Half the problem with the whole respect issue is that we have taken it overboard in our speech and writing while completely losing it in every other aspect.
You have to very "sensitive" in everything you say. You have to change what you call people every three months, because the new term that replaced the last politically incorrect term is now also not PC. People that are in the country illegally, and I could care less if that is from south of our border or from across an ocean, are somehow now "undocumented citizens." We just keep getting farther and farther from the truth so that meaningful conversation becomes impossible.
At the same time people have started to act like our government in face to face dealings. They posture and threaten to get their way, but no one actually wants a real confrontation. They take even the slightest provocation as a reason to use the courts as a weapon instead of finding a real solution. They are so caught up in their own ideology that they can not even understand why someone would think differently, much less actually look at the point from that other view just in case it might make some sense and challenge what they currently believe.
So we show token respect while doing everything we can to get our own way. Problems are no longer solved in a manner that tries to help the most people, instead they are solved so that "I" am helped most. "I" has gotten to be such a large concern that nothing else matters.
This country was great when it was "we." "We" worked as a country to win wars and protect rights. "We" built great things and expanded across the country. "We" may have done it too slowly, but "we" recognized the personal rights of people to vote, earn money, not be slaves or lesser citizens, and protect themselves. Somehow "we" have forgotten that what is best for the nation is also the best thing for each person in it in the long run.
"We" need to take back our nation from all the special interests, big money politics, multi-national corporations, and outside government influences. Then "we" need to relearn how to educate our children like a few parents on here have done, and "we" need to teach people that they can not keep getting a government check forever if they have the ability to work.
"We"....
oops, how did that get there. Ok, I am going to put away this soap box one more time. My wife is always complaining how I end up standing on it ever time I get on a roll. Just the way I am built I guess. Opinionated and willing to share it with everyone.