I want to thank George Smith for his Nov. 1 column, “Candidates should make a pledge for civility.” The National Institute for Civil Discourse has chosen Maine as one of four states to be the focus of its national #ReviveCivility program. On Oct. 6 we held our official launch at the University of Southern Maine with our partners, the Maine Development Foundation and the League of Women Voters.

We chose Maine to join Arizona, Ohio and Iowa as a focus of the Revive Civility Campaign due to our deep roots in the state: former Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is on our board, and Maine legislators from both parties have been participants and champions for our Next Generation program, which focuses on building relationships and civility between state legislators. We also feel very fortunate to have Pam Plumb and Ryan Pelletier as our state chairs. The number of people that joined us for our campaign launch simply drove home that point that Maine was a great choice.

I urge your readers to check out our Civility Tool Kit at www.revivecivility.org, where they will find a discussion guide that provides advice on holding hold civil conversations both one on one as well as with a group, and our Text Talk Revive Civility texting program that encourages both young people and adults to learn more about civility; what it means and why it is important whether one is dealing with friends, neighbors, classmates and/or family.

We look forward to continuing our work in Maine, building new relationships and taking the ideas we learn here and sharing them with the people all over the country.

Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer

executive director

National Institute for Civil Discourse

Washington, D.C.