Choosing Civility

Professor Farid's post reminded me that it is Choose Civility Week in Howard County, where my family lived for several years before our recent move to Buffalo.  This week is part of the Choose Civility initiative, which hopes to "enhance respect, empathy, consideration and tolerance in Howard County" by "infus[ing] civil behavior into our business, community and personal lives."  At the core, this initiative focuses on such basic principles of civility as paying attention, being respectful, and being considerate.  In short, these are things we should have learned in kindergarten, if not earlier.  

It all sounds fine and good, but questions about the impact of the movement remain.  There are no hard data about the impact of the program, and the initiative seems slogan-heavy but light on practical explanations as to how, exactly, this "infusion" will work.  If it were that easy, we could just "infuse" a strong work ethic or a "just say no" attitude toward drug use.  That's not to say that such an initiative is a waste of time an money, but, in the absence of any empirical information suggesting a tangible benefit, one has to wonder.

More than anything, it strikes me as a P.R. move.  The website constantly reminds the reader that Howard County was already "highly civil environment;" adopting this initiative is apparently a sign that the citizens of Howard County are just really, really committed to civility.  

In the interest of full disclosure, my skepticism may be based, in part, on personal experiences that are probably irrelevant.  Put simply, a disproportionate number of the cars driven by the worst, most inconsiderate drivers I ran across during my last couple of years in Howard County sported the "Choose Civility" magnet:

Mind you, I would be feeling and behaving perfectly civil BEFORE the car in front of me darted across three lanes without a signal or sat through a green light as the driver chatted someone up on their cell phone.  It was so persistent and uncanny that I actually started to wonder if the people with these magnets had been forced to put them on their vehicles by the local traffic court, perhaps as an effort to flag bad drivers and discourage those around them from giving into road rage (in retrospect, this was probably a foolish idea; I doubt that the mocking command to "choose civility" would do anything but incite those prone to road rage further).  My research revealed no such concerted effort; just the Choose Civility website. 

But I digress...I'd love to hear others' thoughts about civility initiatives such as this one.