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A Rant About Manners

© Aiesha Turman

Home training, etiquette, manners, or whatever you choose to call it…where have they gone? I am an avid rider of New York City's public transportation system and there are many advantages to taking the subway and the bus. For example, it is much cheaper than owning a car (have you checked insurance rates lately?) and much faster than driving (who wants to be annoyed by slow moving pedestrians and taxi drivers who put the gear in "park" at every red light).

Back to the etiquette issues. I realize that subways can be more tightly packed than a can of tuna in spring water, whatever happened to the phrase "excuse me"? People, without regard to others' feelings, corns and bunions, squeeze by in tiny spaces, step on your feet and push you out of the way. Of course this rarely happens to me because I have mastered "the look of death", but what about those people who are too timid and meek to speak up about the rude behavior of others? However, there are those times when people do say "excuse me" or some really fit guy gives up his seat to a pregnant woman, but those incidents are few and far between.

When taking the bus (which, by the way, I prefer), why does it seem that no one ever wants to give up their seat to the elderly? There are several signs posted in plain English (which, by the way, could be the problem since a large percentage of New Yorkers are not native English speakers) that say "Please give the seats in front of this line to the handicapped and elderly". Being the properly home trained young lady that I am, I always give up my seat to older people, pregnant women, people with injuries and the disabled. I am not trying to toot my moral horn, but I really think that it is the right thing to do.

After all, one way or another, we will be in their shoes at some point.