This is *** editorial civility in our public discourse seems to be *** thing of the past. And that's why two recent events caught our attention. Last week, the Des Moines City Council participated in *** four hour training course on civility. The intent was to increase the effectiveness of city leaders in their work. And then this week, the Robert D and Billy Ray Center at Drake University hosted *** program to elevate civility in local elections. One of the goals of the Drake program was to help anyone interested in getting into local politics to be better prepared to communicate and collaborate with greater effectiveness and civility. Let's face it. We've lost the art of civility in our public discourse and we applaud these recent efforts to regain it. Now, for this to truly impact our community. Voters have to reward civility at the ballot box and that will be the real test. Will we reward the confident, calm, collaborative public servant or is it the loud brash politician who promises to fight with whatever it takes to win that gets our vote? That's *** question for each of us. Furthermore, will we embrace civility in our social media feeds. Will we help nurture it and even expect it in our daily communication. What will we say the next time we staunchly disagree with someone's position? Will we seek to understand or simply shut them down or worse, shut them down? Civility is something we need. More of anyone who is willing to invest in improving our discourse is to be applauded and as citizens, we can do our part by making sure we support this through our social media channels, our daily conversations and our votes. Welcomes responsible replies to this editorial.