Oct 9, 2006 2 min read

I know I and others have written to you about this in the past, but obviously few people in the area see themselves in the criticism about how rude people are around here, and I just am reaching a breaking point. This is not America to me; it is a mockery of what values this country normally holds dear. Everywhere I go, from driving to shopping to doctors’ offices, the people who are supposed to serve others have poor attitudes, lack of compassion and just plain rude behavior. I know that it is partly because there are no repercussions to rudeness anymore. They blame it on others, not themselves.

A truly good person asks himself or herself what they did today to be kind to everyone they met, to treat people with compassion and fairness, and, if you are in a service industry, if anything you said upset someone and what can you do to avoid acting that way again.

I have worked in service positions, from government to retail, and I’ve never once brought a customer or constituent to tears with how I spoke to them, regardless of what bad news I had to break to them, and no one has ever brought me to tears when I’ve lived anywhere else. Yet this happens to me on a weekly basis around here, and I am not one to cry easily, and it usually has to do with taking care of my dying mother, which is hard enough without the added stress of rudeness from others.

If I had the time and the money, I would start a consulting firm to teach people how to speak to other people, because that kind of training is sorely needed in this area. And I would ask each employer whose employees deal with the public to give the training.

It is ridiculous when a person can’t even go a week without being smarted off to or treated like yesterday’s trash for asking someone to do their job with some respect for others. I am continually disgusted with what Fayette County has turned into, because it is not this way in other places, and anyone who has lived elsewhere can tell you that is true.

Kelly E. Rusinack

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