| Someone once said that you should not discuss politics in polite company or
at social functions. Nobody knows who said it first, but everyone has heard
it in one form or another.
It's common knowledge.
And, it seems, it's also common practice.
Old rules of social etiquette say we should not talk about politics at the
dinner table, for example. So, it is not surprising that many consider it
bad manners in good company, not unlike speaking with your mouth full or
using your sleeve as a napkin.
No less an authority on the subject than Miss Manners tells us that
"religion, politics, and sex are generally taboo at the dinner table.
Unwelcome attempts to introduce these topics should be met with silence, so
the matter drops."
Emily Post was saying much the same thing eighty years ago.
In one column, Miss Manners provided her "gentle readers" a selection of
remarks meant to draw someone's attention off politics. Her suggestions
included:
"Are you finding the pothole situation any better?"
"Traffic is getting just like New York around here."
So, it isn't bad manners to talk about having to sit in traffic. There's
nothing impolite about complaining that your child has thirty classmates or
attends classes in portables, or that you can't water your lawn or garden,
or that there aren't enough soccer fields for all the kids in town, or that
you are paying higher taxes.
It's okay to talk about problems, so long as we don't talk about the
political process or the people we elect to address these problems on our
behalf.
Perhaps it is time to rewrite some of the rules about polite conversation.
Perhaps being silent about politics in polite company has only served to
make politics less polite, less thoughtful and less civil.
Perhaps not talking about politics is connected to not participating in
politics.
And perhaps that is not working so well for us.
For one reason or another, more than 76 percent of registered voters in
Frederick County decided not to vote in the recent primary election. If past
elections are a guide, at least half of us won't be motivated enough to vote
in November.
It may be that some of our neighbors just don't care. But that is certainly
not true of most of us. If people didn't care about traffic and crowded
schools and water restrictions and taxes and a long list of other things,
they wouldn't complain about them.
In just a few weeks, some of us are going to be selecting the people who
will represent all of us in Winchester Hall and in Annapolis.
It is certain we aren't going to agree with each other about many things,
including which candidates are best for the job. But we are a community, and
we are in this together. We might consider exchanging views on these
subjects to be a worthwhile way to spend an evening or two.
After all, so far nobody has been able to put enough information on a yard
sign to help anyone make an informed choice.
We need to talk about it.
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