Bob, Bob and a lesson in civil discourse

Civil Discourse is engagement in discourse (conversation) intended to enhance understanding, according to our good friend Webster Dictionary.

Do y’all remember that?

I do. I was born into a journalism family in the midst of the Viet Nam War, the Pentagon Papers, and was raised when politicians names were spoken so frequently around the dinner table I thought I was related to them.

I have witnessed some pretty scary and divisive elections in my day, and started voting in them in 1984. But never have I seen or felt one quite like this, and the difference is the willingness to participate in civil discourse.

One look at Facebook, and I think you will agree.

Today, we are nearing the end, hopefully, of a long, hard presidential election season. I’m not writing this to encourage you to vote for one candidate or the other. Judging from the early voting numbers, you’ve probably already voted just as I have.

I am asking (begging) that people remember civil discourse and it’s value; that they stop worshipping politicians as if they are Gods, and remember that we are each human beings with intrinsic value, regardless of how we label ourselves with a political party.

This takes me back to memories of my Dad, who was a lifelong Republican, although I believe he would be considered what the Boomers are calling a RINO now. Who knows, and frankly, who cares?

However, as lifelong journalists, my parents always understood that you report news straight and your opinions on the opinion page. In other words, opinions were never in news stories, nor should they be. But Dad had lots of opinions and aired them out every week in his column, “As I See It.” For those who aren’t completely sure how it works, columns are the opinions of the author of the column and not newspaper as a whole.

I follow on Twitter an ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, who is an Independent and lives here in Texas. He’s a gentle soul, smart and makes great points. He made a post over the weekend that took me back to the late 1980’s or early 1990’s where people still understood and practiced political discourse.

His Tweet mentioned the late Democrat Bob Bullock, and when he ran for and won Lt. Governor of Texas in 1994.

I don’t respond to many tweets but I did this one because I have fond memories - very fond actually - of the time Bob Bullock, who was the Texas State Comptroller at the time, sent my sweet father a box of fresh cow dung with his business card stuck in the stop with a straight pin.

It was an exciting day at the Hamilton house because Bullock only sent out five boxes of dung to select publishers, and my dad was the only weekly newspaperman who warranted the hilarious wrath. It kind of made him proud.

Dad had written many columns about how he thought Bullock was doing a crappy job, thus the pun of a gift.

The long and short of this story is that my Dad and Bob Bullock ended up becoming good friends. Meaning it is possible to go beyond politics and treat people with inherent respect and finding a commonality.

This is something I see slipping away daily, and I really want people to stop it.

Bullock didn’t call my dad names, or yell fake news. He in the best way possible, mailed cow crap, which was probably very close to honest communication and expression of his feelings as far as Bullock was concerned.

And rather than either of them thinking they had to hold on to anger, they both ended up getting a good laugh about it.

Please go out and vote, then find a way to engage in civil discourse.

Our country desperately needs both these things.