Some 75 people spent a beautiful Saturday morning engaged in the essential activity of citizenship at Civil Discourse in the Public Arena, a workshop coordinated by the League of Women Voters, Skagit County. Modeling participation were County Commissioner Ron Wesson, Mount Vernon Mayor Jill Boudreau and Sedro-Woolley city councilman Karl de Jong, among attending elected officials.

Keynote speaker Amy Young, chair of the Communication and Theatre Department at Pacific Lutheran University, noted that our contentious political moment is calmer than the 1850s. Then a South Carolina Senator cane...