Heeding the call for more civil political discourse

If you are noticing that San Jose City Council Zoom meetings have exhibited a decreasing level of fair-minded and polite discourse, you are not alone. The 9.15 meeting featured a surprising rant (below) and we offer up Barack Obama's call for a more civil discourse as a counterpoint.

At the 2011 memorial service for people who died in the shooting in which Rep. Gabby Giffords was also shot, then-president Barack Obama offered the following call for a more civil political discourse in the U.S.:

"And if their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy — it did not — but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation, in a way that would make them proud. We should be civil because we want to live up to the example of public servants like John Roll and Gabby Giffords, who knew, first and foremost, that we are all Americans and that we can question each other’s ideas without questioning each other’s love of country and that our task, working together, is to constantly widen the circle of our concern, so that we bequeath the American Dream to future generations."

At the 9.15.20 San Jose City Council Meeting, during an agenda on police reform, a caller offered the following observations (at 1:32:16):

“Any people from San Jose Police Department listening to this, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Every single one of you. Including the police chief who’s the big quitter of the year. . . You Sam and that whole city council, you think you’re Cin college. That’s what you think you are and that’s how you act. You’re a disgrace Sam, the police department’s a disgrace, the city council’s a disgrace. The DA, what a loser he is. And the Santa Clara County Sheriff is a loser Laurie Smith. . . All of you should be ashamed of yourselves, it’s disgusting what you do every single week. . . And San Jose Police Department I’m going to start calling you guys the pansy patrol. . . And the felons, and everybody else you people support. You guys need to get the dregs of humanity in your department to make it worse than it already is.”

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Image taken by Clemson.