Are We Being Good Neighbors When It Comes To Civic Dialogue?

There's a lot of talk about Utah being a model for the nation when it comes to our kindness and civility in how we discuss politics. But is it really that civil when the first blurted accusations out of a dissenter's mouth when they meet someone who is voting for Joe Biden are "Oh, so you like killing babies?" Spend five minutes on Facebook or in the comment section of your local newspaper and you'll see it, likely more than once.

Attacking each others' beliefs by restating the worst expression of them, or a false notion of them that portrays a black-and-white narrative seems to be the lion's share of political dialogue, as modeled by the insult-heavy tweeting of the Commander-in-Chief.

This isn't helpful, or civil. We know that our political discourse, our approach to policy, and our party affiliation of choice is far more nuanced than that. As we work to engage one another in public discourse leading up to an election where our very ideas are at war with one another, it would be an immense help to tone down the reactive and reductive rhetoric, to model civility in our personal conversations, not just in our political ads, and to afford to others who may see things differently than we do the freedom to have their opinion without being shamed or vilified.

Remembering Mayberry

"For two years my wife and I made our home in a Davis County community," I begin in my letter to the editor recently published in the Standard Examiner. "Our neighbors were kind, service-oriented, and generous of heart." Many of the same polarizing politics existed then as they do now, and yet they didn't get in the way of seeing the best in one another, and finding the things that united us, rather than divided us.

It was in this neighborhood where when a windstorm took down hundreds of trees, everyone left church and cleaned up the streets. It was the kind of neighborhood where a big wooden box sits between two houses to place surplus produce during the growing season with a sign that reads "Take what you need, leave what you can." This is the kind of suburb that transcends politics, where residents are neighbors first and foremost. I'm encouraged that the president's thinly veiled racist rhetoric enveloped in his appeals to the suburbs seem to be falling on deaf ears, tired of his tactic of pitting neighbor against neighbor.

The Wisdom of Youth

I recently visited my parents in their neighborhood with my 5-year-old son along for the ride. He saw a house with two tall banners adorning the portico. One spelled TRUMP, vertically, and the other, PENCE. My son, who is enamored with Halloween decorations asked what they said, thinking it was something "creeps" as he would say for spooky.

When I explained they were political signs and not Halloween decorations, he was silent for a minute then said, "Dad, I care about Donald Trump, but I don't like the things he chooses to do." I was shocked because I've not spoken to him about the particulars of the election. He's five, for Pete's sake! I'm not sure where those thoughts came from, but he reminded me that what his intuition is telling him about caring for others—even if we don't like their actions or what they say—is a hallmark of civility and decency that we adults have strayed from these last four years.

Let's get back to that, shall we, and vote for someone who models it a little better than Trump. We owe it to ourselves, and to our neighbors.