Real Estate and Reston, VA: R-E-S-P-E-C-T...Time to Bring It Back!

• Congressman Joe Wilson shouts out, 'You Lie' from the floor of the house while the President addresses the nation
• Serena Williams shouts obscenities at a line judge during the US Open resulting in her loss and strict penalties
• Kanye West jumps on stage during Taylor Swifts acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, grabs the microphone and says that Beyonce should have won the award
  

What kind of role models are these people for our kids? A Politician, a professional athlete and a music superstar all behaving badly.

This is in no way a judgment of the opinions that these protesters hold.  They have a right to their opinion and a right to be heard.  But since when has it become socially acceptable to voice your opinion by being so blatantly disrespectful of other people?

It is important to me that I teach my children, and that all children learn, respect for others and civility.  These folks are role models who are behaving badly for the world to see.  Yes, they are all being censured or punished by public opinion (or governing bodies), but why did they behave this way to begin with? The President, a sports official and an honoree are all people who are more than deserving of our respect.

Too little emphasis is being given to the old adage, 'think before you act.'

As a society, we need to stand up and let public figures know that it is not all right to behave this way.

If one of my kids throws down a lacrosse stick after losing a play, or kicks a soccer ball in anger, I am quick to lecture them on the importance of sportsmanship. Isn't sportsmanship just another way of saying to have respect for your opponent?

As Realtors ®, and professionals in the real estate industry, we recognize the importance of treating each other with respect.  We Realtors® have a whole Code of Ethics , that tasks us with respect, good behavior and ethical practices. It is a good idea to read it once in a while to remind ourselves about the importance of how we treat our clients and colleagues (you can click on the link above to review it; it is a quick read).

But, back to the behavior mentioned at the beginning of this post. Obviously, these folks can behave as they want, but as the public, we need to speak up and let them know that we will not tolerate this type of behavior. Would you want to see your child, family member or neighbor behave this way? For once, I would love to see the media take a subject and beat it to death. Let's stop giving these folks personal attention for the behavior and start talking about the bad behavior itself.

Let's bring RESPECT  and CIVILITY back to our country!  In my opinion, we are way off track on this.