Civil Debate and Discourse: The Lost Art in America

Last Thursday on my radio show I began the program with a guest, Drew Remenda, (of all people), the San Jose Sharks terrific color analyst on cable, (CSN California).

I mention, "of all people", because Remenda appeared on the program to talk hockey at about the time many thousands of mourners were gathering inside the HP Pavilion for a memorial service honoring the two fallen Santa Cruz Police officers that were ambushed a few weeks back.

I had debated whether or not it was appropriate to have on a sports person in light of what was taking place in the very building where Drew did the interview. Talk about surreal. I finally relented and decided the interview would proceed. I'm glad we talked.

The first ten minutes were devoted to the memorial service; the tragic events that led to the officers' demise. Remenda talked about his kids asking him "what's going on there in, (San Jose)?", and how he broke the news that two police officers were shot and killed and were being memorialized.

Remenda is a Canadian. Outside of a few exceptions, there's not a lot of gun-related homicides in Canada. Knifes, yes, as he pointed out, but guns, not so much. I made it a point not to get bogged down in a gun-control discussion because it wasn't the time nor the place but Remenda, again, of all people, offered the idea of how difficult it is in our country to simply sit down and talk about a very serious issue. That the concept of a reasonable dialogue and national town-hall discussion(s) dealing with something so profound, so immensely on the mind and conscience of nearly all Americans was so difficult to take place.

I agree with Drew. Furthermore, the idea that collectively, we all are unwilling, or simply incapable of having a reasonable dialogue without any shouting, any ad-hominem attacks speaks volumes about our society as a whole. There's several reasons for this predicament we're in; part of it deals with the present polarization of the country; the us vs. them mentality that has been cemented by the cable channels and reinforced by their amen corner. What is a decidedly gray area, (like gun-control), has been turned into a black and white issue with each side dug in and devoid of the prospect of a fairly ordinary, polite discussion. It's a shame we can't even agree to simply talk. And when we do talk, inevitably it gets so heated and personal we're unable or unwilling to respect the other side's feelings and opinions.

That's rather sad if you ask me.

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The Santa Cruz Police Tragedy; A Personal Story

It was your normal Tuesday afternoon.

I was finishing up my interview and began talking about various subjects on my KSCO/KOMY radio show, based in Santa Cruz and the Central Coast.

My producer and the station's news and traffic anchor, Dave Michaels, was busy manning the computer inside the studio. He was silent.

I asked if something was going on. Dave indicated that, yes, there was some "police activity" and "shooting taking place" in Santa Cruz. He didn't sound particularly worried and I had thought nothing of it other than it sounded unusual because Santa Cruz isn't known as a violent town--more a beach resort, although in recent months there'd been a noticeable increase in crime, including a murder, numerous assaults, and most recently a woman/student being attacked at UC Santa Cruz.

All that said, I thought nothing of Dave's report and immediately after I signed off at 4 PM, I met a friend for coffee and returned home hours later and had seen that 2 Santa Cruz Police officers had been gunned down and a suspect shot and killed in an incident only hours earlier I had heard about when concluding my show.

Needless to say I was shocked. Numb really. It brought back memories of the Oakland Police tragedy almost four years ago when 4 OPD officers, (one of whom I had known well and a good friend, John Hege), were all shot and killed in multiple ambushes.

After learning of the Santa Cruz incident I immediately went to Facebook and posted a "Condolences to SCPD." Minutes later a few people began writing gun-control spiels --pro and con--I was irritated and angry. The bodies of the victims had not even been taken away from the scene and already a few clueless wonders already began spewing political rants. Unbelievable. But nothing surprises me anymore.

I have said lately that the idea of talking about gun-control on radio is the equivalent of talking about abortion--worthless, because both sides are dug in and the mere idea of trying to have a reasonable dialogue with civil discourse is a waste of time. It is simply impossible. Common sense has been pushed aside to the act of a lot of screaming and yelling. The "2nd Amendment" and "law-abiding citizens" are the new code words.

One of the Facebook posters--a frequent commenter on this site--took me to task because she indicated that I'd bring up the police tragedy to my Santa Cruz listeners. Well, yeah, I might bring it up. Ignoring it would be kind of insensitive and professionally absurd. That's hardly getting involved in the gun debate because both sides don't know how to have a civil debate. How uncivil, how senseless.

Just like what took place in Santa Cruz on Tuesday afternoon.

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