On the whole, sir, I cannot help expressing a wish, that every member of the convention, who may still have objections to it, would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.”

– Excerpt from Benjamin Franklin’s closing speech at the Constitutional Convention, Sept. 17. 1787

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all doubt a little of our own infallibility? The vitriol of recent elections has shown how essential that wish is and also how difficult it is to achieve.

Trump vs. Clinton. Biden vs. Trump. Congressional races around the U.S. The overwhelming campaign message seems to be “the other candidate would bring about famine, plague and the end of the world.”

In other words, “vote for me or there will be a disaster.”

But as bad as those have been, a recent local election has surpassed them. They’ve gotten downright personal.

Just today, when I asked a reader to trim their letter to the editor down to the 250-word limit, I was accused of running “hack pieces” from the other side. Afterward, I took a quick review of the book and couldn’t find lobbing insults as one of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Maybe that was in a different edition. It certainly seems to have become the central strategy of modern politics.

For the record, I don’t edit people’s opinions in the Voices section. The people of the community are the editorial staff. Their opinions will differ.

I just wish we could express those differences with greater civility.

In the Florissant Fire Protection District race there were charges of “obvious contempt and disregard of the public” and “community input ignored.” Both sides have accused the other of being selfish, incompetent and agenda-driven.

It seems we’re all for free speech, but only if that speech agrees with our own.

Franklin said most people “think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error.”

We’ve certainly seen plenty of that in this and other recent elections.

But Franklin, respected even in his own day as being among the wisest of Americans, explained to the other congregants at the Constitutional Convention the reasons for healthy self-doubt.

“I have experienced many instances of being oblig’d, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise,” he said.

“It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.”

I’m not immune from my sincerely held opinions. I believe in things. What I have come to understand is that just because I believe what I believe for good, logical reasons doesn’t necessarily mean I’m right.

Which makes me doubt, a little, of my own infallibility.