PORTLAND, Maine - In most election years comes the call for a return to "civility" in politics, which is usually then drowned in a sea of negative ads and far-slung mud. Undaunted, the Maine Council of Churches has launched an initiative called the Covenant for Civil Discourse, which encourages hundreds of candidates for public office in Maine to abide by a general set of rules of behavior. Keith Shortall spoke recently with the Council's Rev. William Barter, Bowdoin Assistant Professor of Government Michael Franz, and Dan Shea of Colby's Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, about what's happened to civility in politics and about the call for what Barter says is a pledge to respect our political opponents, not matter how much we may disagree with them.
