National Institute for Civil Discourse

Founded to promote dialogue and undo gridlock in Congress and State Legislatures, the National Institute for Civil Discourse was in Seattle this past weekend to train state legislatures and to give its award to two Washington State legislators.  Check out their link

So you're going, "why were Ernie and Onions there?"  Our friend Eleni C. (and her mother on the far left) is part of an organization that help write the program for civil discourse in the Washington State Legislature and so she invited us to the reception.

But the main draw was that Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head by a gunman) was there to actually present the award.  That's her husband on the left.  Although the award was for civil discourse, the couple talked about discourse through the lens of gun control.

Awardee Rep. Hunt.

Awardee Rep. Zeiger.  The event was an interesting way (and certainly backdoor) introduction to the American political system for Onions.  He joked that in China, there IS NO political discourse (you figure out why!).  Secondly, the funny thing was that Onions' English name is the same as someone prominent in the field so each time he was introduced people were reverent to him.  Hahaha.