Respect and Courtesy

A colleague of mine, an amateur photographer, recently posted a photograph of an older man wearing a shirt that, in essence, referred to the President as a liar, a radical, a Marxist, a socialist, a tyrant, and a subversive.  My colleague posted under the photo, “The lack of respect for the office of the President of the United States appalls me.”  Can you respect the Office and not respect the Office holder? Should the Office be respected without considering the person holding the office?  Good questions.

If someone cuts me off in traffic, has that person “disrespected” me? Since chances are good that I don’t know that person, I would say the person was guilty of discourteous behavior, but not necessarily disrespectful behavior. What’s the difference? Courtesy is defined as “excellence of manners or social conduct; polite behavior”. Mr. Webster says that respect, the noun, is “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability”.  Furthermore, the dictionary states that respect, the verb, is “to hold in esteem or honor” or “to show regard or consideration for”.

I went to Google and searched for “disrespect” and “shooting” which returned almost 6.3 million websites.  Obviously, many of the results were multiple references to a news story or incident. But even if ten percent of those results are unique stories, then that’s a lot of shootings based on perceived disrespect. One convicted murderer claimed he felt “emasculated” and “disrespected” because the victim had threatened to beat him if he harmed the victim’s daughter. A mass shooting in Miami began because of a perceived disrespect at a wake. A Maryland teen killed a man who had earlier yelled at him because the victim “disrespected” him.  A Wendy’s employee in Florida attacked a customer because she felt disrespected when the customer, after being told several times, would not speak up when placing her order. More recently, an ex-student opened fire at a small Christian college in Oakland, California, and killed seven people.  The ex-student told police he was upset because he felt the students at the college had mistreated him and disrespected him.

I’ve heard the saying, “Respect cannot be learned, purchased or acquired; it can only be earned.” I don’t know who first said this, but I agree.  It is my belief that respect is not a right but an earned privilege.  And, as my friend has lamented, respect isn’t bestowed upon all old people just because they have reached old age, it is given based on their character.  Take a minute to ask yourself, “Have I earned respect today?” If the answer is no, do something to earn it.  It may be as simple as being courteous and kind to others that earns their respect.

When I was a kid, there were some personal behaviors collectively referred to as common courtesy.  These included saying “please” and “thank you”, not using offensive language in public, holding a door for someone, essentially, following the Golden Rule (“Do onto others as you would have them do onto you”).  Courtesy is no longer common.  The results of an Associated Press poll conducted a few years ago indicates that people believe Americans are more rude compared to 20 or 30 years ago and that the blame lies with parents failing to teach good manners, the affects of TV and movies showing rude behavior, and celebrities, athletes, and public figures behaving rudely and being poor role models. The rude behaviors most frequently cited were loud or annoying cell phone use in public, rude or offensive language in public, and aggressive or reckless driving.

Many feel that the absence of courtesy is reflected in a general lack of civility, especially in politics.  Will this lack of civility tear our country apart? If it does, we can’t say we weren’t warned.  Samuel Adams, in 1779, wrote in a letter to James Warren, “A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy”. In 1802, John Witherspoon, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, “Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction”.

 How to make courtesy common again?  First of all, be courteous yourself. Say please and thank you when soliciting and receiving assistance. Turn down the volume on your cell phone conversation, or remove yourself and go somewhere that your conversation will not annoy others. Turn off the ringer in the theatre and in other similar situations. Obey the driving laws, use your turn signals and don’t tailgate. Focus your attention on your driving. Don’t use offensive words in public. And turn off the sense of entitlement that sets you up to respond discourteously.

Second, politely demand courtesy.  If the situation warrants and wait staff isn’t courteous, speak to the manager. If the sales clerk is rude, talk to the store manager. If people around you are impolite, call them on it, if it is safe to do so. Be aware that your request for courtesy may be met with increased rudeness. If that’s the case, walk away.  But remember, making courtesy common again starts with you. As Emerson wrote, “Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy”.

Common courtesy should be common, but respect must be earned.  Practicing common courtesy goes a long way towards earning respect. Be worthy.

Follow the Creed

In the history of Auburn University, my alma mater, George Petrie occupies a very important place. Petrie organized the first Auburn football team and the first football game in the Deep South, the 1892 contest between Auburn and Georgia in Piedmont Park in Atlanta.  In 1943, as an Auburn professor, Petrie wrote a set of beliefs and principles that he believed to be common to all Auburn students, faculty, and alumni. These beliefs and principles, known as the Auburn Creed, embody the spirit of Auburn.

The Auburn Creed

I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.
I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.
I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.
I believe in a sound mind, a sound body, and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.
I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.
I believe in my country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God."
And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.

As a student, I accepted the words of the creed without question because I thought everyone everywhere felt the same way.  The beliefs and principles of the creed were the same as those practiced by my family.  It wasn’t right to get something you didn’t earn through hard work. That’s why everyone in my family worked.  An education was a privilege, not a right.  That’s why my parents made such a fuss over my grades.  A man’s word meant something because his word was backed by a history of honesty and trust. That’s why telling a lie incurred my mother’s wrath.  We obeyed the law because laws were meant to be obeyed. And we believed in God and country because God is the source of all our many blessings and the freedoms we cherish were paid for by the blood and sacrifices of those who came before us.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that not everyone shares the beliefs encompassed by the Auburn Creed.  For example, 21.8% of the total US population do not count on only what they earn and thus receives government assistance. (This percentage (67.3 million people) does not include federal government employees.) How much assistance do these people receive?  On average, each person received $32,478 worth of benefits from the federal government (source:  William W. Beach and Patrick D. Tyrrell, The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government, The Heritage Foundation, https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2012/pdf/sr104.pdf).    What message does this send when there is no incentive to stand on your own two feet?  Why work hard when the government, i.e., taxpayers, will provide for you? Combining a shrinking taxpayer base with a growing number of people who rely on the government for their daily existence is recipe for financial disaster.  Although the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 placed a time limit on benefits (two years consecutively and five years collectively over a lifetime), it is estimated that as many as 44% of welfare recipient cases are exempt from these time limits.  Furthermore, other benefits such as federal housing subsidies, which cost taxpayers over $33 billion in 2009, have no time limit on benefits nor are there incentives in place to wean people from these benefits.

Other core beliefs are honesty, integrity, and obedience to law.  According to the US Census Bureau, there were 10.6 million crimes committed in the US in 2009.  Violent crimes, including murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault accounted for 1.3 million and property crimes (burglary, larceny and theft, and motor vehicle theft) accounted  for the other 9.3 million.  Stated another way, there were 429 violent crimes and over 3000 property crimes committed in the US for every 100,000 people.  The US Census Bureau data indicates there were over 13,000 murders and over 81,000 forcible rapes in the US in 2009.  I can’t even imagine how one would quantify the impact of a violent crime; a 2008 United Nations report estimates that financial loss due to violent crimes totals $45 billion.  While the direct costs of property crimes, approximately $9,000,000, can be quantified, the intangible impacts are more difficult. The Minnesota House of Representatives Research Department estimated in a 1999 study that upwards of 5 million people received mental health therapy directly related to their victimization. And the cost of incarceration for offenders exceeded $68 billion in 2006.  I really don’t know how this situation got so out of control.  When I was a kid, a person was measured by their honesty and integrity; they did the right thing because it was the right thing, not for fear of reprisal.  How can we condone a society that lives off the victimization of another person?

I get it.  Not everyone shares the same values and beliefs that I do. To expect that is folly.  However, some beliefs should be common to us all.  The beliefs that “I can count only on what I earn” and “obedience to law because it protects the rights of all” should be fundamental beliefs which all of us share.  If this great country is to avoid becoming a footnote in history similar to the Roman Empire, we must each take responsibility for our actions and our well-being and accept the consequences, either good or bad. Can you imagine the change if each of us took responsibility for our own welfare and obeyed the laws of the land?  Each journey starts with one step.  Just for today, don’t be a burden on others and stand on your own two feet.  If you fail today, tomorrow, try again.

Taxman

The first Beatles’ song I learned to play on guitar was “Taxman”.  It has a driving bass riff and McCartney’s guitar solo has a psychedelic touch. The lyrics of the lead track (on the Beatle’s 1966 album Revolver), were interesting enough that I did a little research about them.  Turns out George Harrison wrote the song to protest the fact that most of their earnings were being given away to Harold Wilson’s Labour government in the form of taxes. The line, “that’s one for you, nineteen for me”, is a reference to the 95% supertax liability imposed on the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom during Wilson’s tenure as prime minister

“Taxman” gets a fair amount of play time on radio and television in the days leading up to the US Tax Day. Tax Day this year is Monday, April 16.  The deadline for filing personal income tax returns fills many filers, especially the procrastinators, with stress and angst.  What many people may not know is that until 1913, the US Constitution did not allow direct taxation of income by the federal government without distributing it among the states or in proportion to the US Census results.  With the ratification of the 16^th Amendment and President Wilson’s signing of the US Revenue Act of 1913 into law, the personal income tax became a permanent fixture.

While you’re working on those tax returns, take a look at line 61 of form 1040, line 35 of form 1040A, or line 10 of form 1040EZ.  If the entry on that line is greater than zero, you’ve paid personal income taxes.  Interestingly enough, a study from the Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center indicates that 46% of Americans will pay no federal income tax in 2011 or will receive more from the IRS in the form of a refund than they pay in (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001547-Why-No-Income-Tax.pdf).

But what if your entry on line 61, or 35, or 10 is greater than zero?  How is your money used? Obviously, it is used to finance the federal government, but what does that really mean.  How much is collected by the federal government?  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, “The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022”, (http://www.cbo.gov/publication/42905) the federal government revenue totaled $2,302.5 billion. Stated another way, it collected over $2.3 trillion dollars in revenue.  Of that total, $1091.5 billion came from individual income taxes, $818.8 billion came from social insurance taxes, $181.1 came from corporate income taxes, and the rest came from excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and miscellaneous receipts.  When you do the math, our federal income taxes account for approximately 47% of the revenue collected.

So where does it all go?  The graph below shows the various categories of government spending. The data used to build this graph is in the same CBO report.

Now, I’d like to point out some details.  The first thing to notice is the annual spending total exceeds the annual revenue total by almost $1.3 trillion.  For reference, $1.3 trillion dollars is $1,300,000,000,000 and if you earned $130,000 in wages per year for 10 million years, you would have earned $1.3 trillion in wages.

The second thing to notice is the net interest on the federal debt, $227.1 billion, is one-third the total defense budget.  As the debt increases, the interest payments increase accordingly.

The third thing to notice is the total spent on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, roughly $1.6 trillion, is nearly double what is collected by the government in the form of social insurance taxes.

It should be obvious that we, as a country, cannot sustain trillion dollar deficits forever.  Just the interest payments alone account for 6% of spending.  What can we do about it?  Can you imagine the consequences if you handled your own finances the way the federal government handles theirs? 

So, take action.  First, educate yourself. Read House Concurrent Resolution 112, passed by the US House of Representatives (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres112eh/pdf/BILLS-112hconres112eh.pdf).  The purpose of this resolution is to establish the budget for fiscal year 2013. It is an implementation of Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) “The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal”  (http://budget.house.gov/fy2013Prosperity/).

Read the  "Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013", which contains the President’s budget message and information on the President’s budget priorities (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview). Compare the two budgets.  The CBO website (http://www.cbo.gov/) includes reports and budget projections based on both the President’s and Rep. Ryan’s budget visions.  Then decide for yourself in which direction the country should head. If you believe the plans fall short of your vision for the country, identify the pros and cons of each and use the pros to create your own plan.

Once you decide, contact your Congressman and your Senators.  Both the Senate and the House have websites (http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/, respectively) that identifies who represents you and how to contact them.  Tell them the direction you think the country should take.  Tell them what means the most to you.  And last, but not least, vote this November.  Use your vote to tell Congress and the President what you want.  The consequences are too grave to be uninformed about this and to sit by while the outcome is decided by others.

Awareness

Leaving work the other afternoon, I saw a sign that advertized April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  Twenty feet further along, another sign advertized April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.  My first thought, a cynical one, was we’re going to need more months in the year if people assign months to things of which we should be aware. I guess the signs worked, I looked up some data on the subject.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center says on its website that the goal of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. That is an admirable goal and I hope they achieve that goal. Statistics concerning sexual assault and rape are listed on the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network website (http://www.rainn.org/statistics).  According to the website, someone in the US is sexually assaulted every two minutes resulting in an average of over 207,000 victims per year.  More disturbingly, 97% of rapist will never spend a day in jail. If that isn’t bad enough, 44% of victims are under the age of 18.

Child Abuse Prevention Month, its purpose is self-evident.  I pray that we can eliminate child abuse.  It is a horrible thing and if proclaiming April as Child Abuse Prevention Month helps, I’m all for it.  The National Children’s Alliance Statistical Fact Sheet (http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/file.php/3851/NCA-NationalStatSheet-2011TotalStatistics.pdf) reports that in 2010, an estimated 1,560 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States. Of those deaths due to abuse and neglect, 80% were caused by one or more of the victim’s parents.

My second thought, after raising awareness of these issues for one month, do we forget about them over the other 11 months?  Yes, it’s cynical, but these are important issues that should be on people’s mind year round, not limited to one month a year.  Maybe one month is enough to raise the awareness out of the background noise for the rest of the year. I sure hope so.

My challenge to you is twofold; don’t let this month go by without increasing your awareness about one or both of these issues (this is the thinking part), and don’t let these issues fade into the background the other 11 months.  Volunteer at a rape crisis center, a child advocacy center, be a foster parent, donate money or time (or both), but do something (this is the active part).

Great Power

In the Amazing Spider Man, Ben Parker, uncle and guardian of Peter Parker/Spiderman states, “with great power there must also come great responsibility".  While I agree with his statement, I will go one step further and say that with any power there must also come responsibility.

I believe that God granted mankind the greatest power, the power of free will. God is omnipotent and knows the choices we will make, yet he gave us the power to ultimately choose, regardless of conditions.  This great power, the ability to make choices comes with a great responsibility. And this responsibility is twofold; we must make responsible, intelligent choices and we must accept responsibility for the consequences of our choices.

Newton’s third law of motion is paraphrased as “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Analogous to that, for every choice there is a result, or consequence, of that choice.

Some choices are quite mundane; what I will wear today, what I will have for breakfast, or whether I have a second cup of coffee.  The consequence of those choices is usually mundane as well and the impact of the consequence does not extend to others or, at worst, may simply be an inconvenience to others.  Other choices have more grave consequences and the impact of those consequences extends to numerous others.  For example, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reports 10,839 fatalities in 2009 involved at least one driver with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or greater.  Of these fatalities, 33% (3558) were either motor vehicle occupants other than the driver or non-occupants. Occupants of other vehicles accounted for 1,119 fatalities. Therefore, a consequence of a choice to drive while intoxicated is the injury or death of someone other than the person who made the choice.

None of us are immune to making irresponsible choices.  How we handle the responsibility of those consequences is what really matters.  Unfortunately, attorney and law firm advertisements are quite prevalent.  The advertisements are usually for personal injury or driving under the influence (DUI) lawyers.  Among the statements made in DUI lawyer advertisements are “Let us go to work for you so you can get back the life you deserve”, “Each DUI attorney … will help you get your charges dismissed, lower or drop your fines”, “If there is something that provides grounds for reasonable doubt of your guilt, we will find it”.  The implication is the lawyer will find a loophole or a technicality to reduce the consequences to the driver accused of DUI.  There is even a college for DUI lawyers that advertises programs to “develop skills for trial, including methods for attacking field sobriety tests, breath and blood tests, for making opening statements and closing arguments, for learning techniques in cross-examining police officers and prosecution experts, and for developing and using defense expert witnesses.”

Buy a hired gun, make the consequences go away.  But what does this accomplish?  An article published in the American Journal of Public Health in May, 2010, entitled Risk of Alcohol-Impaired Driving Recidivism Among First Offenders and Multiple Offenders, draws the conclusion that “Any alcohol impaired driving violation, not just convictions, is a marker for future recidivism.”  It further states, “…for deterrence to work, an alcohol-impaired driver has to believe that he or she will be arrested, convicted, and sanctioned for a violation.”  In other words, for drunk-driving deterrence to work, the drunk driver must believe they will suffer legal consequences due to a violation.  Fear of legal sanctions such as fines, jail time, or loss of driving privileges may deter drunk-driving because the drunk driver suffers the consequences. What about the fear of maiming or killing others?  Have we become so instilled with a sense of entitlement that we no longer care if our irresponsible choices destroy the lives of others?

 The potential consequences of an irresponsible choice such as drunk driving should be obvious.   What about the less obvious choices, such as choices that lead to obesity? The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finds that 35.7% of adults and 16.9% of children and adolescents in the US are obese.  The CDC reports that direct medical costs associated with obesity were estimated to be $147 billion in 2008.  By comparison, the Congressional Budget Office reports that Medicare spending for fiscal year 2010 was $519 billion.

While eating and exercise habits are obviously a personal choice, the consequences of poor choices are not.  A study by Ross Hammond and Ruth Levine of the Brookings Institute published in 2010 indicates that the public sector pays a significant portion of obesity-related medical costs and in the absence of obesity Medicare spending would be an estimated 8.5% lower and Medicaid spending 11.8% lower. 

So who pays for Medicare and Medicaid? Taxpayers and employers do!  Of your earnings, 1.45% is paid to the Federal Insurance Contributions Act or FICA.  Your employer matches that 1.45% for a total of 2.9% or your earnings.  Medicare is paid out of the contributions to FICA.  Medicaid funding comes from both the state and the federal government.  Where does the state and federal government get the money? It comes from the taxpayer, of course. Since it is tax season, take a look at your W-2 form and see how much of your earnings went to Medicare.  Multiply that number by 0.085.  That’s how much you could have kept if obesity were not an issue in this country. 

Unfortunately, the costs don’t stop there.  There are the productivity costs due to absenteeism, presenteeism (loss of productivity due to obesity), disability, and premature mortality.  All of these things increase the costs of goods and services we need or desire.

In another case of contemptible actions, too often people pass the buck or simply avoid the consequences.  Bankruptcy is an example of avoiding the consequences.  When a debtor declares bankruptcy, they are seeking to obtain relief from debt. This is accomplished either through a discharge of the debt or through a restructuring of the debt.  Title 11 of the US Code, Chapter 7, allows a debtor to keep certain exempt property such as a home or car, while surrendering other property for liquidation to repay creditors. In return, the debtor is entitled to a discharge of some debt, primarily unsecured debt such as credit card balances.  Ning Zhu, a professor at the University of California, in his study, The Household Consumption and Personal Bankruptcy, says that over-consumption, overspending and households that simply live beyond their means are the primary factors that wreck finances and lead to bankruptcy.  It also reported that people do not generally adjust spending in order to avoid bankruptcy. The study showed that in the households which file bankruptcy, more than five percent own at least one luxury vehicle.  The study found when consumers overspend and live beyond their means and then experience an adverse event, they are likely to file bankruptcy Title 11, Chapter 7 (bankruptcy) because they do not have the ability to repay their debts. Once a debt is discharged under Chapter 7, the debtor is no longer under obligation to pay those debts.  More disturbingly, study results indicate that consumers strategically choose to file bankruptcy after overspending, rather than being forced into filing bankruptcy by adverse events.  Because of overspending and the avoidance of consequences, the cost is passed on to others in the form of increased costs of goods and services.

How often do people avoid the consequences of their spending choices by filing for bankruptcy?  Bankruptcy is governed by the federal courts and the US Court System reports on its website that in calendar year 2010, there were 1.1 million Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings.  The Department of Justice estimates that these filings resulted in the discharge of nearly $20 billion in credit card debt alone. The companies pass the loses onto the consumer, so you pay for another’s failure to honor their obligations.

 It is fraudulent and dishonest to expect others to honor the financial obligations that you have undertaken. 

“Guns kill!” “Alcohol kills!”  Familiar statements, but they are untrue.  Neither guns nor alcohol in and of themselves can harm people. In order to harm, both guns and alcohol require that a person use them irresponsibly.   However, by making the statement that guns or alcohol kills, the responsibility is passed on instead of residing where it rightly belongs, with the person who acted irresponsibly.  Passing or avoiding the blame is an age-old game.

The game is still played today.  Celebrities, sports figures, and public leaders set the example for us today.  How many have said or done things that were embarrassing, illegal, or immoral and then blamed it on drugs, alcohol, the situation, someone else, or simply lied about it or tried to cover it up?

In the Book of Genesis, Cain slays his brother Abel.  When confronted by God, Cain did not answer, but asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  After God banished Abel, Abel complained that his punishment was too great.  During his presidency, Bill Clinton was accused of having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton told Jim Lehrer of PBS that there “is no improper relationship." Later, before the grand jury, Clinton tried to rationalize his lying by famously stating, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.”

Judeo-Christian faiths believe that all of our choices, all of our actions made in our lifetime will be called into account by God at our day of judgment.  It behooves us to teach our children and remember for ourselves that with free will comes responsibility to make conscientious, intelligent choices and accept the consequences for our actions and choices. 

Again, none of us are immune to making irresponsible choices.  However, avoiding the consequences of those actions or passing those consequences on to others is both shameful and deplorable.  Don’t be a parasite on society, make smart, responsible choices and accept the consequences of your choices and actions.