A new year, a return to civility?

Happy New Year. Welcome to 2018. A new year. A chance for new beginnings. I’m not much for resolutions, but there are things I hope we see in 2018. Like the willingness to disagree without being disagreeable. Because in 2017 we disagreed about everything. And we certainly weren’t always agreeable. We seem as polarized politically as ever before. Red states vs. blue states. Everything became politicized, from football games to wedding cakes. And it was often ugly. How did we get here? When I was young, my parents almost never talked politics. Never mentioned how they voted. And certainly never went on social media to deride and name call those with whom they disagreed. Things have gotten ugly, and we will need to work to recapture some measure of civility. We don’t have to agree about everything. It is ok to have different opinions. What shouldn’t be ok is spewing bile and hatred based on someone else’s opinions. That is my hope for this new year. I hope you agree. If not, feel free to respond to this or other WIZM editorials on our website. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong. Just try to remember to do so without being disagreeable.