16 Sep
What Happened to Civility? Are Kanye West, Serena Williams and Joe Wilson Immune to the Consequences?
Newsy.com \”What Happened to Public Civility\” Video
Just in case you’re wondering, YES, WE ARE A LIVING IN A RUDER SOCIETY. Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned values and manners? From Serena Williams yelling expletives to a line judge after a questionable call at the US Open, to Kanye West’s outburst in front of Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards, to Joe Wilson yelling, “You lie!” at President Obama during his healthcare speech, these recent outbursts have set off a cascade of discussion about the crassness of our culture.
What has caused this epidemic of incivility? Some experts believe that we are living in a culture of entitlement where we think we can say and do nasty deeds to others without suffering the consequences.
What are consequences you might ask? When I was growing up, a consequence was a bar of Dial soap that my Granny Johnson used to wash out our mouths out if she heard us utter the Lord’s name in vain or mutter a curse word under our breath.
A consequence was a ruler our teacher used to swat the palm of our hand if she caught us yakking too much or clowning around in class. A consequence was getting sent to the principal’s office and sitting there trembling and awaiting the fate of a paddling if we were the least bit insubordinate to our teacher or the other students in class. The punishment, or consequence, wouldn’t end there. I and others like me would get another lashing (physically or verbally or both) from our parents when we got home.
Many celebrities and their publicists think that negative publicity is just as good as positive publicity. When it comes to behavior, the American people forget the good and forgive the bad. Therefore, it is the duty of the celebrity to stay in the spotlight, regardless of the price they have to pay or those they hurt along the way. What a pity.
Wish I had a magic pill or better yet, a magic seminar to cure the evils of the world. But I don’t. So until someone comes up with a cure for incivility, it looks like I’ll have job security for a very long time.
Football Etiquette Playbook
By Guest Blogger, Jorie Scholnik
The countdown is over! College football season has arrived and life is complete again! If you are an avid fan like me, you’ve been waiting months for the season to start and now it is just a matter of making it through the week in order to watch your favorite team defeat their opponent on Saturday. It is quite possible that you even bleed your school colors. Thoughts of tailgating, what to wear to the game and the location of your seat consumes every waking moment. While having school spirit is a must, keep in mind these football etiquette tips to ensure that everyone enjoys the victory:
Treat opposing fans respectfully. Despite their poor choice to cheer on another team, these fans did travel a long way to enjoy the game and deserve to have a pleasant experience. Also, you are a reflection of your school and, therefore, should want to act in a classy manner. Taunting is never appropriate.
Profanity won’t score you any points. I am well aware of how upsetting a dropped pass or a quarterback getting sacked can be, but football games should be a family-friendly event. People can get offended by foul language and it is grounds for ejection at many stadiums.
Don’t start the wave on offense. Your beloved team needs the fans in the stadium to be quiet so they can hear play calls and communicate with their coaches. However, it is perfectly acceptable to scream and get loud on when your team is on defense.
Avoid sneaking people into your section. It is always fun to sit with your friends, but the rows become extremely uncomfortable when there is not enough room. Additionally, people are more prone to get injured and suffer from the heat when it is overcrowded.
Pictures with others should wait until timeouts or halftime. People spend a lot of money for their tickets and don’t want their view of the field to be obstructed. For example, it is irritating when others block your view in order to take pictures during a scoring drive. Taking pictures of just the players or the field is acceptable at all times as long as you are respectful of others’ view. For that matter, fans should not leave or return to their seats when there is action on the field.
Jorie Scholnik is currently a graduate student at the University of Florida, where she has attended every home game for the past five seasons. She is an enthusiastic Gator fan who bleeds orange and blue. She has been respectfully winning national championships since 2006. She can be reached at Twitter.com/joriescholnik.
29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life
By Cami Walker, Guest Blogger
The first day of my personal 29-Day Giving Challenge was preceded by a sleepless night. I was awake all night feeling angry and sorry for myself during a difficult flare up of my Multiple Sclerosis. When insomnia hits, I often go through old journals and read them. I found a note that I’d made during a phone session with one of my spiritual teachers, Mbali Creazzo, two months before. The note said, “Give away 29 gifts in 29 days.” It was 3 a.m. and I decided in that moment to take the suggestion.
And so my 29-Day Giving Challenge began that morning as I gave my first gift — a simple supportive phone call to another friend living with MS. I woke up the next day and the next day after that feeling excited about what I might give away. And I began to notice that the more I gave away, the more abundance I was experiencing for myself.
I wanted to see what would happen in my life if I really committed and focused my energy on giving mindfully for 29 days. What space would it create in my life for new and unexpected things to occur? What shifts would I see in my thinking and behavior as a result? What impact would my gifts have on others? These were just a few of the questions I was curious about in the beginning, but there’s no way I could have anticipated what unfolded for me.
By Day 29, I was astounded by the magical and miraculous shifts in my life:
- I was feeling happier, healthier, and more in awe with life.
- I found myself smiling and laughing more.
- My body got stronger and I was able to stop walking with my cane by Day 14.
- My business exploded with new, unexpected opportunities and I was able to go back to work part-time again after months of being too sick to work.
- I began connecting with a community of new friends in Los Angeles after feeling isolated in my new home for several months.
- I also reconnected with my community of friends from San Franciscio and the Midwest, where I had lived previously.
- My creativity opened up and I began writing stories regularly.
- I began experiencing a deeper intimacy in my relationship with my husband, family and friends.
The list of changes goes on and on. This is only the beginning.
When I started out, nothing was planned. I simply began the day and when I felt moved to give something, I did. Part of me initially wanted to plot out the 29 days and line up the things I was giving in my hallway so I had the illusion of knowing what to expect. But collapsing into that old, manipulative and controlling way of being would defeat the purpose of the experiment.
I documented what I gave away and any observations I made each day. I began to post my stories online at http://www.29Gifts.org. Who knows, I thought, maybe others will decide to take the 29-Day Giving Challenge and experience a similar positive impact on their lives. So I decided to invite some friends to join me and within a couple weeks of sending the first invitation over 120 people signed up and committed to the Challenge. Today there are more than 4,700 committed 29Givers in 38 countries.
Our collective goal at 29 Gifts is to create a worldwide revival of the giving spirit in the world. We want to inspire more generosity on the planet and help change lives, one gift at a time. We have set a goal to inspire 29,000 people to sign up at http://www.29Gifts.org and commit to offer their gifts to the world by 10/29/09. I hope you’ll decide to join us and spread the word to all of your friends and family by inviting them to join in our global giving spree.
My book, 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving can Change Your Life (scheduled for public release on Oct. 9) can be pre-ordered now at a 32% savings. In the book you can read my own story of healing through the act of mindful giving, as well as stories from other members of our movement. Medicine Woman, Mbali Creazzo, also offers tips and suggestions for how you can get the most out of your own 29-Day Giving Challenge.
Click here for Cami Walker Video
How to Send the Right E-Mail to the Right Person: A Lesson Learned the Hard Way
Do you dash off e-mails and hit “send” without a second glance? Whether we choose to admit it or not, most of us are guilty of doing this. My husband, Brian, is an outstanding REALTOR however he recently admitted to sending an e-mail to the wrong person by mistake.
Just today, he told me that he meant to send one of his clients an e-mail containing an important contract. The client’s e-mail was something like, “JohnQPublic@hotmail.com.“ As Brian hastily typed the e-mail, he accidentally forgot to include the “Q” in the address bar. As a result, the e-mail was sent to “JohnPublic@hotmail.com.”
The recipient, John Public, was so irate when he received this e-mail that he responded with an e-mail that read, “Please desist all correspondence to this email address. You do me, yourself, and your clients a disservice by not verifying the address to which you send sensitive and private documents.”
Point well taken. The lesson learned is to always check and double-check a person’s e-mail address prior to sending sensitive or confidential information. If you don’t, it could end up in the wrong hands.
Have you ever sent an email that you later regretted sending? If so, let me hear from you.