No room for contempt at City Hall

When did it become acceptable to heckle others during public meetings?

It’s not a pep rally, folks.

I see this kind of behavior more and more at our area meetings.

I have observed way too much of this kind of behavior over the past few months all across the county.

Whether I’m covering a board meeting, or a town hall, or a local city council meeting, it seems to have become acceptable, and at times encouraged, to interrupt, talk over, or shame into silence anyone with a differing opinion or value system.

There is no winning when these forums become shouting matches. The communities lose when the ability to hear one another is lost.

This is most apparent on the national level when we’ve but to turn on our television sets to witness contempt for one another at its extreme.

I’ve witnessed back and forth verbal assaults that would have been more appropriate in a grade school playground than in a public meeting.

What will it take to restore some decency, a mutual tolerance if not respect, to our public meetings?

Or have we went so far that we can never find our way back?

See you out there.