by ©2019 Sarah Becker Civility “So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof,” President John F. Kennedy (D-MA) said on January 20, 1961. The Oxford American Dictionary defines civility as politeness; courtesy, respect and amiability. George Washington’s Rules of Civility, Rule 1: “Every action done in Company ought to be with Some Sign of Respect to those that are Present.” Incivility, according to The American Heritage Dictionary, is described as rudeness. “I cannot charge myself with incivility, or, what in my opinion is tantamount, ceremonious Civility,” George Washington wrote in 1775. “I have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington 200 years ago,” President George H.W. Bush (R-TX) said on January 20, 1989. “It is right that the memory of Washington be with us today…he remains the Father of our Country.” “America is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we cannot help but love,” Bush explained. “[But] we need compromise…We have seen the hard looks and heard the statements in which not each other’s ideas are challenged, but each other’s motives. And our great parties have too often been far apart and untrusting of each other. It has been this way since Vietnam. That war cleaves us still…no great nation can long afford to be sundered [separated] by a memory.” “[T]he old bipartisanship must be made new again,” Bush continued. “The American people await action. They did not send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan.” “No President, no government, can teach us to remember what is best in what we are,” Bush concluded. “But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a…