Civility

This morning I read an article in the Des News about a "prominent evangelical" calling for civility in politics. The thing that sparked my attention about the article was the second paragraph describing how he helped with Mitt Romney's campaign in 2008. That stumped me. Antagonistic evangelicals were one of the reasons Romney pulled out of the race. The group of prominent ministers influenced many evangelicals to be anti-Romney because he was a Mormon. This man didn't just support Romney, he was a member of Romney's campaign.

The conservative man also expressed disappointment with how Barack Obama was treated during the elections. And how gays were treated. And how Mormons were treated after California's Prop 8 stuff. Across the board, this guy was upset because of the way Americans were treating Americans. It didn't matter what side of the issue he stood on, he wanted everyone to be civil to his political opposites.

Many politicians have expressed the desire for civility, but most of them turn around and make a mean joke about an opponent or try to discredit their opponent with something mean or irrelevant. Just this weekend, one presidential hopeful talked to a gathering of people about how there needs to be civility, Republicans and Democrats need to get along, we all need to be friends and treat people with respect. Then, that same day, he  made a joke, definitely a jab, at an event about something one of his opponents said.

The evangelical man the article spoke of made an organization whose focus was on bringing civility back to America. He recruited a liberal man he admired (someone who worked for both Clintons in the White House and in campaigns) to help lead his movement. They sent packages to more than 500 government officials asking them to sign a pledge to be civil in dealings with fellow Americans.

Guess how many of them agreed? Three.

Isn't that sad? These men and their movement were criticized, because apparently if your opponent isn't being civil, you have to be able to counter his attacks with uncivil defense. I wanted to throw my hands in the air in disbelief. Why? Why does everything have to be an attack? Why can't we say, "Here's what I believe, tell me what you believe, and we can agree to disagree"? Why does everything have to get so personal?

I'm not going to lie. I've heard people around me get nit-picky about things President Obama has done. I didn't vote for the guy. I don't like a lot of his policies. But do you have to criticize his every move? Yeah, I think he kind of goes overboard with the 60 Minutes stuff and I think some of his statements are slightly off. But he's the president. He won fair and square. To me, he seems like a good person and it seems like he's trying to do what's best for our country. We have different views of what's best for the U.S., but good job Mr. President for taking one of the hardest jobs America has to offer! (I still think being a mom trumps being a president, but hey, that's just me. :) )

The organization the two men founded has since been disbanded, but I'd like to add my own name to list of people striving for civility, whether it's in national politics or simply the neighborhood. Just because my opinion differs from someone else doesn't mean I have to insult their intelligence, their religion or their mother. They're children of God too. How would He feel if I insulted one of His children?

I'm not perfect at this. At all. But this is my new goal.

I think this whole civility thing is kind of like marriage. In a marriage, no matter how much you're madly in love with each other, once you get married and try to start a new family, you're going to find differences of opinion. No two families are exactly alike, and while you may agree on religion and politics, you may not agree on the best way to make the bed or organize the closet. Jeff's all about using the tried-and-true recipes that have been handed down in his family for a couple generations. I like experimenting with exotic foods, and most cookbooks we have don't have recipes for macarons or boeuf bourguignon. Jeff says, "My parents will understand if we have a messy house after finals" and I say, "My in-laws can't see my messy house in all its glory." (Although, Jeff's a neat-freak and I'm a....creative organizer, I guess you could say. That's also been a disagreement sometimes.) Jeff doesn't mind being on his own, I want Jeff around a lot. Jeff doesn't need lots of gifts and services to feel loved, I need to give gifts and services to feel like I'm loving. There are so many things we don't see eye-to-eye on.

Jeff's been a great example of trying to see where I'm coming from. He's a lot better at it than I am, hence the new goal. He can say, "Okay, I know what you're thinking. I don't understand why you think that, but I know it's important to you." And it makes our home so much happier! Love it. Now I just need to be better at it, and we'll be set! lol.

Switching gears, Jeff and our friend Nick were so funny last night. After going to dinner we watched Tangled. I love that movie. I almost cried, because you think he dies at the end after finally "seeing the light". I didn't almost cry the second time we watched it, mostly because Jeff was TOTALLY making fun of the movie the whole time. (Note to self: 99 percent of the time, Jeff can't handle romantic movies. They make him act like a clown.) I did almost cry in the movie theater too. *sigh* Good movie...

Anyway, the whole movie they were commenting on Rapunzel's frying pan. Afterward, Jeff started rummaging through our cupboards. I was a little confused, but didn't think much of it until he retrieved our cast iron frying pan and started swinging it around to see how difficult it would be to wield a frying pan as a weapon. He concluded that there was no way a person could use a frying pan like that. At least not one that big. And someone has skinny as Rapunzel probably couldn't swing it around like she did in the movie, either. Then Nick tapped his head with the frying pan and concluded that if you smacked someone with it once in the head, you'd probably kill them. And the three or four times Flyn got knocked in the head? That would be some serious brain damage if she didn't kill him on the first try.

Maybe her pan wasn't cast iron, though. It just looked like it. lol.

And now I've had the songs from that movie stuck in my head all day. I tried to refrain from singing them in my head at church, but in the shower and getting lunch, they just kept going over and over. lol. Watching the opening scene where she's trying to figure out things to do in her tower, I realized that she was doing all of the things that I love to do. Her life didn't seem so bad. :) Although, only doing that stuff all day every day would probably get old after...like, two days. But I definitely wish I had time to paint and cook and bake and sew and read all day. I'd have to learn how to do a couple of those first, but it would be fun. :) I guess I can pretend I'm Rapunzel once I have to stay at home with the kids all day. (Just kidding. :) I've definitely outgrown the pretend-to-be-a-Disney-princess stage.) Or my daughters can pretend they're Rapunzel and help me do those things all day! What a great teaching tool! Thanks, Disney! I can just see it now.... "Come help me sweep the floor like Rapunzel! Let's paint like Rapunzel!" Haha.... I'll have to file that one away for later use.