European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 03, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday january 3, 1995 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 what America heeds is a big dose of civility David Broder Washington at the Start of this new year the words that express the Best Hope for this country Are almost twins civic and civil. Nothing would make 1995a better year in America than a strength erring of civic life and the return of civility in our Public discourse. Both words have their roots in the latin for City and citizen. They go Back to the Days when to be a roman was both privilege and a responsibility. They reflect the idea that citizenship involves Active interaction for the Good of the Community and that civility is the accepted and expected fashion i which citizens treat each other a scholarly article and a recent commencement address got me thinking _ about the importance of those values. The journal of democracy published by the National endowment for democracy devotes its fifth anniversary Issue this month to a consideration of democracy s future in this country and the world. The spread of democracy celebrated last year particularly in South Africa is Icyie theme. And the decline of civic mindedness is the other. Robert d. Putnam of Harvard University develops the latter theme in Brilliant essay titled Bowling alone. He puzzles Over the fact that some 80 million americans reported Bowling at least once in 1993 a 10 percent increase Over 1980 but league Bowling declined 40 percent in the same time Span. The decline of communal participation at the neighbourhood lanes he shows is not an isolated phenomenon. Membership in a wide Range of Community organizations has been dropping in recent decades. Labor unions Parent teacher associations women s clubs fraternal organizations All have seen membership de Cline. Groups like the red Cross and the boy scouts have found it harder and harder to recruit volunteers. Surveys of social behaviour Putnam says also show people finding fewer friendships among their close neighbors. And As we All know fewer americans take the time to vote. It is no coincidence Putnam argues that this depletion in Public capital the term he uses to measure the Quantity of civic life has been accompanied by a decline in Trust in our Public institutions and in each other. Between i960 and1993, he says the proportion of Ameri cans saying that most people can be trusted fell by More than a it allies together members of associations Are much More Likely than nonmembers to participate in politics to spend Tim with neighbors to express social Trust and there Are reasons for this decline. More women work and both men an women work longer hours. Television holds people in the living room in the evening and politics often repels them by. Its crudity. S r Putnam s Point is that without a healthy Supply of Public capital the institutions of self Gover Rhent become Brittle and can easily break. True membership in Many National organizations from the n atonal Rifle association tothe friends of the Earth is up but writing a Check is no substitute for work ing through a problem with i fellow Citi Zens. And self help and support groups which have proliferated Are focused in the individual not the society unless More americans Start working with each other on shared civic enterprises an learning to Trust each other the govern ment of this nation will probably lurch from one credibility crisis to the next. The evidence of that crisis can be found in the language of politics today. The coarsening of the Public debate dam Ages the dialogue that ought to be the essence of democracy. An eloquent Plear forthe restoration of civility was delivered at Barry University in Miami recently Byver Nort Jordan the civil rights worker who became a top Washington lawyer. I leaping for restoration of the tolerant democratic spirit that can he Pusl solve our problems he said such civility is All the More important at a time when we Are sailing in uncharted Waters when the world is changing faster than our ability to control change a Hon a con fused and anxious people seek policies that take us Forward without punishing hofe left "., _ ,1 today unfortunately scorn and Ridi Cule Are the common Coin of political argument and commentary. Campaign ads impugn the integrity of opposition Candi dates and feed the climate a distrust. Individual and group grievance s arc celebrated and legitimized. But none of these leads to the reconciliation of real tweeds and. Interests. They Are barriers to agreement hot solutions. As Jordan put it a frustration is a powr Erful political Force but it is not a Politi Cal program. Zealotry and Ideo Mogica rigidity Are no answers to the Complex problems facing our the sooner we learn that the better 1995willbe Washington Post angry wife men in Boston although another year has slipped Down the memory Hole i still would like to offer one last word on the celebrity of 1994. One final thought on the a american Star who sent Goose bumps up and Down the arms of the body he did t become time magazines Man of the year that went to the Best Selling author in the Vatican. But in every other Way 1994 was the year of the angry White Man. He was awarded All the prizes even the big one the Capitol. The pundits pollsters and politicians Nam piously gave him the heavyweight Crown. Indeed any one who broke ranks with this panel of judges was asking for a few body blows i ought to know. " " " in a rather benign moment full of the Holiday cheer i took exception to the stereotyping of the Young the Pale and the pissed off. In a column offered a rather spirited defense of this Man. He was t angry i wrote he was Young male who had shifted from one party to the other taking the House majority with him was worried about falling out of work out of the Middle class out of poster. The election was t a drive by shooting it was an anxiety , be careful whom you befriend. For weeks i have been digging out of a pile of letter writer and a attackers who have assured me in capital letters exclamation Points four letter words and no Uncertain terms that they were not anxious. They were and still Are angry. F to give you a renin table Sample an or urn Washington state said he had never suffered from an anxiety attack in my life but was angry enough to help a Well planned assassination of Liberal democratic leadership and their socialistic " an am from Wyoming was not anxious rious because i have. No civil or constitutional rights because every minority come ahead of me and yes dear that includes an am from Columbus Ohio became a mad Man no but of anxiety but by affair aria Tive action. He warned lest you forget is. Goodman the White male made this country what it was before females an minorities polluted the entire crowned Heads of the angry who e men were no just angry. They were proud of _ it. A now frankly i was struck by More than the epithets in my mailbag. For one thing consider the difference sin our racial images of rage imagine what the words angry Black Man would have conjured up in the National mind. The composite fantasy figure offered by Susan Smith hardly a Man of the year. If in and underemployment is the Root of All anger try this figure in 1993,43 percent of working age Black me were out of the work Force twice the percentage of White men. But the White Man s anger is considered legitimate while the Black Man s anger is assumed to be Crimi Nal. Ellen Goodman in the fight leaning spirit of the times an angry White Man is seen As someone who must be appeased. An angry Lack Man is seen As someone who must be controlled the am gets a tax Cut. The abm gets a new jail. But if the males in my mailbag were outraged at having their anger questioned if they rejected this defense like an unwanted Christmas gift it also said a lot about Gen Der " _ j i belong to the slightly More than half of the Popula lion who have an ingrained habit of trying to under stand the Man who share their lives and ballot spend much of our free time trying to figure put what men Are really feeling. Though my correspondents did t want to be Analysed i have a suspicion about the origins of anger Pride. Sim ply put it s a lot easier to feel angry than anxious. Anxiety Affer All implies vulnerability uncertainty even a loss of control. Not the top emotions on some males hit Parade. Anxiety carries the Aura of weakness while anger carries the sense of Power. It s the difference Between admitting fear and making someone else afraid.-1 still believe the dominant symptom in the land Ashe turn the Calendar is a bad Case of the jitters. Jitters about the new world Economy and our old jobs jitters about our kids our futures and the frayed connection Between people themselves americans. It s going to take More than a temper Tantrum to quiet these fears. It May have been a year of anger. Buti m hoping that this year the Crown will pass to the problem solvers. Boston to taxi
