What’s happening to civility?

What’s happening to civility?

Dayton Daily News: Elie Wiesel, the writer, speaker, professor, Nobel Prize winner and survivor of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp, was in Dayton on March 25. He spoke to a sell-out audience at the Schuster Center.

He touched on some current news: That some members of Congress are being physically threatened and harassed because of their vote on health care. He expressed shock that such a thing can happen in America. What have we come to, he asked, when we can’t disagree with each other over politics without the specter of violence showing up?

When a Holocaust survivor is shocked at the political atmosphere in this country, there’s reason to pause and ask what has gone wrong.

If enough people believe that their political opponents are totalitarian baby killers and grandparent killers, and that they don’t care what the American people think, and that they are lying about everything and doing everything behind closed doors, well, some screws are likely to come loose.

The rhetoric needs to be toned down.