Obama Calls for a New Era of Civility in U.S. Politics (NY Times)

[pinto]

Obama Calls for a New Era of Civility in U.S. Politics

By HELENE COOPER and JEFF ZELENY
Published: January 12, 2011

TUCSON — President Obama offered the nation’s condolences on Wednesday to the victims of the shootings here, calling on Americans to draw a lesson from the lives of the fallen and the actions of the heroes, and to usher in a new era of civility in their honor.

The president directly confronted the political debate that erupted after the rampage, urging people of all beliefs not to use the tragedy to turn on one another. He did not cast blame on Republicans or Democrats, but asked people to “sharpen our instincts for empathy.”

It was one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as president, harnessing the emotion generated by the shock and loss from Saturday’s shootings to urge Americans “to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully” and to “remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.”

“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do,” he said, “it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/us/13obama.html

[kwolf68]

1. sharpen our instincts for empathy

Brilliant.

My concern is empathy isn't a characteristic native to the modern day Conservative. But thanks to the President for the appeal.

[Demeter]

2. As One of the "F***king Retards", I Say It's About Time!

Oh, he didn't mean his former base, the people who worked and voted and contributed? Sorry.