Former legislator offers plea for civility in politics and government during Lincoln banquet
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REXBURG — Much of Idaho’s top political leadership met Saturday in Rexburg for the annual Multi-county Lincoln Banquet – featuring speeches by U.S. Senator Jim Risch, Gov. Brad Little and former Idaho Senate President Pro Tempore Brent Hill.
Risch and Little opened the night by lauding President Donald Trump’s leadership in the first two months of his second term.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this second four years of Donald Trump are going to be significantly better than the four years he would have had if he’d been elected consecutively,” Risch said. “He sat around for four years thinking about this … and he’s back with vengeance.”
Little also praised Trump, noting his friendship with Trump’s Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum.
He highlighted the legislative work going on in the state of Idaho — specifically with tax cuts.
“We just signed the biggest tax cut bill in the history of Idaho,” Little said. “We were $4.6 billion in tax relief … this session, we’re going to go over $5 billion in tax relief.”
Hill, who served 19 years in the legislature and led the Idaho Senate for a decade, was the keynote speaker at the event. He focused his remarks on the need for civility and unity in politics.
He cited several experiences that he believes helped form a groundwork for civility and mutual respect between cultures, people, religions and governments.
As ambassadors at the United Nations for the International Affairs Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he and his wife, Julie, had the responsibility to “build bridges of understanding and friendship with every nation.”
“We ended up visiting with high-level diplomats from over 100 different countries in the two years ago we were there. Some of those countries were at war with one another, and yet they were friends with us,” Hill told the crowd.
In that capacity, he met with Huang Ping, the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China, at the 100th birthday celebration for former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Ping got a big smile on his face when he learned Hill was from Idaho.
“He (Ping) just lit up as he explained that when he was a young man in Beijing, his first English teacher was a lady from Idaho,” Hill related. “He said, ‘She changed my whole outlook on life, on international affairs, but particularly on the United States.’”
Hill also helped arrange a visit between Ukraine’s Consul General and Gov. Little.
These encounters led Hill to make a unique observation.
“I’ve observed that some of the most effective and successful leaders are those who treat others with kindness, respect and civility,” he said.
Hill quoted Thomas Jefferson, who wrote, “Civility is not a tactic or sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.”
Hill concluded with the story of Rebecca Brown Mitchell, an Illinois woman who lost everything upon her husband’s death in the mid-1800s and later came to what is now Idaho Falls. She was instrumental in the construction of the city’s first chapel and advocated for women’s suffrage in Idaho.
Mitchell and others “worked tirelessly to try to convince men that women should have the right to vote,” Hill said. “She (Mitchell) was determined to treat everyone with kindness and respect and civility, even those that were cruel.”
Within a decade, Idaho became the fourth state to extend voting rights to women.
Nearly 130 years later, Hill hopes that Mitchell’s example of civility and courage will continue to set an example for Idahoans to follow.
“There are lots of things to be worried about, but as we confront those problems … let’s not forget … we’re the greatest country in the world. We enjoy more freedom and more opportunities now than any human beings in the history of time.”
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EVENT IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.