Respect ??

I keep hearing that we live in an era that has lost respect for authority. People no longer trust police, teens talk back to teachers and parents, employees no longer respect their bosses and citizens no long trust or respect our politicians. This is a disturbing trend.

On my way to work I passed by a work site where there are construction men scurrying about. There is one police officer and about ten guys standing around wearing pinnies as if they were a part of an all couch potatoes basketball team. At a moments notice one of the pinnie wearing workers jumps up and stands in the middle of traffic with a sign with stop on the one side and slow on the other. He points at traffic and all cars stop. Drivers thoughtfully and politely take his direction. He directs some cars to stop, some to turn and others to turn around. Everyone listens to him and no one yells disparaging comments. This man’s authority to direct people has not been enshrined in legislation, he has not been indoctrinated with a traffic direction degree and he doesn’t belong to a fraternity or society of traffic directors. He does what he does and people listen and I am not entirely sure why.

This lead me to wonder if people who have been assigned with the respect designation such as teachers, police officers, parents and politicians wore a piny and garnered a pole with simple directions spelled out on it would they command more respect? Perhaps if the Prime Minister wore jeans a pinny and had a sign on a pole (with pay tax and don’t pay tax on it) he would restore respect of the electorate???

I think maybe Stephen Harpers advisors were on to something when they had him dress up in his pinnie.