We've had years of small erosions of civility and responsibility that all add up, and if we're honest we each have fallen on at least one occasion.

I see ads for "if you've accumulated more than $10k in credit card charges, we can get your record cleared....yada yada", or in other words there's a Federal Law that says if you're really "good" at racking up credit card bills, you can steal someone else's money to use for trips to Belise, jewelery, and so on, and not pay it back! Great lesson. Or how about, "it's not your fault, you're a victim, it's the fault of (fill in the blank, rich, whites, minories, yada yada). Or "those evil corporations, the rich, your boss, or whomever, that's keeping you down".

Those examples and many more are just piled on a formable mind and indirectly tell them that bad behavior (or what we used to call bad behavior) is acceptable, especially if you can dream up a politically correct excuse.

Now, in a sea of negative stuff we're all sharing, I see some light from time to time. Yesterday we took a little trip to Portland so I could buy some hot rod stuff I don't really need. We stopped for lunch at a fast food place. The two little girls in the next booth had to go potty. This place is on a busy intersection so must get a bunch of transient trade and in response they issue a key at the counter to open the head. So the two little girls go in. A short while later a woman with a couple more little girls comes in the front door and tries the bathroom door only to find it locked. A couple moments later the father in the booth next to us gets up and starts walking toward the bathrooms. He noticed the woman waiting and that his girls had been in there awhile. About half way there he had to stop because his girls came out. But we gave him credit for being both attentive and courteous.

Likewise, again in a restaurant (okay, I've got this thing about eating) a few months ago, there was a kid in a booth a couple away from us that was getting, oh let's call it restless. Mom was all over the situation. She reaches in her bag and pulls out a puzzle, a map of the United States, with the capital cities highlighted. In a few seconds the kid quieted right down as they got involved in putting the puzzle together and his learning the capital names. Very impressive. A short while later we were leaving and I couldn't help but go over and compliment the mother on her attentiveness to others around her, as well as choosing to do something educational to control her kid. She beamed at the acknowledgement. Man....we need more young parents like that. I feel the need to reinforce this kind of good behavior because I'm often just as likely to dress someone down for ignoring their ill behaved little rats (being the shy and retiring sort I am).

There is still hope.