Civility in Politics is but an Ephemeral Wish

I was amused by president Obama's call for civility, as if no one else had ever asked for good conduct before. When losing the war of reason and facts, heated minds always throw the darts of incivility. I can remember having a political debate with friends, former friends now, when the lady of the house who had just served us a nice dinner, screamed in our faces that president Bush was a murderer and his wife was a wooden cow. Who can forget the stupidity of Michael Moor who, deprived of facts or reason, called for our defeat in Iraq, while calling Alkaida Islamists, who were killing our soldiers, "Minute-men." The point, that these Islamists were as much freedom seekers as the minute-men, was intellectually mis-construed. America never intended to make Iraq a colony after deposing its tyrant.

I have noticed that today everyone who falls short of reason resorts to name-calling and labeling. The reasoning seems to be that by handing someone the sobriquette: Hitler, Fascist or Mussolini, the so denoted is branded and seriously damaged. I have also noted that few of the name-callers resort to the use of Stalin , Mao or Pol Pot labels, as if these communists were not horrible tyrants at all. I just saw the latest adumbration of labeling in Wisconsin, and it boggles the mind: placard carrying teachers assault their governor by calling him Mubarak. That takes absurdity to new levels--well, perhaps not, because Michael Moor seemingly took the prize with his "Islamic minute-men" comment.