This citizen casts his vote for civility

Andrew Deal

Hanging effigies of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, slathering attack ads from Oregon’s Senate race, racially-charged accusations of voter fraud: next week’s election may seem poised to poison public discourse for years.

An east Vancouver businessman thinks he has the antidote.

Andrew Deal, 46, is throwing his entrepreneurial skills into promoting a national “vigil for civility” that he hopes will cool the post-election fury that could flare up next Wednesday.

“Four years ago, the story was about how 58 percent of the population was worried that we’d end up in court again,” said Deal, who organized a similar event in 2004. “This time, it’s 60 percent of people think that widespread voter fraud is likely.”

So Deal is calling for people to spend time in the next week praying for, fasting over, meditating on or just talking about ways to resist what Deal calls “the ‘win at all costs’ mentality.”

He’s also hoping some of them will share their pledges and stories at http://vigilforcivility.com, or even record them for broadcast over CelleCast, his 1-year-old company for distributing talk-radio programs over cell phones.

Deal, who said he voted Libertarian in the last two presidential races, said he chose the “vigil” concept because it seemed broader and he thought it would appeal to more people on the left.

“My personal faith is one that prayer makes a difference,” added Deal, who lives in the Fisher’s Landing neighborhood.

He aims to raise $1,500 in donations, all of which would go toward Internet advertising. By Tuesday afternoon, he’d brought in $62.

Deal also hopes that his relationships in the talk-radio world — CelleCast’s biggest partner is the conservative advice guru Laura Schlessinger — will help him land media interviews to spread the word.

Deal said he won’t be using information gathered as part of the vigil project for any other purpose, including CelleCast or CGI Productions, his Web development company.

Visitors to vigilforcivility.com can also find banners to promote the effort on their own Web sites, as well as a blog offering suggestions of where users might direct their prayers and attention.

Recent posts address a nonpartisan study that found a media bias against John McCain and a Republican charge that phony voter registrations have been submitted in Ohio.

“We’re not against people being upset,” Deal said. “We’re just for people doing something positive in response.”

Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com