By Camille Lyon Posted October 14, 2009
When is it okay to be openly rude? Everyone should know how to act in public, but some don’t. Whether it was Kanye West stealing the microphone from Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards or Representative Joe Wilson inappropriately yelling at the President; is this acceptable? I think not.
Being polite is a golden rule everyone understands. People tend to take the situation into their own hands to act out and display rude thoughts. It seems as time goes by every generation is becoming more impolite than the last. I miss the days when many would be polite and courteous to strangers, but now it seems as if everyone fears the homeless man walking towards them on the street. Being nice to others might give the possibility they will be nice back. Kindness is contagious, but it seems to go the same way as being mean.
The Constitution’s first amendment guarantees free speech, but some take this right to the extreme. I respect others if they respect me. A person’s rights end when they violate the rights of others.
Kanye West may have just forgotten his manners when he rudely ripped the microphone out of Swift’s hands; he may have just been exercising his first amendment right, but everyone who witnessed it understood it was not right. In addition to the displays of emotions during the VMA’s, Lil Mama jumped on stage while Jay Z and Alicia Keys sang the ending performance of “Empire State of Mind.” No one caught the surprise in the ending but it was there. Is it just celebrities and people of power who think they have the self-proclaimed rights to do what they want? These people are role models and they do not seem to be leading people in the right direction.
Manners should still be enforced. I hope parents are instilling the same values in their children they used to. Remember to say please and thank you because it may just catch on to others, and hopefully we can hope for a more polite future.
