So I know everyone is blogging, twittering, facebooking, gossiping, etc. about last night's incident at the MTV Video Music Awards involving Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Beyonce. I already had in mind what my second blog posting was going to be about, and I really didn't want my writings to enter into the messed up world of celebrity gossip.
I'm not going to focus on the details of what people are upset about regarding last night's actions. I just want to ask this question: has our country forgotten the rules of politeness and civility?
Less than a week ago South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson displayed behavior that was less than polite during President Obama's congressional address. Again, I'm not going to go into the details of what was behind the outburst.
Kanye West and Joe Wilson are entitled to their own opinion. With the freedom and liberties granted by our nation they are even entitled to express their opinion. However, there is a difference in expressing a belief in a dignified manner and straight up being rude about it. Both men could have expressed their reasons for being upset in another outlet and in a more civilized way. I know the world of politics and the world of celebrities are not really the same (except in the way that they are both screwed up!)
What about the rest of us? I'm sure we're all faced with rude people everyday. The world is filled with mean-spirited people. I used to work at Wal-Mart so I have seen the epitome of rudeness. I've experienced it at a Royals baseball game when some very rowdy and obnoxious people behind us wouldn't calm down after we politely asked them to. Instead they got in our face and started mouthing off. I was SEETHING mad and had so many non-civil words and phrases running through my head that I wanted to spew out. But my mom taught me something that has stuck with me: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I was mad at myself for not saying something, but we dealt with it in a better manner than continuing to have a yelling match. The High Road isn't so bad.
Emotions can run rampant in us which I believe is a reason for rudeness. It's kind of sad that we sometimes become slaves to our emotions, don't you think? And as much as we have dealt with rude people, we have all been rude ourselves. I know a time or two when I've been tired and grumpy and I've said "Excuse me!" in an exasperated tone to that lady who seems to be purposely blocking the frozen pizza aisle.
How do we stop rudeness? HA! I've been accused of having a "Pollyanna outlook on life" and perhaps I do have too much of the attitude of "can't we all just get along?" However, I'm going to throw it out there- "Love thy neighbor as thyself" Call it what you will: the ethic of reciprocity, the Golden Rule, the Great Commandment, but I think if we did treat others the way we wanted to be treated life would be a tad bit happier, more peaceful. It is not always easy, but that's where self-control and self-discipline come into play.
I'm watching CNN and they are talking about people being rude, so I guess I'm not alone!
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