I want to dish up courtesy for our culture to feast on. Here’s a first step: Political leaders should be required to pass an annual courtesy test or be disqualified from office. Candor and courtesy make a great combo. For a country to be great honesty and kindness must work together.
Something happens when people are courteous to each other. They find ways to overcome conflict, disagree agreeably, and work together for the common good. They become aware of their shared humanity. Courtesy cultivates community and communication.
As human beings we have the right to disagree with what other people believe, say, and do, but we don’t have a right to mock and insult them. And we don’t have a right to call people haters just because they disagree with us.
Courtesy doesn’t require that you surrender your point of view. It simply requires that you be kind to people who disagree with you. Courtesy is the oil that keeps the frictions of society from burning out the engine of heart-felt community.
Courtesy causes people to want to find ways to work around differences. Confrontation makes people resist any compromise. Spread courtesy not cantankerousness.
Courtesy costs nothing but a bit of kindness, yet it opens the door for people to connect heart-to-heart. Courtesy isn’t based on agreement. It’s based on kindness.
Courteousness connects people and helps them find common ground. Cantankerousness causes conflict and casts out civility. If you want your country to be great, be courteous and compassionate, not callous and cantankerous.
Be courteous to the people you are in conflict with. It will confuse them and might just defuse their hostility. Try it and see!
The multitudes of men who used to be Boy Scouts proclaimed themselves to be “courteous” along with 11 other virtues. If they would all begin to live up to their proclamation, the world would be in much better shape.
The Bible says: “Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.” To insult or demonize leaders is to destabilize society. It is a human right to speak truth to power but not to verbally brutalize the people who hold positions of power. Instead of forced political correctness we need sincere political courtesy.
People need to see
Some courtesy.
Show them some today.
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