Basic respect is too often MIA

Iwas in the parking lot of a big box store a couple weeks ago loading my purchases when a large SUV came hurtling between the rows of cars. I winced as it passed uncomfortably close to an older man walking along the vehicles. As it neared me still traveling at the same speed, I mouthed the words "slow down." And the woman at the wheel responded with an angry two-word epithet that begins with the sixth letter of the alphabet.

There are many ways to catalog the loss of civility in modern culture. The lack of respect some people show for others in the basic transactions of life is one. Another is the resolution passed recently by the Southampton Town board in which its five members pledged to be civil and respectful to one another.

"We understand that a leader can be cooperative and concili