CIVILITY: Let's eat and talk

Remember when you were young and those rare occasions when your grandparents invited you to dinner in a fancy restaurant? It meant wearing your Sunday best, maybe even a pair of white gloves?

On the way to the restaurant you rehearsed in your mind which fork was for salad and which spoon was for dessert. Clearly there would be important conversation… “What are you planning on doing this summer?” your grandmother would ask and you carefully announced something like, “I’ve signed up for a ballet program.”

Well, I haven’t thought about those things in years and I haven’t owned a pair of white gloves since I moved to the Haight-Ashbury in ’68. But, given the current political conditions, I’m longing for some civility and I think I’ll vote for someone my grandparents would have invited to their dinner table.

SHIRLEY THAGARD

Hayden