Once again we start a new year, a leap year in fact, and we're supposed to set some goals for it. Before you simply toss off a couple of easy ones - not that you would do that, I'm sure - or you say the hell with it, let me give you a list to choose from. A multiple choice, as it were.
Automobilizing:
Driving habits are teeming with opportunities to be a better person in 2008.
❚ I will use my turn signals to advise other drivers of the erratic maneuver I'm about to execute.
❚ I will stop at all red lights and stop signs, recognizing they are mandatory, not merely a suggestion.
❚ I will desist in using a cellphone while driving because I seem to be incapable of holding a conversation while maintaining the speed limit and seeing other drivers.
❚ I will slow down at inter-sections with no lights or stop signs, not assume I have the right-of-way.
❚ At that type of intersection, also called "uncontrolled," I will yield to the street intersecting on my right as the law states.
❚ I will reinstitute the Seattle custom of allowing cars to merge into a lane rather than employ the California, I'm-not-letting-anyone-in-front-of-me tactic.
❚ Unless I'm at least 70 years old, or physically disabled, I will not double park (flashers or no flashers) on McGraw to run into the post office. I will find legal parking somewhere, using the opportunity to walk a block, not only freeing up the street through the Village for other drivers, but chipping away at the extra weight I gained during the holidays.
❚ At an intersection with a turn arrow that stays green only long enough for four cars to make the turn, I will be ready to accelerate and get my butt around the corner so others can turn as well, not sit there forever, then slowly crawl around the turn as the light goes yellow.
❚ When parking, I will move up close to the car in front of me so that we can park as many cars as possible in the ever-shrinking spaces available in the Village.
❚ If I ride a bicycle, I won't assume I own the road, and I will try to obey the laws pertaining to red lights, pedestrians and stop signs the same way I expect automobiles to do.
Some ideas for shopping:
❚ If the Express Line says 12 or 15 items, I will not enter the line with a loaded basket, pretending not to see the sign, or that English is not my first language.
❚ I will have my money or credit/debit card out and ready to give to the checker, not stand
there rummaging through my pockets or purse as everyone waits behind me.
❚ I will return items I've changed my mind about to their proper location in the store, not drop them off wherever I happen to be at the time.
❚ If I knock something from the store shelf, I'll put it back, not walk away leaving it on the floor.
In restaurants:
❚ I will talk to my server, and the bus person, seeing them as real people, not as servants to be treated and talked to brusquely.
❚ I will not walk to the register to pay the bill (except where that's indicated) leaving my dining partner(s) still sitting and eating their meal.
❚ I will tip between 15 and 20 percent for good service, recognizing that servers get minimum wage and depend heavily on the tips to make a living.
❚ I will understand that food does not appear magically in front of me when I eat out, but that many people out front and in the kitchen are working their tails off to make my experience enjoyable.
Space limitations prevent me from listing other ideas in the realm of environmental stewardship, cellphone etiquette and common courtesy in public.
We're about to leave an era that has been defined by statements like "You're either with us or against us," defining people and countries as "evildoers" and generally employing language and tactics that divide rather unite our nation and the world.
Maybe each of us, in our own way, can begin to move the collective mentality of this nation back toward one that looks for reasons to agree rather than to disagree; one that walks the talk of compassion and humanity; and one that reflects the moral principles so often uttered in the pulpits of government and religion.
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