Incivility means deliberate discourtesy. Within a 5 hour stretch near SFO airport tonight, we encountered many examples. Why have airports become such hotbeds of unhappiness and coldness towards feelings of others?
I remember when I was a child when I visited Taiwan for the first time, and my Mom warned me that I should expect people to be rude in Taiwan. It saddens me greatly that 15 years later, the roles have been reversed, and I expect to encounter more rudeness in the US than in Taiwan.
Situation 1. While waiting for Christine’s Mom to come out of the international baggage claim and customs, I was walking around the arrival area. An older lady in her fifties was struggling to simultaeneously open a glass door, and also push her fully-loaded luggage cart through the door. I propped open the door for her, and she looked at me with blank eyes, like whe was questioning my motivations. Although the door was open now, she still took half a minute to slowly push her cart through the opening, and I waited patiently until she was done. Not a word of thanks, a smile, or a nod was offered to me, just a blank look.
Situation 2. There was a reason behind why Christine’s mom took two full hours to emerge from the international customs area. She was detained without reason. After being asked to step out of the usual lines and into a small holding room, she was kept waiting and was given no reason for why she was being held. Christine’s mom also found the personnel involved in this operation to be sullen and lacking in showing compassion
Situation 3. When Christine’s mom emerged from the detainment, we were finding our way back to our car with a cartful of luggage. We were the first to wait for the next elevator. Another group of people with their own cart eventually arrived and waited next to us. Once an elevator arrived at our floor, they quickly scrambled into it without concern for others before them. 10 minutes later at a different elevator stop, I did the same thing to another group of people. I felt slightly guilty. Should I?
Situation 4. After dinner, we brought Christine’s mom back to the airport for her connecting flight from SFO to Houston. Her bags have already been checked all the way to Houston; however, I accidentally ripped a small part of the sticker off of one of the bags. When I handed the bags over at the Continental Airline counter, I informed them of the missing piece in the sticker and asked them whether I should be concerned about missing luggage.
Two of the most sullen and ill-mannered airline workers took turns trying to push this simple question to each other to be resolved. After it was evident that neither wanted to take responsibility for the issue, both tried to ignore us while we stood there. After repeated prodding on our part, they both gave half-hearted and sullen partial answers to our simple question: “Was this partially torn tag a problem?”
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Has the US become a society where this lack of basic manners is normal and expected? What happened to the vaunted US tourism and service industry? Can we claim to be world leaders in these fields still?
