As I visited my favorite online news sources this morning, the news was full of articles about Al Gore and the Nobel Prize award.
What I found even more interesting, however, was the comments posted by various members of the public which were connected to some of these articles. A minority of comments were reasonable and intelligent, some supportive or congratulatory, and some not. A majority of the commentary was childish, mean-spirited, and revealed a high degree of illiteracy, ignorance, and just plain bad manners. There was name-calling, there was vitriol, and there were verbal attacks on Gore, the Nobel committee, and on other commentors.
When I am tempted to comment on a news story, as I occasionally am, I look to see if the comment pages are filled with this kind of garbage. If they are, I don't want to toss what may be an intelligent comment (with any luck) into a cesspool of dirt.
Perhaps this is indicative of where our civilization is going - if so, I am saddened.
Note - this is not about Al Gore, or any particular stance on Global Warming. It is about our level of literacy, our sense of good manners, and our degree of human kindness toward one another. It is, in effect, about our level of civilization. Period.
Who is setting the standard for us? Who is painting a vision for a civilized world? If our leaders cannot do at least this for us, then we will lose any ability to pull together to enhance our lives.
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