Several comments are made in this week’s paper about treating people civilly as we head into Town Meeting and elections, and we heartily concur. Nothing is served by getting personal when issues are being discussed—except, perhaps, to make the person getting personal lose face and influence. People don’t have to like each other; they don’t even need to respect each other; but if they stop listening to each other, there’s no way they can understand, compromise, resolve, and move on to the next issue. A Chinese friend once told us his theory that each person has 18 troubles, and 18 only—that’s all a person can deal with. So when a new problem arises, an old one goes away. And when an old one is solved, a new one takes its place. There are plenty of issues to take on; why get stuck in a quagmire of personalities when lots of problems—up to 18—exist to be solved?