LIBRARY: A plea for "civil civic discourse"

I had a Tilda item all ready to go about the nasty dustup between Bayard Taylor Library board president Susan Mackey-Kallis and Kennett Township supervisors' chairman Scudder Stevens, full of accusations and rebuttals and intemperate language on both sides. Juicy stuff!
But you know what? I decided not to run it.
I was on the library board during the bitter controversy 15 years ago, and one of the (many) life lessons I learned from that grueling experience was that politeness and cooperation get you a lot farther in the long run than pettiness and snarkiness, as tempting and satisfying as the latter may be at the moment.
And "the long run" is what the library board should be focused on: making friends and cultivating donors.
Of course the library board's first reaction is to fight back, and with as much spin as they can muster
("Save the Library!"). And that's understandable; the board members feel they're under attack.
But wouldn't it be a lot more constructive if, instead of devoting all that energy to generating spin, they did some serious thinking instead? "Wow. What have we done to tick off so many people? And how can we redeem ourselves?"
Hatred and divisiveness take a very long time to heal in a small, tightly knit community like this. Name-calling, ad hominem arguments, and "he said/she said" are not going to get us anywhere we want (including a good night's sleep).
As my friend and fellow board member the late Stefi Jackson used to say, "What has happened to civil civic discourse?"
One thing that everyone can agree on -- and that's worth repeating -- is that the library staff does a great job. When I was there for a meeting the other night, the perpetually enthusiastic children's librarian burst into the hallway, inviting me to attend an "egg drop" that was happening in five minutes. I was sorry the meeting was starting! And I just got an email about an Insta-Con event that's going on at the library this weekend, full of comic book and robot programs designed for teens. It's great to see the place packed full of kids.
Those of us who were on the library board back around the year 2000 spent countless hours at meetings, at community events, at our computers, at cocktail parties, lobbying for a new library.
Please. Let's not mess it up this time.