Kindness effort in Arlington may need civility first

Star-Telegram columnist and former Arlington Mayor Richard Greene wrote Sunday about a new “kindness initiative” being launched by that city’s current mayor, Jeff Williams.

Williams is modeling the idea after the one in Anaheim, Calif., that started about three years ago and is well past halfway to meeting its goal of 1 million acts of kindness by local residents.

Greene pointed out that the current political atmosphere has an awful lot of people at each other’s throats — figuratively, fortunately, because a lot of their conflicts come on social media and internet sites.

The idea is to draw people’s attention away from those conflicts and get them thinking about something more pleasant, even if it’s for a short time.

It’s a good idea that’s sorely needed. So sorely, in fact, that Williams may find some people so wound up that an act of kindness is beyond them right now.

Before they can get to kindness, some people just need to try being civil.

We need to relearn how to have political disagreements, even arguments, without calling people ugly names and treating them like enemies.

Words like “liberal” or “conservative” don’t have to be spit out like curses or modified into terms like “commie-lib” or “Nazi.”

Winning an argument by ridicule is not a win.

We must regain the gift of listening, really listening and understanding, before responding.

Civility is not hard, but it takes focus.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Kindness effort in Arlington may need civility first."