rude behavior these days- article

[FC]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051014/ap_on_.../rude_americans

[karlunity]

Americans are, as a people, very kind and helpfuf and any outlander who does not like us can go to blazes.

 

Kind civil Karl

[Emul8]

I have a number of friends from all over the globe, some of whom have come to the U. S. for a visit, and THEY will tell you that Americans are the least rude, friendliest, kindest people they have ever met.

 

One of my woman friends from Australia and I were going into a shopping mall one day, and someone coming out of the mall came face to face with my friend, at which point they tried - unsuccessfully - to pass each other. After a couple of failed attempts, the person coming out of the mall did what many of us do, he said "Shall we dance?" to my friend...I laughed, as did the gentleman coming out of the mall, but my friend was completely astonished and silent! After she glowered for a moment, and finally passed the guy, I told her to lighten up, and she stopped and began to marvel at the event. She said that in Australia the guy would have just shoved past her. I shrugged at her and said "Isn't America great?". She enthusiastically agreed!

 

After her return to Australia, she sent me an email detailing all the rude behavior she had encountered for around a week after leaving the U. S. I found it sad in one sense, and heartening in another. It was sad that people have to put up with such things, but it was heartening that Americans aren't as bad as some places!

 

I guess it's all a matter of context.

 

I DO see an unpleasant trend of overall rudeness, particularly in young people, probably for the reasons cited in that article. But I also think that some of the views in that article are a cop-out. It doesn't take any more time to teach a child good manners than it does to ignore their bad manners, or if it does, the amount of time is negligible, and the pay-off is worth it!

 

Anyone who knows me really well knows that I cuss worse than anyone on earth. Yet, when I first meet people and ALWAYS around my elders, I do not cuss at all. I can honestly say that I have never said anything as benign as "hell" or "damn" around some of my relatives. This is what I was taught. My parents would have whupped my butt if I had been the slightest bit discourteous as a child, and as an adult I can see why!

 

And now, as an adult, I consider it my "duty" to correct any child with whom I have the remotest contact if they are rude. From opening the door for them at the library and expecting a "thank you" to Halloween trick-or-treaters, from which I also expect a thank you (though, those are lessening all the time...must be the masks!). It simply isn't acceptable to me to allow my cultivated kindness and consideration to go unnoted by ungracious brats!