WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BASIC COURTESY & URBAN CIVILITY?

I note that upon last Sunday's victory by the Chicago Bulls in the NBA championship series, the streets of Chicago erupted in rioting and civil disorder. Perhaps the usual liberal commentators and other media bubbleheads will come forward to instruct us on how we must "understand" the "rage" felt by these thugs and lawbreakers, as they did after the Los Angeles riots.

Now, it seems, the old standards have been loosened so much that a joyous event such as your team's victory is cause for lawlessness. What rubbish. An editorial I saw treated this subject well this week.

Urban Incivility

Chicago's streets were a mini-Los Angeles Sunday, with bouts of arson, looting and vandalism. Pundits came up with two explanations: economic want and political frustration. If those suffice to cause mayhem these days, we'd better roll up the sidewalks at dusk across America. Let's try another explanation. It doesn't apply to the vicious assaults murders, even that took place across L.A.; those are of a different order. But it could fit the spot rampages to which few communities seem immune. To use an antiquated word, call this a bout of immodesty.

It starts when a child fails to grow out of infancy and keeps hollering for candy or a toy. It continues in school where a cutup distracts classmates from the teacher. Next you see it in public places, where somebody parades in outrageous undress or totes a blasting stereo. In its latter stages, it intrudes on others' property first with a spray can, perhaps, then with a stone, finally with a firebomb. This ethic implies a right to vent any emotion.

Our popular culture, a model for the wider world, is full of people flaunting themselves where subtlety and quiet dignity were, not long ago, standard. Remember when a triumph at a sporting event did not entail sustained histrionics on the part of fans and athletes alike?

Which brings us back to Chicago. "When you celebrate something in America, you break a window and grab something," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. "When people have an excuse to loot, they loot." Hizzoner employs sarcasm where hizfather, in stricter times, threatened force.

"Shoot to kill" (the late Mayor Daley the Elder's order to his police at the '68 Democratic Convention) is not what we're asking for. A firm hand appropriately applied would do. We recall a friend's amazed tale from San Jose, a place not without rough edges. There, he saw a cop command a guy with a deafening boom box to turn it down. What a simple, wonderful throwback to another era.

Human behavior goes in cycles, we suppose, and that's about the most hopeful thing that can be said. Maybe these dangerous times will run their course without too many people losing too much that is dear to them. We are all being deprived of basic civility, though, and in this case maybe a little impatience for action is in order.

Wall Street Journal

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Buck Williams, power forward for the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team, quoted in the June 10 New York Times on the work ethic he learned from his parents:

"I watched them, waking up at six in the morning, never being late, never taking a day off. Wanting to better my family situation was a motivating factor for me. It kept me driving to succeed. And my mother was right at the center of that.

"A lot of African-Americans are very hesitant to talk about the struggle. They're almost embarrassed to talk about being poor. But talking about the struggle gives you strength, it gives you character. Sometimes we want to forget our heritage, which infuriates me because it's rich. You can build off it. You can use it to get you through adversity. That's the way I use it."

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Last week we were treated to media recollections of the 20th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. The owner of the newspaper that broke most of the story had some interesting comments recently. Kay Graham commented on how Watergate changed the media by motivating a generation of reporters driven by notions of "adversary journalism." Listen to Kay Graham:

"I mean, I think, everybody in the world, all the young people in the world, went to journalism school and wanted to investigate everything. And I think they overdid it. I think that you have to investigate things, you have to be skeptical, but you shouldn't be vengeful. You have to be fair and you have to be careful."

Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham explaining the long-term effects of Watergate to hosts of "Newsweek On Air" (AP Radio Network) on Sunday.