by J. Renda

Created on: September 05, 2008

In todays fickle society rudeness has become a staple ingredient. Its unfortunate that as the years pass, at some point courtesy and morals died and some of us have no wits to resurrect it. It is a very bold and cruel statement of truth. It is not for all of us to correct others, in fact it would ensue more of the abhorrent behavior out of those who are offended by correction.

I have noticed that in the area of New York that I reside in, that the public behavior is very crude and a regular social norm here. I have opened the door of a store for other customers and been given a dirty look instead of a 'thank you.' It was as if I was in their way or if I was painted blue head to toe. I couldn't understand it for a moment and instead of dwelling on it I tossed the feeling aside. I tossed it aside easily because I felt at some point it would just happen again and I would need to brush it off. Of course, it happened again with in two weeks after the prior snubbing of my courtesy.

Society accepts this behavior and in some ways promotes it. Celebrities are seen getting into physical squabbles with photographers and the tabloids. The tabloids in turn, get more customers that want to purchase the edition with their favorite stars and starletts duking it out over a flash of a camera. Society is loosing it's footing on the subject.

Times have changed. People have changed, values have changed and interests have changed.
With seemingly timeless lyrics about self desires and the ability to satisfy one's quench for wealth and gain, the recognition of how we treat others is fading. Even down to the music industry, and television studios you could say attribute and influence the youth. They tell them what is hip, what is acceptable and what they should try to be.

I remember, as it was years ago the rude, crass, class clown got all the laughs and the respect at the expense of whatever poor teacher or students they picked on. It is considered cool to be disruptive, cool to be rude, and cool to be openly rude to adults. Not every child is like that, however there is no school year that passes that someone does not willingly glorify the clown.

There have even been police reports filed on someone stepping on another man's 'Timberlands' before and it ensued into physical fighting. Everyone always has the three seconds in public to offer an apology to a stranger. It is a fact. Would I ever be in such a hurry to plow through a crowd and clothesline a nun? Never. It is rude and unacceptable. Walking backward into someone while you are yakking away on your cell phone and then blankly staring at them is just as equally rude and more commonly practised.

We need to restructure our definition of rude to fit our more modern rules. I went to a pharmacy drive through window a week ago, and noticed the sign read "Due to privacy laws, we cannot serve you if you are talking on a cell phone." I agree. It's rude, naturally I understand the privacy laws but I applaud the short and firm sign.

We need to formulate new rules such as No cell phones on in the bank, if you are texting on your phone and cause an accident by jay walking you get a ticket. Anyone that has more than three stray cats on their property needs to be ticketed. Its a start.

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