Ed Morrison · Choosing civility

June 1st, 2008

Reading the newspaper reports this morning of the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee presents yet another sad display of political leadership run amok. The lack of civility is stunning.

This experience comes on the heels of a raucous city council meeting in Detroit, which prompted a thirteen year old to remind Detroit’s city council president (wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers) to act like an adult. “You’re an adult. You have that choice (not to call your opponent a name),” she admonished. The Wall Street Journal brought attention to the exchange in an article last week.

(The Detroit News has a video of both the initial council meeting meltdown and the subsequent panel in which the 13 year old gives the council president a lesson in civility.)

Now all this reminds me just a little of our County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora’s famous meltdown of recent weeks against the Plain Dealer.

(Dimora’s stout declaration “I am not a snitch” of course echoes Richard Nixon’s famous “I am not a crook”. But it reminded me of yet another politician’s gaffe. Some years ago, The Washingtonian magazine published an article on “The Ten Dumbest Congressmen”. The Virginia Senator selected as Number 1 promptly called a press conference to declare — you might have guessed it — that he was not one of the ten dumbest Congressmen. That’s about as smart as declaring you are not a snitch in front of a bunch of reporters.)

There’s an alternative future for Cuyahoga County.

P.M Forni, a professor at Johns Hopkins, has written an important little book, Choosing Civility. He points out that civility is a learned behavior. He guides the Civility Project at Johns Hopkins.

Two years ago, in Howard County, MD, civic leaders launched a civility project. Over the past two years, the project has grown into a public campaign. Read more.

About the same time, Cleveland Heights launched a civility project, but this effort seems to have faded. View the web site.

Civility is more than a “nice thing to do”. In a global economy, where prosperity is based on increasingly on networks and open innovation, relationships — the ability to both initiate and develop them — are critical to generating wealth. Civility and the trust it fosters become strategic assets for individuals, companies and regional economies. It’s not surprising to me that both Detroit and Cleveland (two of the poorest cities in the country) reveal deep patterns of incivility.

Economies are like bicycles. As they slow down, they are harder to keep balanced. In political terms,controversies become more of a zero sum game of winners and losers. (This is one reason, among others, that local politicians are fighting so hard to protect their patronage.) Personality politics rule. This dynamic leads to aa downward cycle of development.

The consequences of a poisoned political atmosphere are severe. But here’s the rub: The price of incivility is rarely paid by those incapable of acting with civility.

But as 13 year old Keiara Bell points out, we do have a choice not to act like second graders.

Is it time for Cuyahoga County to launch its own civility initiative, as Howard County, MD has done? One modification: Make this civility initiative a core part of a city and county economic development strategy.

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