Civility 101

In the last few weeks, ?civility? has gone from a word rarely encountered to perhaps the most frequent noun in American public discourse. Everyone agrees: there is too little of it, our public servants need to display more of it toward one another. But ? perhaps since we have until now used it only infrequently, many of us may not be sure just what kind of behavior we are referring to when we urge people to be ?civil.?
What does a contemporary American mean by invoking civility as the new virtue? My American Heritage Dictionary lists a number of synonyms (under ... More >House Lab Laboratory