In These Divided Times, Is Civility Under Siege?; NPR, March 12, 2019

Leila Fadel, NPR;

In These Divided Times, Is Civility Under Siege?

"The calls for civility can feel like an effort to stifle people's outrage over injustice or hate, because civility can be a tool to build or a weapon to silence.

"To what purpose is civility going to be used? Is it going to be more inclusive?" Itagaki asks. "Is it going to mean that you're bringing more people's voices into the political debates, or are you using civility as a way to go back to the old hierarchies and the status quo since the founding of the American republic, where you only had white male propertied free landowners who were able to vote?"

So for some, now is a time to take a step back and be civil to each other. For others, it's imperative to be uncivil in a way that has led to social justice in the past."

To Deal With Trump, Look to Voltaire: Advice from the Enlightenment: In the face of crude bullying and humorless lies, try wit and a passion for justice. ; The New York Times, December 27, 2018

Robert Darnton, The New York Times; To Deal With Trump, Look to Voltaire

Advice from the Enlightenment: In the face of crude bullying and humorless lies, try wit and a passion for justice

"We are living through a climate change in politics. Bigotry, bullying, mendacity, vulgarity — everything emitted by the tweets of President Trump and amplified by his followers has damaged the atmosphere of public life. The protective layer of civility, which makes political discourse possible, is disappearing like the ozone around Earth.

How can we restore a healthy climate? There is no easy answer, but some historic figures offer edifying examples. The one I propose may seem unlikely, but he transformed the climate of opinion in his era: Voltaire, the French philosopher who mobilized the power of Enlightenment principles in 18th-century Europe."

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor stresses civility, discusses her upbringing at Duquesne U. event; TribLive, December 7, 2018

Natasha Lindstrom, TribLive; Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor stresses civility, discusses her upbringing at Duquesne U. event

"Sotomayor echoed Roberts’ statement shortly before Thanksgiving, in which he made clear that the judiciary’s commitment is not to any president but to the “rule of law.” The remarks were part of an unusual sparring over the independence of the judiciary following President Trump dismissing a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.”

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said in response to Trump. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.""

Kanye West Isn’t the Only Person Behaving Badly at the Theater; The Daily Beast, December 4, 2018

Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast; Kanye West Isn’t the Only Person Behaving Badly at the Theater

"Manners are not just individual, they are collective. Going to a theater where thoughtlessness is so blithely practiced is a sad reminder how we have forgotten, or are forgetting, to occupy collective spaces in a civilized fashion. Theater noise-makers cut across all boundaries of class and age; what they share is a selfishness, of which using a mobile phone is the most visible and rankling example.

Here’s the thing. You are not at home. There are people sitting next to you. There are actors, like Bryan Cranston, trying to do their job a few feet from you. Yes, they are on a set, and yes the stage looks like a fictional world. But actually, we are all there together, and the social contract here is that you keep your mouth shut, and let the actors act. They can hear you. We can hear you."

Amazon's Echo Show strips you of your last shred of privacy; CNet, June 27, 2017

Chris Matyszczyk, CNet; Amazon's Echo Show strips you of your last shred of privacy

"I understand that privacy is as ancient a concept as civility, but Amazon's new Echo Show touchscreen/smart speaker takes the idea of nothing being private to a new level.

It has a feature called Drop In. It basically lets certain people snoop on you through your Echo Show."

"Magic Words"; FamilyCircus.com, May 21, 2017

Bil Keane, Family Circus.com; "Magic Words"

"Civil"; Bizarro, 11/18/16

Dan Piraro, Bizarro; "Civil"

Very Polite; Marmaduke, GoComics.com, 11/3/16

Brad Anderson, Marmaduke, GoComics.com; Very Polite

Full Transcript: President Obama’s Rally Speech for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland; Newsweek, 10/14/16

[Full Transcript] Michele Gorman, Newsweek; Full Transcript: President Obama’s Rally Speech for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland:

[Pres. Barack Obama] "Donald Trump’s closing argument is “What do you have to lose?” The answer is: Everything. All the progress we’ve made right now is on the ballot. Civility is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Courtesy is on the ballot. Honesty is on the ballot. Equality is on the ballot. Kindness is on the ballot. (Applause.) All the progress we made that last eight years is on the ballot. Democracy itself is on the ballot right now.

So if you want to send a message, make it loud. Turn back the voices of cynicism. Turn back the voices of ignorance. Send a message of progress. Send a message of hope. Send a message by voting for Hillary Clinton, and show our kids and the rest of the world we remain the greatest country in the world."

Professor's Response to Twitter Slur Goes Viral; Inside Higher Ed, 8/30/16

Inside Higher Ed; Professor's Response to Twitter Slur Goes Viral:

[Kip Currier: Reading this story about Prof. Eric Mendenhall conjured up for me the memorable "When they go low, we go high" maxim from First Lady Michelle Obama's 2016 DNC speech.]

"The fall semester has just started but Eric Mendenhall, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, already has schooled the Twitterverse on how to shut down slurs. Mendenhall said a student who had just followed him on Twitter posted that "My genetics teachers is a faggot." Believing the comment to be about him, the professor had this to say..."

Here’s how I’ll teach Trump to my college students this fall; Washington Post, 8/11/16

Zach Messitte, Washington Post; Here’s how I’ll teach Trump to my college students this fall:

"...[W]e also need to listen and respect those students and professors who support Trump. That 19-year-old supporter just starting his sophomore year shouldn’t be dismissed automatically as a racist for supporting Trump. He’s a stand-in for our next-door neighbor, your child’s softball coach and my cousin’s spouse. Keeping the classroom open for discussion slows a student retreat to the anonymous online world of Yik Yak, where college-aged Trump supporters troll hate without ever directly engaging their classmates. That means that the possibility of ever broadening their perspectives organically will be lost.

There will be tense points and tempers may well flare. Why are Trump’s most ardent supporters rural whites without a college degree? Why does he belittle those he disagrees with? Where does his worldview and his preoccupation with Vladimir Putin come from? But there is a way to have these discussions in the classroom with respect. It will be up to our professors to defend the right to hold an unpopular position, even one that we strongly disagree with. Because if colleges and universities want to remain a training ground for future leaders, an incubator for new ideas or a place where a future political consensus is forged, civil discourse is a fundamental part of that higher calling.

This will not be an easy task, but it is a crucial one. While professors and administrators need to do everything they can to make sure that their campuses promote free speech, they also need to maintain civility and basic decency. And that’s tricky. Beyond higher education, how the nation wrestles with this same conundrum is important — and not just in the run-up to the election. In the weeks and months after Nov. 8, the country is going to have to understand what Donald Trump and Trumpism means going forward. Win or lose, it is critical that we study and interpret what his candidacy signifies beyond American politics. How the nation’s teachers integrate understanding Trumpism into their classrooms this fall, regardless of discipline, will go a long way toward finding some common ground with the 40-something percent of the voting population that supports him."

IUP president calls for campus-wide discussion following racist photo; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/10/15

Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; IUP president calls for campus-wide discussion following racist photo:

"Fallout from the photo is being felt across campus and beyond, including IUP president Michael Driscoll, who told the campus this week he already had grown uneasy this fall about “how we talk about and treat each other” on the campus of 14,000 students.

In a campuswide e-mail sent a day after the photo surfaced on social media, Mr. Driscoll announced that a series of campus discussions will occur during spring semester. He urged the community to take stock over the upcoming holiday break of what can be done.

“My concern is not about a single incident or some specific sequence of events. It is not just about free speech, stereotypes, civility or prejudice -- although all of those are important parts of the discussion,” he said. “Rather, it is about how we come together as a family to challenge ourselves to grow individually and as a collective.”

Michelle Fryling, an IUP spokeswoman, said Thursday that the photo’s source was a female student, whom she declined to identify. She would not comment on prospects that the woman would be disciplined, but when asked about campus rules in general, Mr. Fryling said: “If you read the student code (of conduct) there are very clear guidelines about civility, about harassment or ethnic intimidation, which follow a lot of state and legal guidelines.”

Ms. Fryling said the photo was sent on a private Snapchat account not controlled by IUP. She said without elaborating that the student since has faced threats.

In recent months, a number of U.S. campuses have become flash-points over race, ethnicity and inclusion, sometimes due to events within their boundaries, and other times over broader national debates about such topics as police use of deadly force, immigration and events overseas."

Understanding the Free Speech Issues at Missouri and Yale; HuffingtonPost.com, 11/11/15

Geoffrey R. Stone, HuffingtonPost.com; Understanding the Free Speech Issues at Missouri and Yale:

"How should we think about the free speech issues in the recent controversies at the University of Missouri and Yale? In my view, universities have a deep obligation to protect and preserve the freedom of expression. That is, most fundamentally, at the very core of what makes a university a university...

In my view, a university should not itself take positions on substantive issues. A university should not declare, for example, that abortion is moral, that undocumented immigrants have a right to remain in the United States, that the United States should abandon Israel, or that a flat tax is the best policy. It is for the faculty and students of the institution to debate those issues for themselves, and the university as an institution should not intrude in those debates by purporting to decide on the "correct" point of view.

On the other hand, a university can promote certain values both to educate its students and to foster an intellectual environment that is most conducive to the achievement of the institution's larger educational goals. To that end, a university can appropriately encourage a climate of civility and mutual respect. It can do this in a variety of ways, as long as it stops short of censorship. More specifically, a university can legitimately educate students about the harms caused by the use of offensive, insulting, degrading, and hurtful language and behavior and encourage them to express their views, however offensive or hurtful they might be, in ways that are not unnecessarily disrespectful or uncivil."

On the Media: How social should the media be?; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/25/13

Maria Sciullo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; On the Media: How social should the media be? : "Five years ago, it was unlikely any news organization had formal social media policies. Today, most -- including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- have fluid guidelines that address incidents on a case-by-case basis. "We don't have a formal social media policy, but we do have a social media editor who is our guide on training and advising people in the newsroom on best practices," said Susan Smith, Post-Gazette managing editor. "Basically we tell our staffers to use their best judgment and not to do anything on social media that would violate basic journalistic principles of fairness and non-partisanship or that is simply in bad taste and would reflect negatively on them and the Post-Gazette... Times associate managing editor for standards Philip B. Corbett responded with a staff memo. After reminding reporters, "your online behavior should be appropriate for a Times journalist," he quoted the paper's ethical journalism policy: "Civility applies whether an exchange takes place in person, by telephone, by letter or online.""