Civility: Take A Breath

I posted on Friday about the announcement by Sarah Palin that she was stepping down from her governor's position, effective July 26th. It's abundantly clear, from the comments under that post, that Sarah Palin brings out sharp rancor, heretofore cloaked, in many persons.

Towards the bottom of the comments, A Jacksonian weighs in with his thoughtful and measured tones. He wrote, in part:

I cannot and will not put feelings about personality above my Nation. We are damned to a very hot place when we have so many who do that. If you let yourself be distracted by the damned MSM and what has been going on, then you are willingly being led to get your emotions involved and stop thinking. Once you do that, no matter your claim to a part of the political 'spectrum', you are then becoming one who is led, not making true choices out of all the choices we have has free people, but letting your choices be limited by others. As a culture and a people we will not survive with this continuing onwards.

Do not give those who despise liberty and freedom a handle to grab you by . . . do not let them play with your emotions . . . be civil in your outlook and hold by civility until your last breath. Or until you have to pull the trigger yourself. Lose your cool in combat and all is lost. You help no one in this Cold Civil War if you let your passions be manipulated.

Think. Pick your target. Take aim. Keep your SA up and never, ever lose sight of the target. By being civil you demonstrate that we can BE civil towards each other . . . and nothing so enrages those trying to manipulate you by your emotions as being civil and keeping your cool.

It is damned hard work to be civilized.

And it all rests upon you. Only you can make yourself civilized. We are damned near the end of our civilization already without helping those who seek to tear down civil society by becoming as uncivilized as those attacking it are.

Reading those lines made me reflect for quite some time -- to the point where I realized this was a timely topic for my Sunday post.

For I too find myself caught up in the temper of the times. One look at NewsMax or HuffPo or WorldNetDaily or Drudge or NYT or WSJ and the least religious of persons could be convinced it's the End Times.

A few examples:

- Karl Malden dies at 97;

- Harve Presnell dies of cancer at 75;

- North Korea fires seven missiles, as South Korea prepares to react;

- India joins Russia and China in removing the US dollar as primary currency;

- Former Ravens and Titans QB Steve McNair found shot to death;

- The World Health Organization says the swine flu is out of control and cannot be halted;

- H1N1 is now resistant to Tamiflu;

- London forecasts 40 deaths a day due to swine flu;

- Michael Jackson's funeral dominates the media;

Our national debt cannot be avoided, and Mr Obama is doing his level best to ensure it increases at geometric rates. Our current debt is estimated at $11.4 TRILLION dollars. That is the equivalent to about $37,000 for each and every American. And it's expanding by over $1 trillion a year.

And from whom does the US government borrow this money? An excellent question, answered:

The debt is largely financed by the sale of Treasury bonds and bills. Even today, amid global economic turmoil, those still are seen as one of the world's safest investments.

That's one of the rare upsides of U.S. government borrowing.

Treasury securities are suitable for individual investors and popular with other countries, especially China, Japan and the Persian Gulf oil exporters, the three top foreign holders of U.S. debt.

But as the U.S. spends trillions to stabilize the recession-wracked economy, helping to force down the value of the dollar, the securities become less attractive as investments. Some major foreign lenders are already paring back on their purchases of U.S. bonds and other securities. And if major holders of U.S. debt were to flee, it would send shock waves through the global economy - and sharply force up U.S. interest rates.

As time goes by, demographics suggest things will get worse before they get better, even after the recession ends, as more baby boomers retire and begin collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits.

I freely admit; I'm frequently operating in Informational Overload Mode, and in combination with Personal Stress Mode. My personal life, since the begining of the year and the death of my father, the selling of his house, the issues at work -- will I have a job, will I not have a job -- have resulted in the tumultuous explosion of emotions and non-stop thoughts and plots and plans that my mind cannot seem to stop at the expense of sleep, work, home.

AJ is right; I need to somehow manage, despite all this, to bring some civility and measured rationality to my life. I've let the discourse and the bad news and the trials allow all the local torrential currents to pull and push me in directions that have been less than pleasant. It seems I've allowed myself to be plunged into these dangerous waters without even having thought of unfurling my sail and putting a steady hand on my rudder. I've lost control.

I need to do both those things, and very soon, in order to gain some semblance of control. And I need to step back and at least attempt to put all in some sort of perspective. Because allowing myself to be forced into a Nantucket Sleighride, with my own personal line tied to a harpoon deep into the flanks of a whale insane with pain -- that only spells horrendous trouble.

I need to breathe.

I will try.

BZ