Students are taught to respect one another in the classrooms, hallways, lunchrooms, and playgrounds. Employees are instructed to respect one another in parking lots, elevators, offices, plant floors, labs, conference rooms, breakrooms, and mailrooms.
Hogwash!
We do not have to respect one another! What we have to do is treat one another with respect. Respect means to admire another, perhaps to agree with another, to give high esteem, to regard with honor. What happens, then, when I interact with someone who is as ubiquitous as a planter's wart, who is as clueless as a a missing puzzle piece, or who is as irritating as TV commercials in the last 10 minutes of an exciting movie? I cannot honor the person's character or agree with the person's thinking, and nothing about the person's demeanor inspires me. In schools and in the workplace, I must find a way to interact with dignity: to maintain the other person's dignity is the only way to maintain my own. We must treat one another with respect, even when we do not respect one another. To do less would jeopardize dignity, the foundation of individuality and of diversity.
No comments:
Post a Comment