NEWS FEATURE: From street corners to Congress, the cry is for civility

c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Three people were killed last year in suburban Virginia when motorists engaged in a high-speed duel and swerved into oncoming traffic. Baltimore Oriole Roberto Alomar was rebuked nationally after spitting in the face of an umpire. And who can forget Tonya Harding. These are just a few of […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Three people were killed last year in suburban Virginia when motorists engaged in a high-speed duel and swerved into oncoming traffic.

Baltimore Oriole Roberto Alomar was rebuked nationally after spitting in the face of an umpire.


And who can forget Tonya Harding.

These are just a few of the high-profile examples of how rudeness, profanity and a lack of basic common courtesy pervades society. In the urbanization and rush of modern society, Americans by many accounts are becoming less civil to one another.

“Of course it’s a problem. People are driven mad by the aggressiveness of the society,” said Judith Martin, who as the syndicated columnist and author Miss Manners has been yelling into the wind for years on the need for renewed civility.

“Suddenly everybody is calling for civility,” she says with vindication.

What is driving the degradation of courtesy is a decline in interpersonal relationships, according to experts ranging from Miss Manners to former Republican Minority Leader Robert H. Michel. Simply put, Americans do not spend time talking and getting to know each other.

With the shift from small rural towns to larger urban areas, Americans are becoming strangers. Fraternal organizations such as Elk and Lions clubs have seen their membership rolls plummet in recent years. The problem has even affected the U.S. Congress. Almost half the House is spending this weekend in Hershey, Pa., in hopes of getting to know each other better and to learn to be nice.

A survey conducted last year for U.S. News & World Report found 89 percent of Americans think incivility is a serious problem and 78 percent of those surveyed believe the problem has become worse in the past decade.

The bitter partisan splits in Congress, which may have hit an all-time low in the past few years, is simply a reflection of what is happening around the country. The House of Representatives, especially, is a microcosm of American society and is typically more rancorous than the clubby Senate.

“What’s changed is the society,” Miss Manners said. “The House of Representatives is in danger of sinking to the level of its constituency. It’s the same problem affecting everyday life.”


Michel, who retired in 1994 when the GOP took control of Congress, remembers a sense of comity among members; they could disagree on policy but still be close friends. After arguing for hours on end with Democratic House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, the pair would often go out for beers or play a few hands of gin rummy.

“Respect and understanding and friendship for members of the other party are very important,” added former House Speaker Thomas S. Foley.

The causes for the decline in civility within Congress are as varied as society as a whole. But many lawmakers and outsiders say it’s a response, in part, to the public’s declining respect for the government body.

In the past, the activities that bred congressional friendships _ living in Washington and traveling overseas _ drew little criticism. Now, they are viewed by voters as imperial perks and by political consultants as campaign fodder.

“The problem here is a result of changing times and public attitudes,” said Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich. “(Former President) Jerry Ford talked to me after I got elected. I told him I was going to live in Grand Rapids and commute here. He told me when he was elected, he moved to Washington and only went home twice a year, at Christmas and August recess. Today, we have a commuter Congress.”

The Bipartisan Congressional Retreat involving more than 200 House members and their families is the largest decampment in the history of Congress. Organizers, who have the backing of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, are optimistic the weekend in Hershey will help heal wounds and build relationships. But rather than see it as a cure, they say it is only a first step.


“It is not a panacea. It is not the answer,” said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who is co-chairman of the bipartisan group orchestrating the weekend. “It is the beginning of building friendships and relationships.”

The aim of the weekend is not to end all disagreements, but to change how lawmakers resolve their differences. “Disagreement and conflict are a necessary part of any Democracy, especially this one,” said Gephardt.

The weekend is being funded by a $700,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

As is the case in Congress, the cause of the decline in civility elsewhere in society is because people no longer know each other. Rutgers University sociologist David Popenoe says America is now a community of strangers. With the move from small towns to urban areas, there is nobody to enforce what he describes as an informal code of behavior because everyone is anonymous. While people in small towns tend to be deferential toward authority, authority structures also are breaking down with the move toward cities.

Other forces leading to the decline, he said, include immigrants maintaining more of their traditional cultures rather than adapting the mores of America as some past generations did; the breakdown of the family; cynicism in the news media; the Internet; and the overall pace of everyday life.

“Modern life is just more stressful,” Popenoe said.

Despite all these problems everything is not hopeless. Conflict has been present throughout American history. The gatherings of the founding fathers were often tense. Their opposition against the British crown was one of the few things on which they agreed.

“I think the fact that people are beginning to talk about it is a tremendous difference,” said Miss Manners.


MJP END LIEBERMAN

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