Kids These Days:

Barack Obama is too inexperienced to be president of the United States. That’s not a new sentiment here, but it is one that is increasingly being supported by his words and actions.

Not everything he does, however, is wrong, and that is something that his detractors should acknowledge.

Last week, the president called for greater civility among Washington politicians, which is a very good idea, though there is evidence that he is not always the civil person he’d like the rest of his colleagues to be.

It’s more talk from a very good talker.

Civility has a trickle-down effect that will ultimately reach our children. The problem is that we have allowed so much incivility over the past decade that it will be difficult to reverse the trend.

Incivility takes the form of using profanity in public — something I always mention to the speaker unless he is bigger than me.

Incivility also takes the form of actions. On a recent trip to Yosemite National Park, our family was sitting by a large window at the Ahwahnee Hotel. Out on the field of snow were at least 10 snowmen that had been created over the past few days.

Out of one side appeared two kids who looked to be about 15 years old. The two boys — many years ago they would have been called hooligans — began to knock the heads off of the snowmen while an adult supervising this looked on, smiling. I got up to put a stop to the destruction, which prompted a groan from my son. “Dad…,” he said while rolling his eyes.

By now, my son should be used to such interventions. He has been with me on several occasions when I voiced my displeasure to those I believe were acting uncivilly.

I went outside and told the adult to ask the boys to stop destroying the snowmen. She responded with a smile and said, “They’re just having fun!” At the same time, one of the boys gave me a “Now what are you going to do about it?” look.

I told her that it probably did not occur to her that the people who made the snowmen were just having fun, too, and that perhaps there were a lot of people in the park who enjoyed looking at them.

Then I walked inside.

I had created a teachable civility moment for my kids and I seized it: “The reason that this type of behavior is increasing is because no one calls anyone on it. No one speaks up, and so people think it’s OK to swear in public or destroy what others have created.”

There was silence at the table.

About 10 minutes later, I looked out the window to see the two boys putting the heads back on the snowmen.

President Obama is not likely to have a lot of luck increasing the level of civility in Washington, but I applaud his effort, even if at times it seems as though he should heed his own advice.

The next step is for the president to teach his own staff about civility, starting with his chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, who is receiving flak for using the word “retarded” to describe the actions of some fellow Democrats.

I’m not sure that saying “retarded” merits the furor over its use, but given the dozens of words he could have used instead, it says something about his state of mind in that context.

It was uncivil.

STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Send story ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com .