Civility

 this I got from Old NFO(http://oldnfo.blogspot.com/.  This ties in with my own personal experience.  I have noticed that civility is rare commodity in this day and age.  I had a similar incident at a convenience store in Riverdale,  I was in line to get a diet dew and a munchie.  A young urban youth walked to the front of the line cut off a lady fixing to buy some cigarettes, looked at everybody, mouthed off a couple of cuss words then commented that " y'all ain't gonna do sh*t about it".  An older black gentleman walked up to the youth and the young man spouted off" whatcha gonna do, yous an old niggaz"  The older gentleman proceeded to coldcock the kid.  He then turned to the stunned cashier, paid for the kids purchase and walked out.   The rest of us were stunned by the events we had witnessed.
       I work in the aviation field and I have heard rumblings from some of the people that are on the airplanes that fly.   I remember when flying was a big deal, people would dress up to fly.  Now we have people that get a ticket to fly and they show up wearing flip-flops and super casual clothes( I'm being generous in the description).  People would be in their best behavior when they fly.  I have heard of some of the noveau rich that fly in our planes got kicked off because they have really bad attitudes and caused major problems by their demands on the flight crew.    When we fly we have to dress business casual at the minimum because we represent the airline.   I have seen the damage done to the interior of some of the planes and I wonder how can people cause wanton destruction to the interior of an airplane.   Maybe I am a throwback to a forgotten era, I can't stand wanton destruction and mayhem for mayhem sake.




     An educated populace is the best defence against a tyrannical gov't

ci·vil·i·ty 
[si-vil-i-tee]
–noun, plural -ties.
1.
courtesy; politeness.
2.
a polite action or expression: an exchange of civilities.
3.
Archaic . civilization; culture; good breeding.
Origin:
1350- 1400; Middle English civilite
Middle French <>

Today, in my opinion, civility is a lost art...

Coming back from Japan I had an interesting conversation with the purser on the 777; she been a flight attendant for almost 30 years, lots of it on overseas routes. What started the conversation was a line for the bathroom, a young pregnant Japanese lady and a rude Chinese man.

We were calmly (well more or less) waiting our turn, the bathroom finally came open, and the young Japanese Lady went to step in, only to be rudely pushed aside by the Chinese man with a comment that none of us understood.

The purser happened by at that point and I said something to her about it, and asked that the Chinese speaking flight attendant come and say something to the Chinese man. The flight attendant (female) showed up, and was obviously nervous about confronting this guy.

We asked her to talk to him about pushing to the head of the line and what he said to the Japanese Lady and the rest of us. He finally comes out of the bathroom, she politely asked him why he pushed in ahead of the line. His comment back to her was obviously rude and crude as she blushed and started to bow.

At this point a couple of us 'cornered' the guy against the overwing door and he suddenly got real passive... We told the FA to tell this guy that kind of crap does NOT fly in the US, nor on a US airplane, and WE weren't going to put up with his attitude. She did so, and this guy didn't move from his seat for the rest of the flight.

Any Hoo... I end up standing in the galley talking to the purser, and she tells me it's getting worse every day. Not only the Chinese, who apparently don't believe in lines and routinely push to the front/insult anyone who blocks them; but younger people who 'demand' service, trash the airplane, drink everything they can get away with, play porn videos on the airplanes, etc.

She said it is almost routine to have an incident on every flight now, and said most of the flight attendants have ceded control of the cabins to unruly passengers, rather than get into a knock down drag out in the aisles.

So... this morning I have to go get food (that I forgot on the way home)... Lots of RABID football fans out, some of them either getting an early start on the boozing or just never quit from last night.

I grab what I need, I'm heading for a checkout line and I stop to let an older man with a cane go ahead of me. This punk (I'm not gonna say what I REALLY thought of him), goes around BOTH of us to jump the line.

The older man says to him, excuse me, but you cut in front of us; the punk responded that he didn't give a s**t HE had things to do and we were too slow...

And proceeded to unload his basket, ignoring us completely. We just kind of looked and each other with a what can you do expression...

And then the punk's buddy shows up, and goes to push around us...

I move over and tell him we are already in line and he can wait, he makes a smart ass comment to me and goes to push around me, when the older gent turns around lets loose with a string of invective like I haven't heard in 30 years!!!

He calls both the punks everything in the book and then some, and says if punk #2 tries it, he's gonna shove his cane so far up his ass he's gonna be choking on the tip...

And he's holding the cane like he's ready to perform that act! Punk #2 wanders off to another line, we turn back around and the cashier is about to blow a gasket trying to keep from laughing...

I look down and the old gent's sleeves are pulled up and I see tattoos on both arms, so I ask him what branch? Turns out he's a retired USMC Gunny, retired in the early 70s and he's NOT a fan of the younger folks either.

He also said he 'should' have given the first punk a piece of his mind! He told me he's seen a real downturn in both civility and politeness in the last 20 years, and really the ONLY place it's still in effect is on military bases, since the kids who are in the military still get civility drummed into them in boot and in dealings with others on base.

In retrospect, I can only agree with him... It seems like the gun culture IS truly the only polite culture left!

In other news, this is the 100th anniversary of Ronald W. Reagan's birth.We could really use somebody like him right now, and I don't see anybody waiting in the wings that even comes close...
Sigh...