Civility Blog

As mentioned in The Drudge Report and shown in videos on CNN and YouTube, a Town Hall Meeting featuring Senator John Kerry at the University of Florida, during which he invited students to “share a dialogue”, turned out to be anything but routine when University of Florida student Andrew Meyer approached the microphone to address the Senator. What ensued was a cause, at the very least, for dismay on all sides. It is reported that Meyer exceeded a time limit imposed on students for asking questions. Meyer was led away by police, restrained, tasered and arrested - the charges being that he disturbed the peace and resisted arrest. If this is the best we can do in having a dialogue with each other, we, as individuals and as a nation, are in very sad shape. It brings to mind a song, “Is This America?” by Eric Gnezda. Our answer? We would hope - on all sides - that we could dialogue better than this. We believe we can. We believe we must.

Everyone has their own thoughts and memories of this day, and each of us is experiencing this anniversary in our own way. My colleague, Tomas Spath, and I each spent a portion of the day doing speaking engagements on behalf of the Institute for Civility in Government - Tomas up in Crockett, Texas and myself down in Texas City. I don’t know, but I wonder if the invitations to speak on this particular date were entirely coincidental. It seemed incredibly appropriate to remember our loss and pain by doing our best to improve our intentional dialogue with one another - so that even as we acknowledge our political differences, we also work to foster an attitude and behavior of mutual respect that helps us become the best nation we can be.