Common Courtesy

 
 The art of keeping your mouth shut. Or as Proverbs so nicely puts it: "
 Whosoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles."

The definition remains largely unchanged--suggestions, accumulated
wisdom, and community norms for how to treat people considerately.
What is commonly known, and theoretically agreed upon is difficult to
achieve.

The recent election season was an acrimonious one--perhaps that is always the case, but it seems that while we had a moderate Democrat and a purportedly moderate Republican to choose from, the process was all about demonizing them both.  Instead of emphasizing their more modest differences, Romeny chose a Tea Party-friendly running mate and the GOP tried to paint President Obama as a socialist.  All of which raised a lot of anger on both sides.  Throw in voter suppression, rampant talk of racism, and the attack on women, and it became very hard to see how any one could be undecided in the election.  Nor how someone voting for one side could ever see eye to eye with someone
voting for the other.

So one should know better when in social situations with people whose political beliefs are either unknown or different from your own to keep ones opinions to oneself.  Easier said than done.  In the past week I have been on either side of this problem--the recipient of very unwelcome discourse on what were perceived as the tremendous failings of the current POTUS, and the perpetrator of discourse that I am more or less certain was viewed distastefully by the pointedly silent people on the receiving end of the conversation.  In both instances, I tried to get the conversation on a more neutral track, but it turns out that I am miserably bad at that.  Time to go back to charm school, it turns out.