Where has Self Control and Simple CLASS Gone?

OK, can I be honest here? I'm all for the wonderful, good old American values of speaking your mind and being an individual. But frankly, we've taken it too far. We seem to think we have the right to have a loud-ass judgemental opinion about everything and everyone in the world, and the right to verbally vomit that opinion out on everyone around us.

We who? Just about everyone, to be honest! I run into it every day, and it absolutely shocks me. Here is just a sampling of what I have observed:

1. People in stores treating clerks, waitstaff and other service personnel in a horrible manner. Even if a mistake has been made, making personal or derogatory remarks is not necessary nor does it help the situation.

2. People calling in to customer service on the phone dropping f-bombs, making personal remarks, threatening people, and wishing bad things to happen to them. I have always found it interesting that many people will say alot of things over the phone that they would never think of saying in person. Would you still say it if your mother/father/son/daughter/grandchild were listening right now?

3. The folks who lose control of their emotions every time someone disagrees with them. My favorite manifestation of this is the reaction where the person seems to think that by saying what they want REALLY LOUD it will somehow come to pass. This is the adult version of stomping your feet. (Waaa, but I WANT it!)

4. The appalling habit we seem to have of labelling people. It's so offensive to have to hear slurs about people's race, looks, or sexual orientation. I find this completely unacceptable and I'm tired of putting up with it.

I will fully admit I am not perfect. But I do try and take personal responsibility for my own actions.

What happened to self-control? Why do we have to flip out every time we don't get our way? Why can't we remain calm in the face of a minor difficulty. Why do we think that laying on our car horn and flipping someone the bird is acceptable behavior? Why do we verbally attack people if they disagree with us? Why do we label everyone? Women - what happened to being a lady? What happened to class? It's not about what people think of us, but to me it's about how we think of ourselves. Is this who we WANT to be?