A right, not a favor

In a land of impolite people, any gesture of politeness causes surprise on people. Respecting the laws for many is not something they must do... but big a favor...

Brazil is a corrupt nation! What a big new... When we talk about corruption, we immediately think of our politicians. People complain and get scandalized as though they were an example of honesty... When a Brazilian citizen behaves honestly, he thinks he should be thanked for it... or he thinks he should receive a graft.

An elderly woman enters into the bus and the seat provided for elderly people is occupied by teenagers. She needs to say “please, may I sit here?”. They leave the seat and she thanks.

The parking lot vacancy for handicap people is occupied. A responsible person for that place calls the owner of the car and he comes walking with their own legs to go there and take out the car. He does it and ignores the “thank you”.

The pregnant woman wants to be served in the preferential checkout and the men (that do not have uterus) allow her to “jump the row” but they show disagreement in the way they look at her.

The boss says his employees should have work harder because his company does not delays the pay day.

The cops are very proud of hunting the gangster, even though an 8-year-old boy has been shot in his head.

You do not need to feel you are morally obligated to thank, not alone to feel guilty if you do not do it. They did not do a favor for anyone. They have just done what they were supposed to do.

In a land of impolite people, any gesture of politeness causes surprise on people. In a land where taking advantage of everybody and everything means “to be smart” and to be honest means “to be fool”, we take pity on the “fools” that respect our rights and we want to retribute the “kindness” because we do not want to behave as though we were not thankful.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where people need to fight for the justice to criminalize acts of discrimination. Does anyone know how to put into practice the meaning of respect without expecting the law to force us to respect people?