{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns-and-op-eds/column-lead-example-encourage-civility", "COLUMN: Lead by Example to Encourage Civility", "2018-10-15", "2018", "2018-10", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Dan Newhouse", "N000189", "newhouse.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools. Today in our nation, the notion of civility seems to have taken a back seat.\nIt has been more than a year since the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise and Republican colleagues at their baseball practice, and more than a year since the murder of a counter-protester at the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. In light of such destructive political violence, as citizens, we must come together and commit to civil discourse.\nSometimes we need a reminder that being civil does not mean changing one another's minds or always agreeing. It means giving someone you do not agree with the benefit of the doubt and assuming they disagree in good faith.\nThis week in central Washington, I am hosting my friend and colleague, Congressman Derek Kilmer (D-WA), and he in turn is hosting me in western Washington. We are meeting with WSU Tri-Cities students, University of Washington Tacoma students, and local community groups to engage in a dialogue on how to disagree without being disagreeable.\nWhile there is much my friend and I may not agree on, we have worked together on many issues that are important for our constituents. Together, we introduced legislation to help veterans called the VA Management Alignment Act, which would direct the head of the VA to issue a report to Congress detailing the steps they will take to reorganize and effectively improve veterans' access to quality care.\nWe both cosponsored the Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act, which was signed into law. This bill created a new grant program to train students, teachers, school officials, and local law enforcement how to identify and intervene early when signs of violence arise. The STOP Act also creates a coordinated reporting system to prevent school shootings before they happen.\nWe supported passage of major legislation just signed into law by President Trump to combat the opioid abuse crisis by advancing treatment and recovery initiatives.\nWith Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in the Tri-Cities and PNNL Marine Sciences Lab in Sequim, we both support ongoing research at our National Labs.\nWhether it is working to promote economic development, helping our veterans, school safety, addressing the opioids crisis, we found points we can agree on and make progress.\nMaking progress does not always mean winning a debate. Some of the most strident venues for political opinions these days are online. We could all use a reminder that when we engage in debates in person or online, the goal is not always to change the other person's mind, but rather to show that you have arrived at your own conclusions in good faith. That helps others understand and value your viewpoints and helps you understand theirs, but it is also a recognition that our beliefs may not change.\nAs Americans, we have more that unites us than divides us. Committing to respect our fellow citizens helps build a civil society, and political discourse must aim higher for the good of our republic.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns-and-op-eds/column-lead-example-encourage-civility"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7642628625035286, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}