Civility Project
Posted by Michelle Moquin on January 14th, 2011
Good Morning.
Jackie: You brought up “civility”. This one’s for you.
Have you heard of ”Civility Project“? I hadn’t until recently. In short, Mark DeMoss, a Republican, founded a project to promote civility in politics. Pretty cool – catchy name – right to the point, right?
CivilityProject.org was started in January 2009: “…because of alarm over what he saw as the increasingly vicious tone in American politics. He asked his friend, Lanny J. Davis, a Jewish Democrat and a lobbyist who worked for President Bill Clinton, to join the effort.”
So check this out:
They sent out 585 letters asking every sitting governor and member of Congress to sign a pledge that said:
I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
I will stand against incivility when I see it.
Well “Civility Project” may be a catchy name but signing this pledge didn’t catch on. Out of the 585 letters sent out, just how many do you think signed the pledge?
I’ll whisper it because it is embarrassing to say the least.
Three.
Yes you read it right: Three (3)
Needless to say, after two years and $30,000 in expenses, DeMoss has decided to quit the project. Here’s the write.
Mark DeMoss Disbands ‘Civility Project,’ Citing Conservative Attacks, Grim View On Discourse
Mark DeMoss, director of the Civility Project, a two-year-old effort launched at the beginning of the Obama presidency to prompt legislators across the nation to cool political rhetoric, decided to shut the campaign down earlier this month — even before the latest resurgence of debate about “vitriol” and rhetoric sparked by the events in Arizona over the weekend.
DeMoss, an evangelical conservative with ties to some big-name Republicans, cited a general lack of interest, as well as pervading signs that the nature of political discourse appeared only to be deteriorating during Obama’s first two years as president, as justifications for halting his program.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, DeMoss provided a little insight about how his project was received by some on the right.
“The worst e-mails I received about the civility project were from conservatives with just unbelievable language about communists, and some words I wouldn’t use in this phone call,” DeMoss told The Times. “This political divide has become so sharp that everything is black and white, and too many conservatives can see no redeeming value in any liberal or Democrat. That would probably be true about some liberals going the other direction, but I didn’t hear from them.”
The pledge he sent to 585 sitting representatives, senators and governors in early 2009, asking them to sign on to the project’s three tenets, was simple:
I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
I will stand against incivility when I see it.
Yet two years after the launching of the initiative, he had only three signatures: Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Reps. Frank Wolfe (R-Va.) and Sue Myrick (R-N.C.).
“You three were alone in pledging to be civil,” wrote DeMoss in a release this month announcing the closure of the group. “I must admit to scratching my head as to why only three members of Congress, and no governors, would agree to what I believe is a rather low bar.”
While the lack of positive response appears to have been disheartening to DeMoss, he refrained from suggesting that there was any connection between increasingly contentious political discussions and the devastating violence in Arizona over the weekend.
“Whether or not there’s violence, whether or not incivility today is worse than it’s been in history, it’s all immaterial,” he told The Times. “It’s worse than it ought to be.”
Readers: It seems the “right” couldn’t even be civil when it came to sending e-mails to DeMoss with respect to his project. No surprise that they didn’t want to sign the pledge to be civil in politics. But hey, with only “three” signing, the “right” nor the “left” is looking good.
Just what does this say about our government? And the bar was set low! Comments? Thoughts? It’s Friday…start flapping those lips.
Oh…and according to Astronomer Parke Kunkle, he says that due to the changing of the Earth’s alignment, the dates have changed, and many of us will have new astrological signs because of the additional 13th Zodiac sign: Ophiuchus.
Nope, no thanks. I was never one who paid much attention to my horoscope, but I love being an Aquarian, and I am not going to accept my new Capricorn sign. I’m just not going to change. Nothing against you Capricorns, who are now Sagittarians. :), but I don’t care about the Earth’s alignment presently. I am going by the alignment of the Earth when I was born. That sounds very logical to me. I was born an Aquarian and I will remain one. “Stand behind your sign!” Kudos to Tracey for coining that phrase. :)
Anyone else feel the same way? Blog me.
Tomei: Thanks for your additional comments. I never really looked at it the way you presented it. I understand now. Thank you.
ZL: I got your message. So sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. Work has been busy. I’ll try you this weekend.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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January 14th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Hafa adai
Gas on Guam has reached over $4.00. The crooks are laughing all the way to the bank.
January 14th, 2011 at 11:52 am
Hi Mischa, this weekend is seriously booked, it’s Lily’s b’day tomorrow and someone else who is very special to me changes ages on Sunday, I’m going to celebrate the arrival of both these important people to this planet in good form, they both get catered to all weekend long, no easy feat ; ) but I’ll manage I’m sure…Monday is Martin Luther King day so the child is off but I will get with you either Mon or mid-week next week, for sure. : ) look forward to a real chat, it’s been awhile.
Wow, we cannot even agree to speak civilly to each other and respect diffrences now…? although I must admit my ears do turn off when a serious Christian starts running the rap (the he/she’s got ‘such a heart for God’ whatever the heck THAT means?!) and the whole WAIT project in regards to abstinence till marraige (oh dear, say what?! How do you reason with people like this, it’s hard to listen to this stuff yet I behave in my demeanor of respect to a degree – until I can get out of the convo) I want THAT budget cut immediately! Don’t get me going on the education of kids, and especially force fed way-off-base Christian based sexual education, oh please…
Have a great weekend, off to shop for cards and gifties : ) Luv, Zen Lill
Robert, your vitriol when speaking of racism is understandable but this comment yesterday had me wondering, are you ok, dude? It sounded uncharacteristically – um, weird…?!
January 14th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
It’s not that DeMoss set the bar “too low”. It is just that he set “a” bar at all. It’s sad that something as simple as this, and to me, altogether seemingly meaningless, has created such profound meaning by its failure. There is no bar any longer. Most politicians play both sides of the fence throughout their career. There is no bar. Most politicians will say one thing one day, and the opposite the following. There is no bar. Perhaps the only bar most politicians might respect at this time is one on the corner down the street with the dart board.
I, too, am one who feels the Astrological sign is determined at your date of birth. The following subsequent changes within the Universe will pertain and be referenced by the changes within you and your position and relationship as to your astrological position at this time. Nothing else. I am a Taurus, and I ain’t moving my sign anywhere!
January 14th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
The Great American Heart Hoax
Michael D. Ozner, MD
Cardiovascular Prevention Institute of South Florida
Americans get more than 1.5 million cardiac bypass surgeries and angioplasty procedures a year, which makes heart surgery among the most commonly performed surgical procedures in the US.
Fact: These procedures have not been proved to extend lives or to prevent future heart attacks except in a minority of patients.
Between 70% and 90% of angioplasties and bypass surgeries are unnecessary in stable patients with coronary artery disease.
While American patients are seven times more likely to undergo coronary angioplasty procedures and bypass surgery than patients in Canada and Sweden, the number of Canadians and Swedes who die from cardiovascular disease is nearly identical (per capita) to the number of people who die from heart disease in this country.
These are not harmless procedures. About 30% of angioplasties fail, requiring patients to repeat the procedure — and eventually, many of these angioplasty patients will undergo bypass surgery.
People who have bypass surgery are nearly four times more likely to suffer a stroke at the time of surgery and are vulnerable to postsurgical infections.
Between 3% and 5% of patients die from bypass surgery — that’s 15,000 to 25,000 lives lost a year.
So why do we keep doing these procedures?
A FLAWED MODEL
Cardiologists used to compare the coronary arteries to simple pipes under a sink.
The thinking went that these arteries sometimes accumulated sludge, called plaque (cholesterol deposits within an artery wall), that impeded the flow of blood to the heart.
Treating this sludge with angioplasty or shunting blood around it with bypass surgery seemed obvious.
That approach, however, is flawed. We now know that the arteries are highly dynamic structures. What happens within the artery wall is more significant than blockages that obstruct the lumen (arterial openings).
The majority of heart attacks can be linked to small, yet highly inflamed, plaques. These small plaques have no effect on circulation because they take up little space within the lumen.
Yet they may rupture and cause a sudden heart attack due to a clot that forms at the site of the rupture.
What happens: Cholesterol-carrying particles that enter an artery wall undergo oxidation and modification that trigger an immune response.
White blood cells flood the area and engulf the oxidized cholesterol particles and cause plaque to form.
Then the white blood cells secrete substances, such as proteinases, that break down the fibrous cap that covers the plaque.
When the fibrous cap ruptures, blood enters the plaque and a blood clot forms that can block the artery.
Sudden clots that form following plaque rupture are the cause of most heart attacks. Angioplasties and bypass surgery do nothing to prevent plaque rupture or clot formation.
HEART-SAVING STEPS
The following steps may save lives. Of course, always ask your doctor about the best heart-health strategies for you.
Test for high sensitivity (hs)-C-reactive protein (CRP). It’s a “marker” that indicates simmering inflammation in blood vessel walls and can be measured with a simple blood test.
Inflammation within arterial plaques contributes to plaque rupture, clot formation and subsequent heart attacks.
The landmark JUPITER study looked at more than 17,000 participants with elevated hs-CRP (above 2 mg/dL) and normal cholesterol.
Those who were treated with medication to lower hs-CRP were significantly less likely to have a heart attack or stroke or to die than those in the control group.
CRP can be lowered with lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, weight loss, smoking cessation) and medical therapy (including statin drugs).
Test for apolipoprotein B (apoB). This is a better indicator of heart disease than standard cholesterol levels (including HDL, LDL and triglycerides).
Even if your LDL “bad” cholesterol level is normal, you still could have elevated particle numbers, which means that your LDL cholesterol is distributed across a lot of very small, dense particles.
These small, dense particles are the most dangerous kind — they are more likely to squeeze through the lining of the artery and more likely to become oxidized once they’re there, leading to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).
You can check your “bad” particle number by testing for apoB. Blood tests for apoB are performed routinely in Europe and Canada but not in the US. Ask for this test when you have your usual cholesterol screening.
The optimal level of apoB is less than 90 mg/dL (or even lower for high-risk patients). To lower apoB, follow the recommendations for lowering CRP.
Choose an anti-inflammatory diet. People who follow a Mediterranean-style diet — high in plant foods and cold-water fish (such as salmon) and low in red meat and processed foods — can reduce inflammation.
The Lyon Diet Heart Study compared a Mediterranean diet to a diet resembling the American Heart Association’s cholesterol-lowering Step 1 Diet.
Participants on the Mediterranean plan were 70% less likely to die from all causes and 73% less likely to have a recurrent cardiac event than those on the standard “healthy” diet.
The Mediterranean diet is effective partly because it limits saturated fat and does not contain trans fat. The fat present in the Mediterranean diet, mainly from olive oil and fish, has anti-inflammatory effects.
Also, the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables reduce the oxidation of cholesterol-containing particles within artery walls.
Avoid high-fructose corn syrup, which goes straight to the liver, where it causes an increase in triglycerides, a major risk factor for heart disease.
Laugh, pray, get a pet. Anything that reduces stress can significantly reduce your risk for heart disease. Research at the University of Maryland Medical Center, for example, found that laughing is almost as effective as exercise at improving arterial health.
Laughter relaxes blood vessels and improves circulation to the heart. And like other stress-control strategies, including prayer, loving relationships (with pets as well as people) and yoga, it lowers cortisol, a stress-related hormone.
Get moving. There is a dose-response relationship between exercise and the heart — more exercise gives a greater benefit. Aim for 30 to 45 minutes of exercise most days of the week.
Good news: Walking for as little as 30 minutes five to seven days a week can significantly decrease the risk of dying from heart disease.
Personal interviewed Michael D. Ozner, MD, cardiologist and medical director of Cardiovascular Prevention Institute of South Florida in Miami.
He is the symposium director for “Cardiovascular Disease Prevention,” an annual international meeting highlighting advances in cardiology.
He is author of The Great American Heart Hoax: Lifesaving Advice Your Doctor Should Tell You About Heart Disease Prevention (But Probably Never Will) (BenBella). http://www.DrOzner.com