Health care reform and civic conversations

In the past year, millions of people have been involved in discussions about health care reform, but have these been “civic conversations “?  From shouting matches at town hall meetings, to White House summits., to hundreds of hours of television talk, to neighborhood discussions, to street demonstrations, the topic has elicited a variety of voices from different groups.  For the most part, however, I think we have witnessed what one could call “social discussions” rather than “civic conversations.”