Restraint

John Dickerson in The Case for Restraint in All Things says:

I am a fan of restraint. I think we've lost the ability to restrain ourselves and that leads to boorish behavior, bad outcomes, cruelty, and the forfeit of reason...

Restraint allows conversation between different kinds of people...

Sometimes stopping and engaging your opponent in conversation makes for a more effective debate. It certainly makes the exchange more illuminating. That requires restraint. I tend to think that most of our public debates would benefit if everyone didn't motive-judge from the outset.

I feel that way. What if, when we ran across someone who disagreed with us on a social issue, we practiced restraint? What if we assumed that people who want to vote for someone we dislike are not our enemies?

When I hear about people "fighting" against hate, it gives me pause because you are still fighting. Is there another term that we could use?

I'll use a poem to illustrate how I feel:

Outwitted
by Edwin Markham

He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!