Now Kindness is a Dirty Word, Too

The Richardson ISD celebrated "Kindness Day" Friday, February 24. It was the brainchild of the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council. By most accounts, it was a rousing success. Most accounts. According to some, "Kindness Day" is a leftist plot.

My take is that kindness day is clearly a (attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors...strongly tied to SEL) program that indoctrinates kids...that students are to avoid saying anything "intolerant" that might offend the diversity and inclusion snowflake crowd. Kindness day is the subtle way for K-12 to impose the sort of leftist speech codes that we observe on college campuses.

Source: Facebook comment by Bill Ames.

So, add kindness to the list of motherhood and apple pie virtues that I used to think were non-controversial. Virtues like tolerance and compromise and civility all have come under attack from conservatives. What I thought made American democracy great is being surely dismantled, virtuous brick by virtuous brick.

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It started with "tolerance." Long ago, I was surprised to learn that tolerance is not universally considered to be a virtue. (Tolerance was imagined to be synonymous with approval - approval of gays, of Muslims, of sin.) Then, I learned that "compromise" is not universally considered to be a virtue, either. (Compromise was imagined to require a surrender of principle.) Then, I learned that "civility" is not universally considered to be a virtue, either. (A call for civility was suspected of being a liberal trick to shut up conservatives.)

If there isn't common ground on even these innocuous virtues, on what can we build? Scary thought: maybe building on common ground isn't universally considered to be a virtue, either.