The Village Square

2010: A year of civility? Never know…

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Add comment December 31st, 2009

One week from tonight: Politics, Partisans & A Pint featuring Kim Williams

Please join us this Thursday evening beginning at 5 PM for Politics, Partisans & A Pint, our monthly first Thursday happy hour. January’s happy hour guest is Chairman of the Economic Council of Tallahassee/Leon County Kim Williams of Marpan Supply.

Add comment December 31st, 2009

Thomas Friedman on Green Jobs: “That country has to be us.”

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Join us on January 19th for Global Warming, Cap & Trade, Dollars & Sense.

Add comment December 30th, 2009

Two weeks: National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Jim Leach in Tallahassee

This event (1/12, two weeks from today), part of former Congressman Jim Leach’s (R-IA) 50-state Civility Tour, is offered at no charge and is open to the public. Find details and R.S.V.P. HERE.

Add comment December 29th, 2009

A Period of Consequences

“The Era of Procrastination, of Half-Measures, of Soothing and Baffling Expedients, of Delays, is Coming to its Close. In its Place We are Entering a Period of Consequences” — Sir Winston Churchill – November 12, 1936

Add comment December 28th, 2009

Sunday at the Square: La Ville d’Y’s

“In France one speaks of ‘la ville d’Ys’, the city of Ys, which, because of the simpleness of the surrounding world, disappeared in the depth of a lake. Only people with a pure heart can see this city through the waters of the lake and hear the sound of its bells. This is what we must learn to do with regard to others. But to do so we must first have a purity of heart, a purity of intention, an openness which is not always there – certainly not in me – so that we can listen, can look, and can see the beauty which is hidden.

Every one of us is in the image of God, and every one of us is like a damaged icon. But if we were given an icon damaged by time, damaged by circumstances, or desecrated by human hatred, we would treat it with reverence, with tenderness, with broken-heartedness. We would not pay attention primarily to the fact that it is damaged, but to the tragedy of its being damaged. We would concentrate on what is left of its beauty, and not on what is lost of its beauty.

And this is what we must learn to do with regard to each person as an individual, but also – and this is not always as easy – with regard to groups of people, whether it be a parish or a denomination, or a nation.”

– Met. Anthony of Sourozh
(… by way of Lea…)

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Add comment December 27th, 2009

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Peace on Earth.
Goodwill to Men.
(And may Santa be good to you.)

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Add comment December 24th, 2009

The Civility Project at U.Va.

The Village Square has always been all about George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation. We have found them wise and often a bit witty. We have a hard copy of the rules in a little red book we have more than a few times read at our Dinner at the Square events.

I just had a wonderful opportunity to talk with University of Virginia’s Ted Crackel about The Civility Project at U.Va., which will release a revised list of rules, in the spirit of Washington’s original. It is particularly wonderful that students are putting together the list. You can actually submit ideas for rules on their website: The Civility Project: George Washington Meets the 21st Century.

This isn’t any ole vanilla re-do of Washington’s rules, however. It’s got gravitas:

The Civility Project will be undertaken with organizational guidance from The Papers of George Washington, a Founding Fathers project based at the University’s Alderman Library, and with the inspiration of Judith Martin, who writes the nationally syndicated Miss Manners column in the Washington Post.

Martin and Theodore J. Crackel, editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington, met in 2005 when both were being honored at a White House ceremony. So when the Washington Papers staff recently discussed the idea of basing a project on our first president’s famed “Rules of Civility,” Crackel knew right away whom he wanted to enlist.

“I am absolutely delighted to have Judith Martin working with us on this effort,” Crackel said, noting that the columnist will play an active advisory role. “We in the project and the students involved couldn’t have a better adviser.”

We probably won’t sleep nights waiting to hear the results…

Add comment December 23rd, 2009

America’s village square (generic) should demand it…

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A clip in which Thomas Friedman nails why we’ve got to find some way to revive the constructive push and pull of democracy right here at home. Hat tip to Luke.

2 comments December 22nd, 2009

All I know is that the seesaw of destructive anger is going back and forth

‘People are trying to understand a really complicated bill that keeps changing all the time… I think it’s a danger for Democrats to treat this like “the bad guys are coming to get us. They’re racists, they hate Obama… They’re better off trying to explain the bill.’ – The New Republic’s Michael Crowley on Morning Joe (commenting on Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s comments about the vitriol on the right toward President Obama, implying that opposition to health care is fundamentally based on their their fury.)

Add comment December 22nd, 2009