Nearly every day someone in Davis expresses concern to me about the stark incivility that mars much of the public dialogue in our community. While we can certainly point to glaring examples of discord around the world, I prefer to think our community can do better.

I have personally witnessed shoving, hissing, spitting, and shouting in Davis public meetings. People who speak in public have been heckled, booed and taunted by others. Each of these incidents involve someone or a group who believe that their behavior is warranted - even demanded -- by the circumstances.

This has had a chilling effect on the practice of community. Many residents have told me they no longer feel they can "safely" participate in public discourse; they are reluctant to write a letter or speak in public for fear of vilification. Others say they have just withdrawn in disgust. This seems to me to be a problem we must address together. I am not writing to accuse or indict, but to invite us all to consider what the nature of community we choose to share.

I think it is useful to discuss the roots of these circumstances. It seems that there are at least five factors at play that, taken together, contribute to this increasingly common facet of our community.

• We have built our shared identity on a strong tradition of involvement of stakeholders in decisions that affect them. While participation is a strength of our community, we continue to struggle to find ways of engaging people effectively in decision processes within the context of representative democracy.
• Advocacy efforts employing strident and adversarial approaches have all too often been the path of choice and are in danger of becoming seen as the pragmatic, effective means to desired ends - thus continually creating winners and losers.
• Some members of our community occassionally fall prey to the belief that they are in absolute, singular possession of the truth. A logical corallary of this true belief is that any who deviate from the one right path must be false prophets or worse. A second corallary is that the ends justify the means - any action that is employed in service to a just cause is deemed to be a proper action.
• We are a community of highly educated, accomplished individuals. Often we believe that because we are experts in one area, and many in Davis are, we are experts in all areas. We have a variety of relevant, related, contributory, and remote strands of expertise present in the discussion of any topic. While each person has an inalienable right to opinion and participation, we sometimes confuse the role and rights of the citizen with the mantle of the omniscient expert.
• There is a lot in the world that individuals perceive to be beyond our influence. The meetings of our City Council and our local letters to the editor page are accessible even when other venues seem distant and unhearing.

All this engenders some very positive attributes of our community - we are engaged and we care. However, I believe deep-seated factionalization, anger, and "win at any cost" themes have put a chill on free expression and participation in the life of our community. I believe that we, as an entire community, need to stand up and reject this civic impropriety. We need to not confuse inappropriate, bullying behavior with open, honest discourse and healthy policy dialogue.

None of us can boast of flawless behavior, but we are all in this together. Here are some initial thoughts on how we might together go about the important practice of community.

NAME THE PROBLEM and reject community damaging approaches. We need to speak aloud the concerns that many have about incivility in our public dialogue. Only by naming it can we actually begin a process of improving the tenor of our public life.

SEEK WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS. Listen to each other and work purposefully to understand the underlying interests within expressions of concern. Take the time to help each other resolve issues rather than adopting polarized positions. We could gain immeasurably from pursuing both formal and informal instruction as a community on ways to work on issues constructively and with some degree of mutual respect.

ENGAGE ENERGY EFFECTIVELY. We need to establish more effective mechanisms for processing community engagement and help people understand how to use the processes already in place.

Consciously consider FAIRNESS and TRUTH and COMMUNITY BENEFIT in our interactions to help each other find better ways to seek just action. In our public and private interactions ask ourselves and others if our thoughts and actions are true, fair to all concerned, beneficial to our community and if they will build good will and better friendships. Ask these same questions regarding advocacy efforts of others on matters considered in our public dialogue.

MOVE ON. We must not demonize those with whom we disagree. Disagreement on issues should not drive wedges between good, honest, caring people. When an issue does not go our way, we must get over it and move on to more productive things. When we are pleased with the outcome, lets recognize the pain of those who are not and help them heal. Consider encouraging small movements toward positive community dialogue.

Regardless of today's disagreements, tomorrow will come and there is at least a chance we will all still be here We must not let the pursuit of short term objectives sacrifice our long term commitment to the well being of our community.

This is our home; this is where we want to live out our days. Lets build a community together.