Timely advice for civility in the new year

On Jan. 6 I was part of a group that gathered in Boulder for a Silent Vigil for Peace and Civility.

My beliefs on that topic arise largely from my three-plus decades as a journalist. I believe most folks who go into public service—whether at the municipal, county, state or national level—do so because they think they can contribute to the benefit of the community. In general, they want to hear from the public and respond in a meaningful way.

My career allowed me to see how often the public failed to show up to provide input until it was very late in the process. Too often people would then approach public officials with anger. Too often that would result in frustrations by the public officials who heard only the anger and never got to the real root of the problem.