1. "Civility in public discourse is important". This sentence reveals Chavez's opinion right away. By writing this first sentence, we can see she is already criticizing our carelessness of civility. She is aiming at the lack of civility with examples in many situations such as in politics, newspaper, and literature.
2. Chavez uses the word 'bellicose' by using the politic examples. "When we say a candidate 'took his best shot,' we don't mean he aimed a gun at his opponent. Nor does 'firing a shot across the bow' mean anything more than issuing a strong warning." She indicates that those phrases with bellicosity are not necessarily means what it says. Her opinion wasn't about orginal meanings of those words, it was about how people can use those phrases appropriately. I think she uses the word 'bellicose' to distinguish between the words that are just as belligent, but has different purpose and some words that really are offensive.
3. A) I think she is telling readers that in order to show our civility, we should use the phrases appropriately and make better word-choice depend on situations. By using the example of person being forced to resign, she shows how people can use inappropriate phrases unconsciously in the situation and don't realize it.
B) She mentions that, "But words themselves aren't the problem -- it's what is behind the words that matters", to show how we can be offensive and hurtful with poor language choices. Chavez certainly thinks that it is not the matter of words, it is the matter of context and contents. Besides, it is our choice to make afforntive argument, even with the words that are not necessarily belligent.
4. I agree with Chavez's notion that it's our own desire to decide the meaning of sentence, not the words. 'One rotten apple spoils the barrel'
