Houston, TX, June 10, 2016 – Five students from Palacios High School and six students from Wharton High School participated in a Student Legislative Seminar trip to Washington, DC, with the Institute for Civility in Government (ICG) on June 4-9. These Seminars teach students about how to be involved in the governing process while maintaining…
Civility Linkblogging is an ongoing series that highlights discourse about civility from around the Web. We glean the links in this segment from as broad a cross-section as we can manage of blogs, newspapers, magazines, and other online venues, from the United States and around the world. This installment offers two compelling arguments that the…
Civility Linkblogging is an ongoing series that highlights discourse about civility from around the Web. We glean the links in this segment from as broad a cross-section as we can manage of blogs, newspapers, magazines, and other online venues, from the United States and around the world. This month brings us a selection of (mostly)…
On April Fool’s Day of 1998, we launched the Institute for Civility in Government by walking the halls of Congress and introducing ourselves and the newly-formed organization we had been planning since the previous fall. We were met with laughter, puzzlement, bemusement, confusion, politeness, and in some offices – real interest. While some people who…
Wharton, TX, February 25, 2016 – Several students from Wharton High School will be presenting at the Lions Club meeting on Thursday, March 3. These students attended the 2015 Student Legislative Seminar trip to Washington, DC, with the Institute for Civility in Government (ICG), and will be sharing their experiences and lessons learned. Besides seeing…
This post is part of an ongoing series that highlights discourse about civility from around the Web. We glean the links in this segment from as broad a cross-section as we can manage of blogs, newspapers, magazines, and other online venues, from the United States and around the world. This month, with the Presidential primary…
Opposites attract they say. And having an opposite also pushes us to better understand our own positions. That’s the truth for us as the two co-founders of the Institute. We initially believed we were supporters of the same political party. We were wrong. The day we realized that we thought differently is the day we…
The highest goal of civility is to prevent violence. The goal, by cultivating a willingness to listen across divisions of ideology and identity, is to create the channels of communication that allow us to live together in relative peace. In Paris, yesterday, that civility and peace failed profoundly. More than one hundred twenty people died,…
Some people think it never happens. They think that Republicans and Democrats cannot work together, or even have a civil conversation. But those people are mistaken. It does happen – and could happen more if more people would speak out for civility.
For years the Institute for Civility in Government has sponsored Congressional Student Forums. These bring two members of Congress from opposite sides of the political aisle together on college campuses around the country in order to model civil and respectful conversations with students and faculty on whatever issues the students bring to the table. The conversations are lively and informative. And they are critically important to our civic process.
Regardless of where your political convictions lie, there is no escaping that McCutcheon vs. FEC, the recent Supreme Court decision striking down most limits on political donations by individuals, was both controversial and important. The controversy is immediately evident: the court split five to four along partisan lines, with Justices Roberts writing the majority opinion, and Justice Breyer writing the dissent.
