate. Or I could clean, or enjoy some "me" time, meditate, journal, etc. I could take the next steps in planning "phase II" of our foreclosure prevention campaign, or I could even catch up on reading my books on organizing and political philosophy.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Seriously though, I need to say something about the verbal scrapfest my most recent facebook status has generated-- from a plea for guaranteed health care to a sharp exchange on abortion and taxes to a debate on civility and democracy.
Does civility matter? We are so polarized on so many issues, having drawn battle-lines over abortion, health care, taxes, unions, affirmative action, climate change, military intervention, etc., that it almost seems useless to try to have a civil conversation "across enemy lines". It's a power struggle-- try to persuade the undecided middle, try to get the media and your opponents to use your language, your terms so that your 'frame' becomes the dominant and taken for granted way of understanding the issue, make sure to fire up your base of fervent supporters...
...and it's hard for me to want to be civil talking about health care when there are folks bringing guns to town hall forums, and more importantly, because of people like the guy my dad saw at his clinic-- who tried to lance an abscess in his mouth because he didn't have dental insurance, got a bacterial infection that spread through his bloodstream and caused a crippling, paralyzing stroke. So who cares about civility?
What happens when we juxtapose this scene with the lunch-counter sit-ins of 1960, that drew inspiration from Gandhian non-violence and whose partisans sought to create a confrontation that forced a change of heart in the lunch-counter managers and patrons, instead of returning force with force, or intimidation with intimidation?
What if we introduce the Jewish prohibition on naming God, since we won't be able to avoid limiting God's grandeur with our words, conceptions, names, images, etc?
What if we decided that we can learn enough, and be certain enough about the answers to our world's most pressing questions, that we can engage in spirited political debate, protest, organizing, educating, etc., but that as best we may, we should observe enough humility at our own ability to arrive at complete certainty, and enough respect for our opponents that we would rather win them over then drive them into submission and silence?
Just a thought. And now this polite Minnesotan needs to start warming up some milk...
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