Special counsel Joseph Welch ended the McCarthy era with the famous words, “Have you no sense of decency?”

Martha is a flight attendant and often gets unwanted attention. In the last few days, though, some of the attentions were not caddish, but nasty ones from people who know she is conservative. She shared with me some of what had happened, and asked what we do next.

I recommended plain and simple kindness. Respect for the next person does far more to win hearts and minds than anything else. If every person who lashed out had to volunteer with abused children, they might just learn that aggressive tactics rarely work to win a soul. Too many people yell from their self-righteous bubbles, unable and unwilling to understand what anyone else is saying. Certainly, one must stand up against injustice, corruption, and so on. But this ... this is mostly ranting into echo chambers. Civilized discussion can lead to progress.