Civility Code is Value Based

This afternoon I received a very interesting email and fax concerning my previous post on the suggestion of a Civility Code at last Tuesday's Board of Hernando County Commission meeting. Pasted below are excerpts from this thought provoking email correspondence. I have intentionally left off this individual's name and county, per my pledge to him for complete anonymity. (Please be patient as I attempt to correct the problem with this Blog accepting direct comment)

I am a public administrator in the state of Florida, having dedicated 33 years of my life to professional public
service. I read news clips from around the state and one of them took me to your blog. I do not know you and frankly I should probably not even involve myself in what seems to be a very difficult political situation in your county. But I care too much about local government, Florida and democracy so I pass the thoughts
along that your blog instilled in me. I had typed them in to your blog response only to discover that it was just an outgoing blog.

Some days I love my job and other days it is the most difficult thing that I have ever done. I have watched the demeanor of public dialogue erode over these 33 years or more. To be certain, any political dialogue is subject to hyperbole from time to time, but it appears to have become more and more personal. Perhaps it is our short attention span, perhaps it is the tabloid type of journalism that plays to our most prurient and dark
side wherein we covet the pain of others in a perverse "there but for the grace of god go I mindset", perhaps it is our consumer oriented culture where we have been told we can have everything our way - yet in a democracy that form of pluralism is a ridiculous expectation. I believe that we have been socialized by
our consumer culture and populist politics to become entitled and selfish. Democracy is about common interest not self-interest and government of the people and by the people is expected to be perfect (when none of us are) and government is expected to solve everyone's problems and yet we wonder why it has
gotten so big.

I have taken time to think about this and in so doing I became reconnected to the roots of democracy. This journey gives me solace, a new mission in career and a hope in and for the positive and indomitable spirit
of Americans. I have hope, because I now give this civic lesson at every speech that I give. I seek to place the responsibility for citizenship and the need to own the associated values where it belongs, on each of us, and it connects. Most importantly is that values base that has made this country work through application of the art of compromise and statesmanship juxtaposed to the culture of self-interest that is played out 24/7 in our lives.

If I were to be asked to boil that lesson down to a couple of things I would suggest that one look at four things - John Locke's "The Nature of Man" (please god don't attempt to read it all), Federalist 10 wherein Madison speaks to the need for representative government to manage factions, the most self interested of which
is each of us and yet we are the sovereign, one simple quote by Jefferson "That government governs best which governs least, because its citizens are most relevant) and deTocqueville's "Democracy in America" wherein he observes that democracy is unique in this country because of our associations.

Many communities and foundations have been hard at work in an attempt to deal with the incivility that is plaguing our society and governance. I personally believe that it is local government’s responsibility to invest in democracy and the resultant conversations and to in fact model appropriate behavior. The adaptation to a civility code is a value-based way of doing such modeling.