Clear! The aggressive way to bring back some life to courtesy.

Okay, you've all heard it before: Courtesy is dead. Maybe it has flatlined, but if we've learned anything from hospital shows on television, all you have to do is get out them paddles and look determined, and anyone or anything can be brought back.

Of course, the problem is, that my instinct when faced with someone who is discourteous is to be even more so back at them. For instance: there is a local strip mall that has a convenience store in it. This store is somewhat larger than your average store, and includes a bakery and deli. It sees a fair amount of business. But it is in a strip mall, so there is a parking lot right there. The nearest spots are about 30 feet from the door, and the next row of spots about 20 feet past that. Now here's the thing. People are always stopping right in front of the door. I guess they are more important than everyone else, who has to walk those 50 feet. Nope, they are so important that not only should they not have to make that walk, but they even feel its okay to block the door so the rest of us have to walk around their car/van/SUV/whatever.

I'm not typically the kind of person who believes in vandalizing others' property. But I swear, it is hard for me to resist the urge to leap up onto the hood of the vehicle and stomp my way across it in taking the most direct route to my car. You see, as mentioned above, this is the dilemma: the most tempting way to deal with discourtesy is to be even more discourteous right back at them. And of course, who would get arrested? Mr. Stopped in everyone else's way, or the guy who damaged someone's property? Yep. Not the guy who should.

And this pattern goes on. Everywhere in life, there are people who think they are more important than those around them. Line jumpers, people who stop in one lane of a busy street in rush hour to drop a video in the return slot, people who talk during movies (which will one day be a rant all unto itself, believe me) and anyone else who puts their convenience or whatever they feel like doing over everyone else's pleasure and convenience.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should all be softies who let people walk all over us, but seriously, let's go back to the Golden Rule: If you don't want someone to stomp on your hood (and maybe stop to take a leak halfway across) don't be an idiot.

Or something to that effect.