I
was struck by a couple of comments on my last post about bringing civility back
to social discourse. Folks were making the point that we all need to have more
manners, especially our children, the vast majority of whom, apparently, have
no manners at all. I'm not sure I want to dispute any of this, although I know
quite a few well-mannered adolescents, and quite a few ill-mannered adults, but
it seems to me that devoting a blog post to the state of our manners is not the
best use of my time, inasmuch as writing goes, nor is it of yours, inasmuch as
reading goes.
The
fact of the matter is that people had bad manners 300 years ago, they have bad
manners now, and they will always have bad manners. If you don't think this is
true, and that there's some golden age when people were more polite than they
are now, have a look at John Strausbaugh's review of John Kasson's monograph, Rudeness
and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth Century Urban America, which appeared
in American Heritage back in 1991.
Kasson, professor emeritus of cultural history at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, argues that manners are largely a function of "the
political, economic, and social realities" of the moment. You can have a
look at this and decide for yourselves. My point, however, is that thinking
that people are lacking in manners today, any more so than they were at any
time in the past, is not very worthwhile.
Before I let this go, I can't resist citing one of Strausbaugh's
comments: "Were even the most casual of today’s Americans to visit a New
York theater of the 1830s, they might well be shocked by the boisterous clamor
of the “gentlemen” in the (all-male) audience, who might ... show their
displeasure at the performers by hurling dead animals onto the stage."
I wonder if I could get away with that at a school board
meeting.
Before you take umbrage, please note that my
intention is not to bash your contribution. Rather, I am saying that your time
is valuable and that you really should be doing something more meaningful with
it. Peggy Noonan, whose weekly column is featured in the Wall Street Journal, thinks so, too. Back in April, in her column,
"What Does This Moment Demand of Us?," Ms. Noonan laid the groundwork
for what our behavior and comportment should be in the current political
moment. It was largely spot on, so much so that I would like to cite it in detail:
Everything in
our national political life is in flux. Don't just oppose. Take time to look at
why you stand where you stand. Why are you a Democrat? What truths, goals,
realities of that party deserve your loyalty? Republicans, the same.
Help your country
in every way you can within your ken. National figures come and go, but local
realities sink and spread; families fail or flourish. We are a great people and
an earnest people. We forget this, especially in cynical times, but we are.
If I may be so bold, I would suggest that Ms. Noonan
didn't go far enough. Now is the time, more than ever before, to do something.
Never mind the sorry behavior of your neighbor, you (yes, you) need to go out
and do your best to fix what's broken. There is so much to do in nearly every
sphere of community and public life. It will be hard to make a fundamental
impact on an issue of national import; Ms. Noonan is right to emphasize that
much can be done (and should be done) right where you live.
It won't be easy. Local government agencies and the
public schools don't want you messing around in their budget. Mediocrity, the
inability to innovate, and bureaucratic group-think, to say nothing of the
hubris and arrogance that often accompanies them, are not traits well disposed
to constructive criticism and new ideas. Righting a wrong, fixing what's
broken, may well mean shaking up the status quo and stepping on toes. If you
keep to the facts, however, you can get things done.
Take LeeAnne Walters. A mother of four who was
trained as a medical assistant, Ms. Walters decided to investigate, all on her
own, the level of lead in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan, after her
eyelashes fell out and her children exhibited signs of lead contamination. Despite
her initial claims, the State of Michigan insisted the water was safe. At that
point, she enlisted the help of an EPA official and an expert in lead corrosion
from Virginia Tech. On her own, she collected more than 800 water samples
across several Flint zip codes, which showed "that lead contamination
levels in some areas were twice as high as what the EPA considered hazardous
waste." Her efforts forced the governor of Michigan to stop supplying the
city with water from the Flint River, led to a class-action law suit, and forced
Michigan's Environmental Quality Director to resign. By the way, Ms. Walters' effort
to right a wrong did indeed catapult her onto the national stage. She testified
before congress and was one of the six people in the world to be awarded the 2018Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts.
This story is a lot more complex than I've made it
out to be here. The problems with water in Flint still linger on. Moreover, the
point of the exercise isn't to gain yourself fame and fortune, in this case it
just turned out that way. It is undoubtedly true, however, that the efforts of
Ms. Walters--just one person--saved lives and warded off serious injury to
many, many others, among them countless children. LeeAnne Walters isn't some
superhero, she isn't someone with an advanced degree or lots of connections, this
is someone like you and me. She saw something wrong and she did something about
it. You could do the same.
Best wishes to all the fathers out there on the
occasion of Father's Day. It is no doubt a hard job at times, but one of great
gratification as well. In memory of my father and the only grandfather that I
knew, thanks for all you did for me over the years. It is my honor to be known
as your son and your grandson.
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