Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Civility: Fail

This week is Choose Civility week. As most readers of this blog are aware, Choose Civility is an initiative inspired by Dr. P.M. Forni's 25 rules of considerate conduct (a list is maintained on sidebar at Columbia Talk). The Choose Civility initiative focuses on 15 of these rules (actually 16, because they combined two of Forni's rules about respecting the time/space of others into a single rule).

One branch of county government has really pooped the bed on two of these 15 principles embraced by the choose civility initiative. I am referring to the two shootings in two years of family pets by the Howard County Police Department. The Police Department has a lot of work to do to demonstrate the the 'apologize earnestly' and 'take responsibility' principles of civility based on their actions after both shootings. There was no public or private apology and the police have not modified their policies or means of dealing with animals in any way whatsoever. One could make a good case that the Police Department violated nearly all 15 of the civility principles, but these two were violated in a particularly glorious fashion.

Happy Choose Civility week!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you want to see a complete lack of civility, check out the recent postings on the HCCA listserv.

Anonymous said...

I saw the postings and didn't perceive any incivility. Maybe if we're harsh, we read messages and perceive harshness. Or if we're fearful, we read into messages our own fear. But if we believe we're in control of our own lives, we read them, perceive messages quite differently than if fearful or otherwise emotional.

In any case, it's an eye-of-the-beholder issue, not one to be forced by standards set by the hypersensitive -or- the thick skinned.

Anonymous said...

Maybe our police chief will run for county exec. The sherriff in PG county who says the dead dog raids were a success is running:

http://reason.com/archives/2009/10/12/failing-his-way-to-higher-offi

Freemarket said...

Wow. Link to that article is here.

Anonymous said...

I laugh when I see Ulman associated with this civility campaign. Will he ever take responsibility for his negative campaign against Merdon?

Never mind his CV. Secretary of the Cabinet is my favorite!