For those of you who find it odd that flammable and inflammable mean the same thing, here's another linguistic irony: Two of the worst instances of our country being torn apart at the seams are The Civil War of the mid 19th Century and what I call the "The Uncivil War" of the early 21st Century. I've lived through the "War on Poverty", "The War on Drugs", "The War on Terror", and now it appears, "The War on Civility" or The Uncivil War. Throughout our history, we've criticized our leaders and institutions, often harshly, but what we've witnessed recently is beyond the pale. Yes, in protests or while venting in private rants, many of us are guilty of saying some remarkably intemperate things. God knows I'm guilty of more than my share. It is, however, very different to have those who posture as responsible spokespeople acting in such a conspicuously irresponsible manner.
I need to clarify that the loss of civility I'm bemoaning doesn't merely relate to politeness or the tone of political discourse, but rather to substance. We have lost the restraint that marks a civilized society. Our disagreements have become back alley brawls where absolutely nothing is off-limits. We've shamelessly lost our sense of decency. You may recall that the beginning of the end of McCarthyism came when someone finally stood up and openly chastised Senator McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, Sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" We desperately need a similar moment now. We need leaders with the courage and integrity to stand up and say, "Stop it!"
We are poisoning the well of our democracy with dishonest and scurrilous attacks and we need to stop it immediately. A recent poll showed that only 42% of Republicans were satisfied that President Obama was born in the United States. This is not the tin foil hat wearing lunatic fringe; this also includes mainstream Americans who have been so conditioned by a relentless stream of fear, hatred and lies from right wing media and even some prominent Republicans to automatically swallow any negative claim about this president. The latest tempest in the latest teapot is the flap over the president's address to schoolchildren. The chairman of the Florida Republican Party condemned it as socialist indoctrination even though there wasn't a shred of evidence to support his fraudulent claim.
There is an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you (for being dishonest); fool me twice, shame on me (for being a chump). Well, shame on both of you, and knock it off. We have serious problems to solve, and we need all hands on deck. We simply can't afford the luxury of indulging reckless fantasies that serve to splinter our society at a time when we desperately need cooperation. We're better than this and we will certainly rise above it one day. The only open question is how much more of this disgrace we'll have to endure before we grow up and say, "Enough!"
