{"id":240,"date":"2010-07-20T04:00:39","date_gmt":"2010-07-20T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2010-07-20T04:00:39","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T10:00:39","slug":"common-courtesy-frozen-custards-fonzie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Common Courtesy, Frozen Custards, & Fonzie!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"You can spot them a mile away.\u00a0 You may not be able to make them out completely, but you just know one when you see it, even\u00a0from a\u00a0distance.\u00a0 In Albuquerque, where I’m visiting, there seem to be a lot more of them\u00a0than in the southern part of New Mexico, where I live.\u00a0 What am I talking about?\u00a0 Vehicles still proudly\u00a0displaying Obama bumper stickers.\u00a0 The driver of one such SUV, an Obama\u00a0’08 blazened\u00a0on the back bumper\u00a0for all to see, started to change lanes in front of me, but then hesitated.\u00a0 Realizing what she was doing, I slowed down, signaling\u00a0that it was okay for her to make her move.\u00a0 Right blinker flashing, she maneuvered safely\u00a0into my lane.<\/p>\n

Before she changed lanes, I noticed the bumper sticker.\u00a0 While I had every reason to believe that she supported President Obama, she could not have possibly known that I do not support this President or his policies.\u00a0 Yet, I had a choice to make.\u00a0 Would I\u00a0be courteous and let\u00a0this Obama-supporting driver move over\u00a0into my lane or, would I\u00a0speed up, acting as if I didn’t see her, thus denying her an opportunity to make her\u00a0move?\u00a0 Even though I reflexively hesitated (I\u00a0must admit I always\u00a0do when I see\u00a0an Obama\u00a0bumper sticker),\u00a0I slowed down and allowed the\u00a0SUV driver to change lanes.\u00a0\u00a0Through her tinted back window, I saw her give a courtesy\u00a0wave as she sped out of sight.\u00a0 As an aside\u00a0that perhaps Larry David\u00a0could\u00a0further explore on an upcoming episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em>, does it count as a courtesy wave if you can’t see the person making the gesture?<\/p>\n

In our increasingly polarized culture, common courtesy seems to be in short supply.\u00a0 Too often, our words and our actions are needlessly offensive, especially toward those\u00a0 with whom we\u00a0disagree — politically, religiously, or philosophically.\u00a0 Intstead of allowing someone to change lanes, we speed up.\u00a0 Instead of saying something nice, or not saying anything at all, we utter comments that lack both courtesy and class.\u00a0\u00a0This malady\u00a0continues to\u00a0spread and\u00a0no one\u00a0seems\u00a0to be\u00a0immune.<\/p>\n

Back in June, Vice President Joe Biden visited a\u00a0frozen custard shop outside of Milwaukee.\u00a0 Although he mistakenly ordered ice cream instead of custard (I’m with Biden on this; I’ll take ice cream any day over\u00a0frozen custard), the Vice\u00a0President wanted to settle up before he left the store\u00a0.<\/p>\n

“What do we owe you?” Biden is heard saying in footage captured by WISN-TV.\u00a0 “Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s on us,” the manager replied. “Lower our taxes and we\u2019ll call it [the custard] even.”\u00a0 “Why don\u2019t you say something nice instead of being a smarta_ _\u00a0all the time?” Biden said a few minutes later.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t care what your politics are or how badly\u00a0you dislike this administration (or the one before it),\u00a0when the Vice President of the United States of America walks into\u00a0your frozen custard shop or business or church, you should treat him with the\u00a0utmost courtesy and respect that his office demands.\u00a0 A\u00a0nice, “Thanks for coming into the store\u00a0today, Mr. Vice President.\u00a0 Your custard’s on the house”<\/em> would have been\u00a0a kind and courteous word.\u00a0 If he couldn’t bring himself to say something nice, then he should have accepted\u00a0Biden’s offer to pay and\u00a0said thank you.\u00a0 While I do\u00a0not think that it was appropriate for VP Biden\u00a0to use the language he did,\u00a0there is still no excuse for the store manager’s discourteous display.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There likewise\u00a0is no excuse for the obnoxious words spoken by actor Henry Winkler, most famous for his role as\u00a0Milwaukee\u00a0resident\u00a0Arthur\u00a0“Fonzie” Fonzarelli on the popular 1970’s sitcom Happy Days<\/em>.\u00a0 What is it with\u00a0Milwaukee?\u00a0 In May, the actor and children’s book author was interviewed on The Joy Behar Show<\/em>\u00a0on the Headline News Channel.\u00a0\u00a0Winkler was on the show to promote\u00a0the final book in\u00a0the popular ‘Hank Zipzer<\/a>‘ series, which he co-authored.\u00a0 These\u00a0children’s books were inspired by Winkler’s\u00a0own childhood battle with dyslexia.\u00a0\u00a0Following the adventures of a fifth grade boy, these books are inspirational tales of courage, challenging children (and parents) to overcome life’s obstacles.\u00a0 I can’t say that I had heard of these books before the Behar interview became well-known, but I would have been inclined to purchase them for my own family.\u00a0 My middle son, Jacob, has dyslexia and could\u00a0relate well to Hank\u00a0Zipzer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While\u00a0only a small audience tuned\u00a0in to\u00a0watch the\u00a0interview when it first aired, in the days that followed many more were made\u00a0aware of the contents of the interview, particularly\u00a0Mr.\u00a0Winkler’s\u00a0mean-spirited remarks about Sarah\u00a0Palin and her family.<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>When you’re\u00a0trying\u00a0to sell\u00a0children’s books, what would possibly possess you to utter petty and insensitive\u00a0statements about a former VP candidate’s family, knowing that your remarks will offend a large segment of the book-buying public?\u00a0 Regardless of Mr. Winkler’s\u00a0personal views of Sarah Palin, common courtesy would dictate that he not attack her family and that he refrain from mocking someone who has a child with physical and mental limitations, especially\u00a0when\u00a0he’s trying to sell books\u00a0about a child\u00a0with learning difficulties, the very same ones that he himself experienced.\u00a0 When asked about Sarah Palin, the Fonz would have shown more class by smiling, giving a thumbs up and shutting up.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe he\u00a0forgot what Mrs. C taught him,\u00a0“If you\u00a0can’t say anything nice about someone Arthur, then don’t say anything at all.”<\/p>\n

So the next time you’re in traffic and a vehicle with an Obama ’08 or a Bush-Cheney ’04\u00a0bumper sticker signals to change lanes, don’t worry about whether the driver\u00a0agrees with your politics or your faith.\u00a0 Just show a little common courtesy and let them move over.\u00a0 Now if they don’t give you a courtesy wave, well, that’s a whole other story!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can spot them a mile away.\u00a0 You may not be able to make them out completely, but you just know one when you see it, even\u00a0from a\u00a0distance.\u00a0 In Albuquerque, where I’m visiting, there seem to be a lot more of them\u00a0than in the southern part of New Mexico, where I live.\u00a0 What am I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[129,259,735],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-courtesy","tag-obama"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-3S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}