Sunday, January 30, 2011

Thumper's Dad Offered Advice to Utah


Thumper: He doesn’t walk very good, does he?

Mrs. Rabbit: Thumper!

Thumper: Yes, mama?

Mrs. Rabbit: What did your father tell you this morning?

Thumper: (clearing his throat) If you can’t say something nice… don’t say nothing at all.

With that, Thumper, passed along sound advice that cries down through the years to Utah almost 70 years later. ("Bambi," I believe, came out in 1942.)

When a Facebook friend posted yesterday that we should consider applying this advice to our public discourses, I thought it a good general guideline, but one with many exceptions. After all, by nature, discussing public affairs often entails discussing what others are doing wrong.

As I thought more on it, I concluded perhaps the exceptions, indeed, do not need to be anything but rare. And, just maybe, we can take Thumper and his dad's advice altogether, and never say anything that isn't nice.

For there is another phrase that lends itself to this: "You can disagree without being disagreeable."

Well said, whoever said that.

So, I conclude we should try to carry out our conversations without offending each other, pointing out wrongs, and injustices when that is called for, but maintaining our civility in doing so.

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