Open letter to CBS: Show families respect
March 12th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Civility, Parenting, Sports
Dear CBS Executives, I love March Madness on CBS Sports. My wife and I will be watching your network for hours and hours over the next three-plus weeks. Our children will be watching, too. The NCAA tournament is a family affair. I am fortunate my alma mater, the University of Kansas, has another good team this year. The schools my wife attended — Kansas State University and the University of Maryland — are competitive this year, too. Our kids get [...]
Read more...Boo who?
March 9th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Civility, Kansas, Public Leaders, Sports
When is it appropriate to boo the President of the United States? Let me back up and ask when is it appropriate to boo anyone? The purpose of catcalls such as boos is to convey contempt or disapproval punctuated by an exclamation point. In other words, when we want to make it unambiguously clear that we don’t like someone or don’t approve of their actions, we boo. We are most accustomed to this type of heckling at sporting events. Crowds [...]
Read more...Does Sarah Palin Go Too Far?
February 11th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Civility, Democracy, Public Leaders
Are you old enough to remember the 1988 Presidential Election? The Democratic Party nominated Senator Lloyd Bentsen for vice-president. The GOP nominated 41 year-old Dan Quayle for this position. Senator Quayle’s age was considered a liability. To compensate, Senator Quayle pointed out often that he was of a similar age as John F. Kennedy when Kennedy became President. Senator Bentsen capitalized on Senator Quayle’s age and the comparisons to President Kennedy during their vice-presidential debate. Senator Bentsen’s quip is legendary, “Senator, I served [...]
Read more...Fix Congress First Should Be Second
February 5th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Civility, Democracy, Public Leaders
The American people have lost confidence in Congress as an institution. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. The Gallup organization’s tracking polls show confidence in Congress remains near historic lows. Only, twelve percent of Americans expressed a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress in 2008. People’s confidence level remained at an anemic seventeen percent in 2009. A summer 2009 Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that fifty-seven percent of Americans would vote to replace the entire Congress and [...]
Read more...Bobby Knight: Spokesman for Civility?
January 21st, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Civility, College, Sports
I watched Bobby Knight and Brent Musburger call the Kansas State-Texas basketball game on ESPN Big Monday this week. Number nine ranked Kansas State upset number one Texas 71-62 – though a home victory by one top ten team over another is hardly an upset. Kansas State fans began to chant in celebration late in the game as victory became imminent. Bobby Knight took issue with their chant. The Kansas State fans were yelling, “Over rated; Over rated,” indicating their [...]
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