Whatever Happened to Common Courtesy?

More and more lately, I have noticed quite a lack of common courtesy, whether it is in driving, on cellphones, or face to face in public places. 

As I have been driving around lately, I have noticed people cutting more people off, not stopping and waiting in a parking lot when they see a car halfway out of a parking space, and not taking turns at stop signs.  This is becoming an epidemic.  Today, I almost backed into someone when I was pulling out of a parking space.  They could see me, but I couldn't see them until I was almost halfway out.  If I hadn't slammed on my brakes, I would have backed into the side of their car and guess whose fault that would have been.  Why is it that we don't stop anymore and wait to let someone pull out of a space, when they are already halfway out?  I've also, noticed when people are walking to their cars, they don't stop and wait for cars, who are already pulling out, to complete their maneuver,  Are we really in that much of a hurry?  Is there really anything that important that we can't stop out of common courtesy?  Where is the emergency that causes us to think our movement from "point a" to "point b" is more important that anyone else?  Do we really think that little of each other anymore?  
The other way I have noticed a lack of common courtesy, is face to face with people in public.  I have watched people disregard others by stopping in the middle of an aisle, so that they and their family are totally blocking the aisle just so they can carry on a conversation with each other.  The other day I was in a store and was trying to move to the next aisle, when I came upon a family just standing in the middle of the way.  I tried to excuse myself, so they would step aside and let me by, but to no avail.  I ended up turning and walking back the way I had come and then over to the next aisle.  A minute later that same family turned the corner onto the aisle where I was walking and slowly made their way towards me.  I kept waiting for them to stop again, but to my relief, they continued down the aisle, not realizing their rudeness.

Another problem is when people are talking on a cellphone when they are in all kinds of public places.  My pet peeve is talking on a cellphone in a public bathroom...REALLY!!!  Don't those of you who do that, not know that anyone on the other end can hear everything going on around you?  Those cellphones do pick up and amplify anything down to the tiniest noise.  Would you invite a group of people into a bathroom to experience your private moments, at home?  Then why are you doing it in public restrooms where the rest of us don't want anyone listening in.  Then, there is movie theaters, concerts, doctor's offices...need I go on?  Once again, with the use of new technology, common courtesy has gone out the window.

Now don't get me wrong,  I am speaking to myself in some of these instances, because I too am guilty at times.

Today, I witnessed a brazen form of rudeness.  Now we have all gone to restaurants, where we sit at tables that are near others or shared with others, but not all restaurants are set up for this.  As my son and I were sitting in an unnamed restaurant, I was enjoying one of my favorite pastimes...watching other people.  I observed a group of four businessmen dressed in casual attire walk over to a table for 4 and sit down.  They began to eat.  Within a couple of minutes they realized something was wrong at their table. (I'm not sure what the problem was.)  So they opted to get up and move to two tables pushed together to form a table for 4, behind where my son was sitting.  One man had sat down, another had set his food down and returned to help the other men move their food.  He turned around, with the other two men and moved towards the new table.  At this time a woman, talking on her cellphone walked over and sat down at the table where the one man was already sitting.  Now, you need to know that there were probably at least 4 or 5 other tables that were vacant.  The man whose food was already at the table walked over, looked at the man sitting at the table, with a look of he couldn't believe this woman was doing this.  She didn't seem to realize anything was wrong, so the men got up and moved, with their food, back to the original table.  In watching this whole situation unfold, I was shocked that someone would be that brazen and rude, but most of all amazed that she was so caught up in her conversation, on her cellphone, that she didn't notice that she had been rude or brazen.

We have introduced so many different nationalities, beliefs and background experiences into our country, along with their ways of doing things and their ideologies, modern technology, the need to do everything faster and faster, thus, over the years we have all lost a since of courtesy and politeness no matter how we were all brought up.

We, the people of this eclectic society need to come to an agreement to be courteous and polite to each other on the same level; to slow down; and make people more important than ourselves and our ever changing technology.

I'm getting off my soapbox now.  :D