This is my new column, in which I am substituting for Straight from the Clavicle, and this column is all about courtesy and respect. For example, when you meet a new person or when a person doesn’t know your name, you have to give them your name and not text them by saying that you are “listener #57”. Like people know that someone who wears #57 from their past. When someone asks for your name, out of respect of the person and out of courtesy, give that person you name and he/she won’t block you on their cell phone.
When someone doesn’t like a nickname, you must think to yourself if that person likes that nickname and does this person get offended by it because it might be racial due to their religion, heritage, disability and what not. Nicknames can be anything from someone’s flexibility (i.e. “Stretch” Armstrong) to someone’s ethics (Former US president “Honest Abe” Lincoln)
Sometimes, when you are sitting at a restaurant with a friend who has a disability, whatever you say please, don’t say retard as a noun in front of them. Just say it as a verb and you will be okay. For example, you must retard your anger when the Canucks get eliminated in the playoffs. That is okay. When you use it like a noun, like the Canuck fans are such retards. You’ll be offending people with disabilities and you’ll be having a court case in which you might be paying a settlement that will cost you money that you don’t have.
There is a proverb that you should remember before you say anything bad to anyone, including a minority, and that proverb goes “You must walk a mile in their shoes to see how they feel.” The Native Americans (or Indians) lost their land to white settlers in the 1500s to the 1800s, the Africans were brought to America as slaves and treated like crap in the 1950s, the Asians in British Columbia were sent to internment camps in the Interior because of the bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese kamikaze pilots.
Before you treat someone the way your friends are, sit down and have a beer or two with a person who is gay, disabled or different religious beliefs and be friendly to them. Making new friends is nice thing that you can do to a person and to yourself because other people will see that and they can do it at another place so other people can see that you are making a difference in the world.
Remember that people are judging your every single move and if you make the wrong move, it’ll cost you anything like time in jail or your high paying job. So, use your heart and mind as one or you will pay more than a settlement, you’ll be paying with your life.