Common Consideration and Courtesy

The Disney version of "Bambi" has a line that sums up how people in this world should live their lives: "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."  (Ignore the double negative for the sake of quoting accurately).  Common consideration and courtesy seem to have been thrown out the window for a large group of people in our country.  This mama has some opinions on the topic:

First of all, in the vast majority of cases NO ONE ASKED YOU.  If someone asks you for your honest opinion, by all means, share.  If they don't ask, keep your mouth shut unless it is harming you or someone else (and don't be the sarcastic jackass that says that someone's loud shirt is hurting your eyes.) I don't know if you know this or not but we are on a planet that is part of a solar system that ALL revolve  around one source....that source is NOT you! Your opinions on Sally Sue's church dress may be important to your friends but Sally Sue does not need to hear negativity.  At what point did the people in our society become so full of themselves that they don't realize that not everyone wants to hear them spew their destructive filth into the world?

Secondly, if you're not being productive with your speech, shut your mouth.  What I mean by this is that if you're going to use your words to tell someone how they're ugly, too fat or too thin, have a big nose, can't sing (etc) then you are not using your words for productive purpose.  If you're asked to judge a beauty pageant, you can voice your opinions on someone's appearance.  Otherwise, shut it! You can think it all you want but no one wants or needs to hear it.  We wonder why there is a generation of bullies and self conscious people.  When our society seems to encourage kids and adults alike to be critical, we are feeding into it daily.

Thirdly, if your argument on a topic is to correct someone's grammar, you have no argument.  Realistically speaking, debate is healthy when both parties are handling it with respect and dignity.  When you start attacking someone's character, you're out of arguments.  When you start criticizing their grammar, you're past that.

My next point would be that tact is still a "thing" in the 21st century.  I'm not suggesting that you blow sunshine up people's butts but let's be realistic: there is a time and a place to say something if you absolutely MUST say something critical.  There is a way to say something that might make someone you love feel mad/sad and it's not to publically berate or belittle them.  Tact is still something that should be practiced.  This isn't necessarily for anyone else's benefit but your own.

Finally, I would say the following: The I-Don't-Care-What-People-Think mentality is poisoning our society.  Now I want to be clear that I am not saying that we should be people pleasers, constantly concerned with whether or not everyone likes us.  What I am saying is that when our society, as a whole, stopped caring about what "everyone" thought, we seem to have lost accountability for any of our actions.  We seem to have forgotten that our nation is supposed to be "ONE NATION UNDER GOD" not a bunch of jackasses yelling at each other under a variety of beliefs and non beliefs.  I, personally, don't believe that the "under God" part of that was about being a certain religion but about being one voice against anyone that would dare to come against our great country.  When we lose accountability and spend all of our time harping at one another, we seem to lose something in the translation.

It's a very fixable problem that we have in our society.  Make an effort to make what comes out of your mouth count.  Make it something that will HELP our nation build stronger and not something that will tear down its citizens.  You can be the start of a trend that will change the world for the better.