Growing up one of the things that was definitely instilled into me by my parents - well at least my Mother, as well as my grandparents - was respect. I don't mean the kind of "respect" that you see people such as athletes and other public figures clamor for; but rather real respect. Respect for your "elders", respect for "authority", and so on. Now, respect was not something that was a "right" - with respect came responsibility for those people to earn/deserve your respect.
Perhaps I'm turning into one of those "old people" that I used to make fun of as a child - you know the ones that always said things like "back in my day <blah blah blah>" and such; but it just seems to me that things have changed and not for the better. I think there is no better example than President Obama (or even the last few Presidents that have preceded him). Agree with his politics and policies, or don't - that's the right of anyone to do; but regardless of how anyone feels about the man or his politics/policies, doesn't the office of the President deserve some respect? If I had a dollar for every mean, hateful, or disrespectful comment I've seen since he's been in office I'd probably be wealthier than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined. I'm of the firm belief that a person can express their dislike for something without turning it into a personal attack, but yet it seems that I'm in the definite minority on this.
By no means is this limited to our Commander In Chief, I see the same thing occur all over the place. Children treating their parents in ways that I never would have contemplated when I was that age; service employees taking abuse from customers; and so on. I'm by no means overly religious, but one thing I did take from my childhood was "do onto others...." and it just boggles my mind that so many people seemed to have either missed out on this or simply decide it shouldn't apply to them. Is it so hard to be polite to the person making taking an order or ringing up purchases at the store? Just because someone is having a bad day themselves do they really need to try and ensure everyone around them also has a bad day? Again, I know there are times when that server/cashier/etc may have a bad attitude themselves, but the vast majority of incidents I see aren't that - they are simply people being rude/hateful/disrespectful because they can be.
I guess I should cut this short as I need to get back to work and my mind is more on that than this, but to part "a little nice goes a long way" and I really wish more people would give that some thought when they are interacting with others, be it in person, via social media, or whatever. Just saying...
- M
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