Respect my authority!

It seems Becky's posts often lead to spin-off posts of my own. Maybe I am just too busy doing Sudoku to be creative these days. At any rate, her link to a CNN article suggesting people have become ruder brought back a sore subject with me: authority. I think part of the reason I never fit in well in the South is that I have no inherent respect for authority, or, more accurately, I don't have any more respect for someone in an authoritative position than I have for anyone else who I don't know well.

Respect isn't something to be taken lightly. Respect is important. Along with trust, respect has always been one of the intangibles I hold most dear. The worst punishment my parents could dole out when I was a kid was to tell me that I'd lost a bit of their respect. Gaining people's respect should be considered an honor, not a right. Earning respect should be a goal for every man.

I think we should treat all people with a standard amount of respect. We should be polite. We should listen to people when they talk to us and hold the door for them when their hands are full. We should say "please" and "thank you." These are, in my opinion, the basic characteristics of humanity. We should not afford more respect to a particular person simply because of a title or an age. There are bad cops and good bums out there. Until we've gotten to know them, we don't know the difference.

Part of the problem with "respecting authority" is that it implies it's acceptable to have less respect for people who are subordinate to us. It's not.

I have to admit that I'm not really sure what "respecting authority" could possibly entail. If you're at the grocery store, at peak shopping time, with a cartful of food, and a police officer is behind you with one item, should you let him in front of you because he's an authority figure? Isn't that the nicest thing you could do anyhow?

Once I was in this situation, except that the person behind me wasn't a cop--it was a busy, angry mom. She was on her cell phone. She kept checking her watch and looking at me and sighing. Her kids were running all over the place. And I decided that I would rather wait for her to check out than have her look at me and sigh one more time. I wasn't trying to be nice. I was trying to make her go away faster. I was just hoping she'd pay in cash and leave quickly. I was too tired to deal with her.

So I said, "Look, you only have one thing, and I'm not in a hurry... Why don't you just go in front of me?"

What happened after that sounds like a story you'd hear only in church, but I swear to you it's true. Her entire demeanor changed. She hung up the phone. She gave me a tremendous grin and thanked me profusely. She gathered up her kids. It was amazing.

But I digress. The point is that respecting authority ultimately hurts the rest of us. Can't we just be decent to everyone. Jeez!