Proud to be a Hoya

Jack DeGioia, president of my alma mater, issued this statement yesterday in support of law student Sandra Fluke, rightly calling the latest outrageous rants of Rush Limbaugh and others "misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student."

The quote from St. Augustine is worth remembering not just on this topic but toward the end of practicing civil discourse on countless issues where people have strong points of view:

Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance.  Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth.  Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us.  For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.

Sometimes we think that the very notion of "civil" discourse means we must compromise our passions and the truth we do see. To some it suggests "keeping the peace" at the expense of truth. But in fact, civility suggests no such thing. It simply means laying aside arrogance in pursuit of a deeper and more complex truth we do not yet see, and an awareness that this deeper truth must be sought together "as something which is known to neither of us."

Limbaugh and his kind embody the antithesis of civility and DeGioia is right to call him out on it.