At Salt Lake Community College in the year 2012, a Declaration for the Writing & Social Justice Conference:

A Call to Arms for Civil Discourse!

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for rational people to take up civil discourse against the tyranny of fallacious argumentation and fear-mongering political punditry, a decent respect for the opinions of humankind requires that we declare ourselves open for discussion, debate, and perhaps even compromise. We recognize that we are independent beings while acknowledging and honoring our interdependence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women and men are entitled to their opinions but must recognize that their opinions are not the only ones. Reasonable people may disagree. Whenever dialogue becomes destructive to the ends of responsible public discourse, it is the duty of citizens to abolish the incivility to which they have grown accustomed. When we resort to a long train of abuses and usurpations, fear mongering, name calling, bullying, misleading statements, and exaggerations in order to express our opinions, then invariably we ourselves take part in injuring the foundations of liberty and justice that sustain a democratic society. Fear-mongering political pundits use our own dearly held biases and prejudices to speak to our basest selves. In turn, we perpetuate this manipulation through our lazines and reluctance to pull ourselves away from our mediated existence. We have constrained our fellow citizens with the bonds of uncivil discourse: For advancing our own political agendas instead of advancing the common good. For demonizing groups that do not share our same ideologies, whether those be political, religious, ethical, or cultural. For reconstructing history to support our own myopic view of the world while denying inconvenient facts. For feeding our fragile egos that demand to be right at all times instead of being open to the merits of other opinions. At every stage of the oppression various groups of citizens have asked us to knock it off and we have ignored them. So what is left for reasonable people to do? Revolt! Rise up against the forces of uncivil discourse! Appeal to the justice and magnanimity among our fellow citizens to disavow these tyrannies and usurpations. Promote that which connects us as a community of free people. Honor our interdependence!

You are invited to compose your own manifesto for civil discourse at Salt Lake Community College. s sto Manifesto Contest nife rds Ma Ca March 2-April 2, 2012 5 ! op Gift ore T Submit your manifesto to: kst in W e Boo wsjmanifesto@gmail.com o th t For more information, go to wsjconf.wordpress.com.