RUDE: Antidote is patience

No one likes to be treated rudely. G.W. Haight’s letter “Rude is rude anywhere” (July 2) mentioned behaviors such as chit chatting in the check-out line, parking your shopping cart in the middle of the aisle and hogging the passing lane on the highway and how it creates shopping or road rage.

Mr./Ms. Haight, rudeness does not create shopping and road rage; RAGE causes shopping and road rage. Can you really say you have never had a friendly connection with a stranger or an acquaintance in a check-out line and acted on it? It could make their day! Have you never been distracted or focused and blocked a lane without realizing it? People aren’t perfect. We all have bad days. We all need to be patient with each other.

And for those people who are really just rude, reacting with rage just escalates the situation. If you can’t do anything about a difficult situation, you can control how you react to it. Read the very sad story on page A7 in Monday’s (July 3) Coeur d’Alene Press, and the next time you are annoyed by someone, take a deep breath, and remember: God may be trying to teach YOU something. He might be trying to teach you patience.

LYNN HOCHBERGER

Coeur d’Alene