The Quest to Restore Common Decency UNCIVIL SOCIETY?

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The corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Essex Street here offers an unsavory view of what's fueling one of the fastest growing movements in academic, political, and philanthropic circles.

Cars speed through the intersection to cheat a changing traffic light. Cheek-pierced children in low-riding pants panhandle for change. Wads of gum stick to bus-stop benches. Has America lost all semblance of civility?

A growing number of people think so, and their concerns are spurring a new field of research and activism into the causes of rising unruliness. The civility movement, so to speak, gained fresh momentum this week with an anonymous $35 …