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Attitudes Gone Wild !

I was standing in line at McDonald’s. At the front of the line was a woman attached to her cell phone dropping F- bombs into the receiver.

At the end she proclaimed a loud “I’m sorry, please excuse me!” as she tossed her at- home, bleach-your-hair-poorly-kit mane to the side.

A casually dressed man behind me in line said, just as loudly, “there’s no excuse!”

At regular intervals we’re treated to a modified version of Girls Gone Wild, entitled “Attitudes Gone Wild,” usually on the local news or YouTube.

Several weeks ago we were treated to an angry woman at a McDonald’s drive through upset because they weren’t serving McNuggets at that time of day. She went ballistic, attacking the employee and even breaking the drive through window itself.

These episodes of Attitudes Gone Wild bring new meaning to the world’s largest fast food chain’s television commercials tagline, “da da da da da….I’m lovin’ it.”

At A Taste of Syracuse a vendor was selling cold drinks from a large plastic tub filled with ice. Just as we were about to reach in and grab a beverage, a young woman wearing a sweaty bandana removed the fabric from her moist brow and gently washed it in the tube of beverages surrounded by ice melting in the summer heat, creating a slush and ice cube mixture.

“Just as my friend Linda and I were about to reach in and grab a beverage, a young woman wearing a sweaty bandana removed the fabric from her moist brow and gently washed it in the tube of beverages surrounded by ice melting in the summer heat, creating a slush and ice cube mixture.

Immediately I told Linda, “Stop, she just washed her nasty bandana in that water.”

Her extended arm that was reaching for an ice tea stopped and reversed as if someone had hit a rewind button. She recoiled and said “eww!”

Then the male companion of the woman who washed her item in the tub said, “Dude, relax, it’s just a festival” as he stepped closer into my personal space. The two teens selling the beverages looked horrified as one of their managers overheard the disturbance and hastily removed the entire tub, contents and all.

“These will not be sold,” he stated to the staff and those who’d stood wide-eyed witnessing the event.

With increasing frequency we’re seeing public displays of attitudes gone wild. After witnessing a number of these episodes I had to check myself and come to a realization that sometimes it’s just better to let it go and remove yourself from the situation. Why ruin your day over a cold hamburger?

Our entire society, regardless of race, income or gender has become brazen, out of control — let’s face it we’re acting like untrained animals.

However, I do remember a time when people went out of their way to control their attitudes so that there was an element of mutual respect, self-control, and its by-product: peace.

As Dr, Martin Luther King once said when discussing the behavioral aspect of the Civil Rights Movement and the reason for calm in the midst of adversity, “Nobody wins in a dog fight.”

Woof, woof… bark, bark, bark.

August 16, 2010

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