News-Miner opinion: Decorum isn’t dead but it’s certainly on life support. We could send it to the ICU at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, but it would be greeted in the parking lot with protesters shouting their political allegiances, pointed fingers tap-tap-tapping at its chest, or fringe political conspiracy theories dredged up from the depths of YouTube.
Civility in public spaces is becoming a rare thing. We’ve been somewhat lucky in Fairbanks in that most of our public meetings haven’t turned into a gong show of absurdity similar to what the Anchorage Assembly faces. Fairbanks is not immune from discourse, however. The infection of incivility is starting to fester.
The most recent example of the in-your-face bravado came Friday during the League of Women Voters of the Tanana Valley political forum, cohosted by KUAC FM 89.9 and the Daily News-Miner. During the forum, in which local office seekers addressed issues they might face if elected, a small but loud group in the audience disrupted candidates with heckling, booing and shouts of indignation. More than once, moderators put the forum on hold while addressing the agitators, few in number that they were. At one point, they were told security would escort them out of the building if they did not adhere to adult behavior.
It’s a scene that has played out at school board, city council and public meetings nationwide, and now it’s showing up in Fairbanks. It’s not a good look — and certainly not a mature one — and it accomplishes nothing. Yelling, screaming and harassing candidates to the point they are afraid to walk to their cars should not happen. Ever. And yet it did happen, right here in our city.
It’s been a slow growing tumor, this notion that throwing a public fit will somehow sway opinion. It doesn’t sway opinion at all. What it does is shines a spotlight on the loudest voices in the room. It sows discord. It shifts attention away from the issues at hand and focuses it on the negative detractor. More acrimony is not anything we as a city, state or nation need.
Add to this the fact that Friday’s candidate forum was a Q&A between moderators and candidates and did not include invited audience participation, it becomes even more disrespectful.
There are more effective ways to get your message out. Email a public official with your stance on an issue. Call their office. Write a letter to the editor. Better yet, show up and vote on Election Day. That’s the one tried and true method to affect change — the ballot box.
Yelling and hurling insults might make you feel better but its success rate as a motivational tool for change is nil. Do us a favor and keep that on your personal social media page and out of our public assemblies.
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"discourse" - Google News
September 28, 2021 at 09:00PM
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Rabid discourse has no place in our public spaces - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
"discourse" - Google News
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