Holiday rudeness

A few days before Christmas a clerk at a store said to me, “Is it just me or are people more rude this Christmas than at other Christmas seasons?”

I didn’t know, I told him, but the question sparked my interest. Over the next several days, I asked a number of retail merchants and clerks the same question that I was asked. Without exception, all felt that shoppers were more terse and rude this year than in years past. One young lady was so exasperated that she called the shoppers a name that cannot be repeated in a family column.

In fact, violence at shopping areas was not uncommon this Christmas. In Florida, on Christmas Eve, a gunman fatally shot a man in a crowded mall. Several hundred people fled for their lives as the man then began shooting at the police officers who were chasing him.

In North Carolina, on Dec. 23, a man opened fire at a Greensboro mall, critically wounding another man. Earlier in the week, a man was wounded as gunfire erupted at the Eastland Mall in Charlotte.

The day after Christmas, in a local shopping area, a passenger in a car even shouted at me when I, apparently, got a parking space the driver had his eye on. Certainly, if experience is to be counted, there’s a great deal of incivility going around these days. It seems to be that people are just angrier than I remember them being.

One of my favorite sci-fi themes is the Star Trek franchise. From the original, with Kirk, Spock, and Scotty, to “Next Generation “with Picard, and Troi, and Riker, followed by “Voyager” and “Enterprise,” the characters were proud of saying something like, “Yes, we used to be full of violence, too, but we evolved beyond all that.” Apparently, Captains Kirk and Picard didn’t have to deal with Christmas shoppers.

If one reads the Christmas scriptures and sings the Christmas carols, even the secular songs, one reads and sings about joy, peace, hope, and all those warm, positive sentiments of the season. I’m afraid that these days, the Christmas season often resembles a shark feeding frenzy with shoppers snapping and biting at anyone who gets too close to them.

It’s a shame, really, that we can’t see ourselves on camera after such incidents. Years ago, I remember seeing a police video in which one of my church members had been stopped by an officer for failure to maintain a lane, indicating the possibility of intoxication.

The officers didn’t know that I knew her and I just remained silent watching the scene play out before me. She, not realizing that the patrol car camera was on, made an utter fool of herself. She screamed, swore, and even made a sexual offer to the cop if he would just let her go. If the case went to court, I’m sure she was humiliated as she watched herself on video tape.

Are we really that rude, that inconsiderate, that obnoxious? Sadly, some of — a lot of us — apparently are. Ask any police officer or emergency medical personnel and they will tell you that the season often brings out the worst in us. Domestic violence, shootings, fights, stress-related illnesses, anger-related incidents all seem to be in abundance during the celebration of the birth of Christ.

I suppose, however, that simple rudeness is the most common trait that leaks out of us as we go about our days. During this season, I have seen rude customers in shops, at restaurants, at airline ticket counters, and have seen weary, tired store or company employees try their best to treat these same people with kindness and respect.

Now that the season is nearing its conclusion, perhaps we will see people take a deep breath, relax, and start being kind once again. It would be nice to enter the New Year by leaving such inconsiderate behavior and words behind.

As one exhausted clerk said to me, “By the way people are acting, you’d never think that Christmas season has anything to do with Jesus.”