Dear Editor,
Here in the beginning of the 21st century, the one R missing in today’s world is “respect.”
That word is far greater in my mind than “reading,” “writing” or “rithmatic.”
I also notice that the very meaning of the word is absent from most daily lives.
Do any of you remember when men stood up as a woman entered the room?
Do you also recall the days when men rose as a woman left the room? Not that long ago, a man raised his hat on meeting a lady in the street.
He also removed his hat when entering a house or room.
These customs from a few years ago are unfashionable or no longer practised in our present world, I wonder why?
When I was a young man on Remembrance Day, at exactly 11 a.m., everything in towns or villages would come to a sudden stop.
Buses and taxis, trucks and pedestrians would all stop whereever they were, to show two minutes of silent respect to remember the service men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
Men removed their hats and bowed their heads. Women stood silently, heads bowed. A single church bell sounded to end the two minutes of silence and everyone carried on with their busy day.
Another example lost to history is the respect shown by people on the street as a funeral procession slowly drove past.
Again people stopped, men removed their hats and bowed their heads as the cortege slowly passed. None of this is seen today.
The one, annual ceremony we still maintain is honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice in wartime on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11 each year.
In my lifetime, I have even seen changes in this event. Local towns and villages no longer show their respect by stopping whatever they are doing for a mere two minutes at eleven o’clock on that special day.
Perhaps doing that today would cause too much trouble in the world of commerce?
Respect is something missing from today’s busy lives. Sometimes we see a young person offer their seat on the bus or train to an elderly person.
Or perhaps a man offers his seat to a pregnant woman, but these respectful gestures are few and far between.
This action proves the custom is not completely dead.
However, oftentimes patience is coupled with respect, and if one part is missing, the part remaining doesn’t work alone.
This situation is often seen on our roadways. Impatience quickly followed by lack of respect causes accidents and worse. This is called “road rage,” and it’s becoming far too common.
Respect for another’s property is one of the most obvious factors missing in the 21st century.
Too many people younger than 60 seem to look for reasons to be disrespectful.
Is it the nerve, the excitement of showing off or just plain ignorance that causes this kind of behaviour?
Whatever the answer is, respect, as it seems to be now, is fast disappearing from our daily lives.
What’s worse is that the millennials of today don’t appear to want to retrieve this honorable habit.
Is everyone in too much of a hurry, to get as much as they can, of everything they want, at the cost of a little patience and respect for those around them?
The answer, it would seem, is yes.
M. Denny Lalonde
Richmond
