What's Wrong With Us?

God knows I love freedom of expresssion, but sometimes you've just got to wonder why the Founding Fathers neglected to add a note about being polite.

What passes for politics this day would make my late mother sick. And I don't think I ever heard her say a word about politics. She sure did have opinions, though, on how we should treat each other.

This week's story about the Reymann-Tarle exchange on a hot and humid Sunday makes so many good points about why politicians should observe the old adage "if you can't say something nice..."

I spoke with David Reymann the evening of the tussle; the facts in the police report, Reymann's account and Tarle's account, for the most part, all match. What is being glossed over in the aftermath is just how a mother (Mrs. Tarle) and a father (Mr. Tarle) explain to their ten-year old son just why another guy (Mr. Reymann) felt it worthwhile enough to run down the boy's dad.

Reymann tells me he "100% regrets" being the one to put the anti-Ernie literature in front of Ernie's son. I think any of us would be outraged, just as Mom and Dad Tarle were, that their son would be dragged into the childish political games adults play. Where the elder Tarle went over the line was in threatening Reymann; where Reymann went over the line is in not paying attention to what he's doing when handing out political literature to kids.

An outraged father spouts off and makes a threat; a concerned candidate is clueless who he hands his literature to and pulls out a gun. Both men should take lessons from the ten-year-old, who told his mother. Neither of these guys stand as role models for what Akron voters have a right to expect from people seeking to serve them.

What is wrong with this picture?

My Twitter friend "Wayne In Akron" -- who does a remarkable job explaining his opinion using public records -- calls to attention a tweet from Akron Ward Council Rep Kelli Crawford noting voters can cast absentee/early ballots now. She tweets "vote early, vote often!" Wayne finds it inappropriate. I respond in so many words "so what?" and note it's a common phrase. I've heard it every election since I started voting 34 years ago, along with jokes about dead people in Chicago voting twice and West Virginians trading votes for liquor. Where's the intent? Are we really turning into such a humorless society that an "oldie but moldy" phrase triggers alarm? Are we so sensitive we are now insensitive to an easy, throw away laugh?

The comments here on AkronNewsNow enable anyone with an opinion to express themselves, but we spend more and more time reviewing those opinions flagged by readers as offensive, obscene, racist, vulgar, profane or containing vicious attacks on private individuals. The Akron Beacon Journal shut down commenting on their first report of the Firestone Park fireworks beating, and I have to admit plenty of sympathy with the editors on Exchange and Main because we had the same struggle. Open debate is one thing; caustic, hateful, despicable speech is another. In the end, it's the decision of the editors and publishers what we let through, but are we really that rude a people where it must be a constant battle? We've banned some, suspended others, posted warnings -- yet the level of dialogue reflects how easy it is to be nasty when you don't sit face-to-face. Send is easier to hit than reminding ourselves it is best to be polite than sorry. This is the lesson we want to teach our kids?

What the hell is wrong with us?

The statewide games adults play is just as bad; we are a year out of next year's races for Governor and U.S. Senator, and already both sides engage in what passes for raising issues by taking every opportunity to flood newsroom and supporter email boxes with some of the most juvenile, smarmy messages you could imagine. There's a good reason you rarely see this stuff in the paper or hear about it on radio and TV; it isn't designed to be credible political debate, it's designed to get people hacked off enough to send money to "fight the good fight." God help us when 2010 actually rolls around and this spills over to political advertising which fills every television, radio, newspaper and mailbox in the state.

What are we doing to deserve this?

On the national stage, the same folks who smirked and applauded when protesters targeted the President and Vice-President a year ago now cry foul when greeted with the same tactics over the health care debate; there are no opposing viewpoints, only liars, myths, propaganda, Nazi-like suppression of free speech, and even thugs wearing union shirts providing a beat-down on someone hold a protest sign. Despite the courage of a few elected officials such as Missouri's Claire McCaskill, who took on all comers, but is now forced to cancel Town Hall meetings. We're treated to representatives such as Georgia's David Scott -- a Blue Dog as he tells it -- yelling down a local doctor who dared ask questions about the biggest issue in the nation today after he couldn't get through to Scott on his own. Now Scott has a swastika painted on his office door. President Obama gets a more respectful reception in New Hampshire -- not exactly a bastion of liberal thought -- but Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter gets shouted down at his own meeting.

What can we do to stop this?

Usually, the American public is level-headed and responds to the above with a shrug, a comment about how happy we are that the nuts in Washington are kept away from the rest of us, encircled by a beltway, and remind ourselves we vote in spite of our elected representatives and the way politics is played. But after watching an Akron recall draw fewer than one in five voters -- and an income tax in Columbus to protect police, fire and other critical services attract the same kind of interest -- I'm beginning to think voting no is becoming a louder voice than those screaming in our ears.

We need to condemn -- in our strongest, respectful voices -- those who would seek to shout down other voices. We shouldn't accept violence anymore, whether it comes from guys puching out a protest sign holder or a cream pie in the face delivered to Ann Colter. We shouldn't tolerate those who shout down, throw down, or personally put down our neighbors who simply have another idea. That goes for the red-faced, spittle-throwing anti-war protester just as much as the red-faced, spittle-throwing health care opponent.

Enough's enough.