It's time, I think, for a New American Civil War.

Oh, I'm not calling for American citizens to take up arms and storm the White House and Congress. Instead, I'm suggesting we all need to step back, take a deep breath, and reexamine the entire concept of political and social discourse.

America is embroiled in an uncivil war - a battle defined by coarseness, division, bitterness and rancor. We substitute name calling for debate, anger for rational thinking and hate for understanding.

Our country sinks under the weight of partisanship, crippled by the spreading paralysis of divisiveness and consumed from within by a cancer of polarization.

...I'm going to call on friends of colleagues from 40 plus years in journalism and 20-some years in politics and tap their minds and expertise to start, I hope, a new American revolution. And I'm asking readers for rational feedback that avoids the name-calling, flame-throwing and rage.

With luck and some hard work, this will not be a revolution of arms and conflict but one of rational debate and a free exchange of ideas, a revolution where reason replaces anger, hope overcomes cynicism and action replaces talk.

America is already embroiled in an uncivil war. Our only hope is to replace it with a civil one.