Dr. Eugene T. Paslov: Guidelines for restoring civility to our discourse

On Sunday, Oct. 18, I attended an adult Sunday school at the Methodist Church in Carson City. I had just attended a 150-year celebration for this church the Friday before, and had heard a brilliant presentation by Ron James, Nevada historian and folklorist, about the history of the church and Carson City and Virginia City.

Someone suggested it might be informative to go to the church presentation the following Sunday and listen to a group discussion on civility.

The discussion was led by Jay Adams and there were 25 people in attendance. The group discussed civility/civil discourse and virtually all had well-informed opinions.

Some teachers were concerned that students and their families had lost their good manners over the years. Others were horrified by the conservative radio talk show hosts who lash out with vitriol and hate. There was also shock at the poor quality of some letters to the editor in the local newspaper.

There was substantive discussion about the lack of political civility in our current political arena. But the political historians among the group were quick to point out that our democracy has always had an element of uncivil discourse. The Founding Fathers would lash out at political opponents. Sometimes they would even write anonymous letters to the newspapers attacking adversaries.

Most of the time, however, adversaries could be friends; and if not, there were always duels to settle debates.

We certainly don't want to return to dueling. More importantly, we should have learned to improve our civil discourse in our 233 years of political existence. During this church school discussion we were given a newsletter, FaithLink, Connecting Faith and Life.

Faithlink suggested guidelines for civility:

• Respect the personhood of others, while engaging their ideas

• Carefully represent the views of those with whom we are in disagreement

• Be careful in defining terms, avoiding needless use of inflammatory words

• Be careful in the use of generalizations; where appropriate, offer specific evidence

• Be a patient listener before formulating responses.

There were other guidelines but these examples should give the reader a sense of what is needed to improve the civility of our discourse.

The ministers of Carson's Methodist Church, the Rev. Dr. Rob Jennings-Teats and his wife the Rev. Dixie Jennings-Teats, are outstanding examples of faith-based leadership, both in the community and nationally. I am equally certain that many other churches, of all dominations in our community, are having similar discussions about civil discourse.

Let us hope they find the unity of voice to join together to help us improve political civility in our community.

• Dr. Eugene T. Paslov, former Nevada superintendent of schools, is a board member for Silver State Charter High School in Carson City.