Here are just a few:
- Men wearing baseball caps in restaurants. To me, it's low class, dirty, and offensive. I know, I sound like a 65 year old man...well, I will be 65 in December, so I guess it's okay for me to sound like one! Then, there's the very special breed of low-life, mullet-wearing, redneck, bumpkin, inbreds, who wear their baseball caps backwards, so they can look like official dorks while they gobble their food.
- Talking on cell phones while conducting business. You see it all the time...a customer approaching a clerk or server or whomever, while on the phone and giving that person a minimal amount of attention while trying to conduct business with them. You're not so damned important that you need to be talking to someone every minute of the day. Hang up your phone, stupid, and show some respect for the person who is trying to help you.
- The movement away from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. When I pledge my allegiance to our flag, I'm recognizing that I'm a proud American. I love my country. I fought for my country in...I mean, I was a typist for my country in the Army, in Germany. I feel so blessed to live here and enjoy the freedoms we have. I appreciate those who have given their lives so we can have those freedoms. I'm thinking about all those things, and more, when I recite the Pledge of Allegiance and I'm sort of bonding with those around me, as fellow Americans.
- Different last names/living together. When new neighbors moved in, back in the day, once your heard their last name was Smith, you felt comfortable calling them Mr. and Mrs. Smith, until you learned and were invited to call them by their first names. You knew they were Mr. and Mrs. because they lived together. Now, people live together without the benefit of marriage and use their individual last names or they marry, but the woman keeps her last name or hyphenates his and her last name. Come on, Mr. and Mrs. Smith was so easy. When I was a young boy growing up in San Diego, the lady next door, Mrs. Green, had a series of boyfriends who lived with her over the years (months?). When the first one left and a new boyfriend started hanging around, I told my mother that, "...there is a new Mr. Green next door."
- Respect for Teachers and ones elders. I've always been a class clown and a trouble-maker, but when I got in trouble for disrespecting my teacher, or any of my elders, for that matter, not only did I get in trouble with them, but when my parents found out, I got in trouble at home, as well. The trouble at home was much more severe. There is way too much litigation in America today and a lot of it comes from parents who sue because someone offended their precious little offspring. Because of this, we have a disrespectful bunch of adults, young adults, teenagers, youth, and children, whose parents have trained them to believe they should bear no responsibility for their actions.
