Civility Tour
Between November 2009 and May 2011, NEH Chairman Leach conducted the American "Civility Tour" to call attention to the need to restore reason and civility back into politics, a goal that in his words was "central to the humanities." Leach visited each of the 50 states, speaking at venues ranging from university and museum lecture halls to hospitals for veterans, to support the return of non-emotive, civil exchange and rational consideration of other viewpoints:
According to Chairman Leach, "Little is more important...than establishing an ethos of thoughtfulness and decency of expression in the public square. Words reflect emotion as well as meaning. They clarify -- or cloud -- thought and energize action, sometimes bringing out the better angels in our nature, sometimes lesser instincts."
Since the completion of Leach's Civility Tour, rallies for reasoning politics like Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, and pragmatic, reason-based social initiatives like pluralistic rationalism, have reflected Leach's call for civil, non-emotive and reasoning dialogue between those with disparate political ideologies.
Read more about this topic: National Endowment For The Humanities
Famous quotes containing the words civility and/or tour:
“The civility of the world has reached that pitch that their more moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the quality of this race is to be honored for itself.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Do you know I believe that [William Jennings] Bryan will force his nomination on the Democrats again. I believe he will either do this by advocating Prohibition, or else he will run on a Prohibition platform independent of the Democrats. But you will see that the year before the election he will organize a mammoth lecture tour and will make Prohibition the leading note of every address.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)