Keller @ Large: To Get Respect, You Have To Give It
BOSTON (CBS) -- What does everybody seem to want these days?
It's not something you can buy, an app you can download or a tattoo you can have applied.
It has nothing to do with how much money you make or what social status you have.
And it's not something you can earn with political correctness.
Everybody seems to want respect, right up there with love among the good things in life that you really have to work hard to deserve.
But some of the people who want it most seem unable or reluctant to do what it takes to get it.
There were two case studies in this over the weekend.
Short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump, out on the stump demanding respect for his media- and boredom-induced bump in the polls, picked up his where he left off in his announcement speech - the one where he referred to Mexican immigrants as "rapists" – by disrespecting the heroic war service of Sen. John McCain and other prisoners of war.
Trump might well have valid disagreements with McCain. But by publicly disrespecting the part of McCain's life that most demands respect, he showed his lack of character and restraint, two qualities voters do and should insist on in a legitimate candidate.
Then there was the repulsive story of the reptilian website Gawker, which styles itself as a courageous fighter for truth and progressive values, exposed as a willing accomplice to blackmail and slander after an ugly hit piece they did on a private citizen blew up in their faces. These aren't journalists, but they pretend to be without acknowledging the basic rules that protect what respect journalism has left.
There's an old saying: in order to get respect, you have to give it.
Apparently, not everybody gets that.
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