The Death of Common Courtesy

I was standing in line at Chipotle the other day, trying to decide whether I was going to be healthy and get brown rice in my bowl or throw caution to the wind a get the white rice, when two men walked through the door and joined the line behind me.

I normally wouldn’t have noticed them, except for the fact that they were having a very loud conversation that was liberally peppered with vulgarity, swears, and references to various parts of the female anatomy. I should probably mention at this point that my nine-year-old daughter was in line with me, and the restaurant had several other children sitting at tables and waiting in line with their family.

The conversation got louder and raunchier, and NO ONE SAID ANYTHING. Everyone, including the employees at the store, ignored these two men. No one even seemed bothered by their conversation. I turned around and gave the men a look, but they just ignored me and ramped up their conversation even more.

I eventually left without getting food, deciding to spend my money in a more family-friendly establishment. But as I drove away, I was saddened. Not so much by the two men who were severely lacking in manners. There have always been crass people in the world, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. No, I was saddened by the fact that in a restaurant full of people, no one even raised an eyebrow at this classless behavior.

It left me wondering, what has happened to our society? When did we become a country where we are perfectly fine with children being exposed to profanity and vulgar comments? When did we become a society where not one person will speak up and say, “Hey! There are children here”?

I’m all for free speech. And I don’t think that speech should ever be regulated by the government or by law enforcement. However, I am saddened that we have become a society of people who no longer feel as if we have a moral obligation to balance the privilege, and responsibility, of free speech with basic common courtesy and awareness of our surroundings. We have become a people that no longer believes that some things just shouldn’t be said around children.

Maybe I’m just an old fashioned dinosaur who needs to get with the times, but I feel that our society has lost something special when common courtesy and human decency becomes a relic of the past.