COMPLETE LACK OF CIVILITY

All this philosophy and effort over a 12 minute net delay?

Be Grateful you didn’t take an axe to the back of the head or see your son murdered by a squalor person.

You don’t travel much, Do You ?

Glad I live in a small community where strangers still say hello, hold open doors, and exhibit courtesy on the roads. This small North Georgia town has a Walmart, but no weirdos, many more mom and pop establishments than chains, and very few persons of color or Islamist.

I got behind someone the other day at what is probably the busiest intersection in my area. Not unusual to have to sit through a couple lights during certain times of the day. This asshole was in the left turn lane, gets the green arrow, and apparently realized he needed to go right, so he just sat there, waiting on the other traffic from the opposite direction, who also had a green arrow, to go, and then turned right. Fuck every single person behind me. My time is more important than yours. Probably 20 cars had to wait through an entire other cycle because of him. His time, in his head, is more important than all the people in every other car behind him. I LAID on the horn, until my wife pleaded with me to stop because the kids were in the car. Fucking inconsiderate people.

This is just a sample of the Mexification of Amerikka. I have an uncle that lives in Messico….this is how they all act, I’ve heard so many stories of people basically acting like animals. Between the Mezikans and the limo-zinne libtards (who are obviously above the law) we are in a downward spiral.
I fly quite a bit and haven’t ran into any of this type of behavior, mostly because I stay away from big airports. I blame the police in an area like that, they’d rather stand around thinking they’re tough guys than do their job- traffic control is one of their primary duties.

Robert Putman’s Bowling Alone pretty much sums it all up. More diversity equals less cohesion. If we want diverse people from diverse cultures with diverse beliefs and mores, then we can have no expectation that our systems, traditions, behaviors and customs will have any more weight or priority than theirs. Asians don’t mind crowding up into the personal space that would make most European-descended folks cringe, African folks have a volume control that pushes the top end while Northern European types barely speak above a whisper. The result is self-segregation and that’s all we see in America today, media and advertising images notwithstanding.

Quick story about the exact opposite experience.

Last week my youngest son had a concert at the local high school. There were approximately 200 kids from the fourth grade through high school seniors performing in several groups doing about a dozen pieces or so and it was held at 7 pm. There were close to six hundred people in the audience at the gym and it was packed, SRO. Folding chairs had been assembled on the floor, bleachers on either side and risers for the performers. The audience was very diverse in terms of income and social class; obese and unkempt families wearing camouflage, men in suits and ties just coming in from work, there were farmers and timbermen, fashionably dressed women with designer purses, people pushing 90 and pregnant 20-somethings. There were siblings that ran from infancy to toddlers, teenagers there to watch their friends, people I knew from my neighborhood that have no kids who just wanted to see a nice concert. The volume before it began was moderate- plenty of conversations going on, but certainly no yelling or hooting, no loud or angry voices, even the kids were keeping it to a dull roar, as my mother used to say. Everyone was smiling, or at least putting on their very best taciturn Yankee in public rictus of a grin. There were very few hand-held devices in use even though there was nothing about it being prohibited posted or mentioned. There were two pianos for accompaniment and people kept a comfortable distance away from them and the two cameras that were set up to record the event. No one strolled in front, blocking the shots. The kids performing were all dressed in black pants or skirts and white shirts and blouses. A couple of the kids had off color shirts and some wore dark blue pants and you could tell it was because of their economic situation rather than forgetfulness. Most of the girls had their hair done up nicely, the teenagers wore respectful make-up- there was one goth looking girl, another with blue hair, but that was the extent of their adolescent rebellion. You could tell that they all took it seriously.

So you had a tight space, fully packed, at the end of a long day, on a cold night and yet it was calm, peaceful, respectful and orderly. The performance was quite good. I go to all of my kids events over the years and they always do a solid job so it speaks to their teachers as well as their own dedication to the practice they put in.

What stood out to me- and of course I am always noticing the world around me critically and for things others probably don’t- was the fact that there were only two people in that entire room who were not White, both school-aged, one a Vietnamese girl I know is adopted and one that appeared to be from Peru/Central America. There are probably not that many places left in North America with that kind of demographic cohesion and the group dynamic- despite the wide disparity in income and social set- was one of respect, reserve, appreciation, calm, interest and geniality. Even when it was over, an announcement was made to help with the chairs and everyone, rather than running for the doors, helped fold and stack them. There were people smiling and shaking hands all over, kids running around greeting each other and when we left the extremely congested parking lot into the night by a single lane, everyone understood to allow the cars to merge, alternating one row at a time.

People who fail to understand that diversity exists within similar groups are the same ones who ignore the cacophony and friction when groups become increasingly more diverse ethnically and racially.

Is it wrong to notice these things?