Bad manners go around and come around
I’ve decided to give this city the edifying lesson it so sorely needs. We simply have no manners anymore. I’m not talking about the occasional missing please or thank you, but a genuine loss of common decency.
If you see someone rushing towards your elevator, hold it. If you’re walking or standing in a pack of friends on campus midday, step off the paths or walk faster—others may not have the leisure time you do. And I don’t care if you were up until 3 a.m. last night, locked in a losing battle to arouse your frigid partner, if you’re going to spend the class yawning, cover your damn mouth.
Also, just because you’re not kissing anyone in the near future doesn’t mean you can ignore your bad breath. When you speak up in class, it shouldn’t feel like an act of chemical warfare to those around you.
If you see someone fall and spill their books, or even worse, their laptop goes skidding across the concrete, help them up. It might make you a minute late, but it will be a nice reminder that you are more than a robot. In short, my fellow U of O students: don’t be assholes. Every discourteous act you commit against someone makes them more upset and more likely to be discourteous in their next interaction with another human being. It’s like some sick perversion of the pay-it-forward principle.
