Whatever happened to common courtesy??

I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend over the past few years, and it seems like this trend has made its way throughout the whole of society. The phrase “common courtesy” has seemingly become foreign to too many people today. This trend even includes the smaller things that people do for others, like holding the door open for someone who is right behind you so it doesn’t slam in their face, or letting someone go in front of you in line at a bagel shop if they seem to be in a huge rush. On the roads today, a person could legitimately killed or at the very least seriously injured for giving someone else the common courtesy of letting them out of a parking lot when traffic is stopped instead of pulling up right in front of the so that they can’t get out, no matter what. Also, the idea of moving out of the left lane when you see someone coming up behind you, especially if that person is a police officer or an ambulance, or even if a person has strobe lights on their car because they’re fireman seems to have disappeared completely. It’s really sad. In my opinion, I think one of the biggest crises the next generation will have is that people value everything about themselves, but refuse to give anyone else a moment or even a split second of their time to make someone else’s life just a tiny bit easier.
Last week, I was leaving my mom’s office, and I saw the mailman coming in with a hand truck that was full of mail for the entire building. I had just walked out of the outside door when I saw him coming, but I walked the few feet back and held both of the doors open for him. He looked absolutely shocked when he saw me grab the door for him and he said to me, “Thank you so much! You’re so nice for grabbing the door for me!” I couldn’t believe that he was so surprised that I held the door open for him. He acted like it was the first time anyone had opened the door for him. I thought it was just something that you do when you see someone coming up to a door with their hands full. That was just one of a handful of times people acted completely surprised that someone would actually hold the door for them. I know that there are some times when I am at school, there are people who just let the door slam in my face when I’m coming out of the door behind them, even with they’re not on a cell phone. I think it is terrifying that there are so few people in this world that will do something that simple that might make someone’s life a little easier. You never know when opening the door for someone, picking up their pen after they dropped it, or helping them pick up papers that fell out of their notebook will make their day at least a little bit better. I know that we’re all in a rush between classes at school, so when I’m not in a hurry to get to class, and there’s a decent line at Einstein’s, I’ll let someone behind me who looks like they’re in a huge rush to get to class get in front of me so they can get to class on time. I’ve done that a few times, but when I do, I get groaned at by someone else behind me who doesn’t have class at that time. It’s another time that something simple and courteous can make someone’s day, but something that no one really does.
I think the roads around the state are the worst place for the concept of common courtesy. No one extends even the slightest bit of courtesy to another. When driving down the highways, the law is to keep right except to pass. I guess no one got that lesson in driver’s education. There are too many times when I am on the highway and am forced to pass on the right illegally because someone doing 10mph less than the speed limit refuses to move over to let me pass. It seems today that there’s no such thing as letting someone in, especially when they are trying to merge onto the highway. Too many people refuse to turn off their high beams, especially on the dark county roads I live on, even if someone is driving towards them. Courtesy is not something extended to other drivers, even with the tiniest details like not driving while talking on the cell phone, not putting makeup on doing 80mph on the parkway, not trying to read a file to someone over the cell phone without even using a hands-free device. I never thought it was too much to ask for someone to pay attention to the road in front of them, and occasionally the road behind them, to stay in their lane, and to just not do anything stupid that might get themselves or someone else killed.
It’s hard to believe that so many people refuse to help others with anything, even the smallest things. I wonder if the idea of common courtesy will soon start to fall completely out of people’s minds. There are so many simple things that a person can do as a courtesy to another without any effort whatsoever. And those simple things could make all the difference in someone’s day.