#UgBlogWeek Day 2; Of "entitled" persons and polite language

One of the teachers I will probably never forget all throughout my school life was an extremely tough Itetsot lady who was transfered to my Primary 4 class to teach my then favourite subject;English Language. With the risk of coming off as a lazy lad,the major reason for my preference of this unit over the other elements of my cane thirsty teacher driven traumatic education journey was not only the little effort which it demanded of me but also the wonderful adventures in the stories that took my young innocent and curious mind to different worlds in between the old pages of those books that carried the rich stench of age.Tough Itestot lady teacher's first topic was polite language and for some reason(perhaps because she personified and was the perfect embodiment of a new fresh inconceivable breed of terror at the time,it stuck.Like the good pupil I was,I have strived to the best of my ability to emulate these ideals ,living my life punctuating most of my day to day speech with diction entailing words like 'sorry','please',et cetera.This has come within an innate expectation of the same from others.Which is why,the furry and fierry disgust I attach to folks who cross my path and for some reason attempt to wave entitlement rights in my face, baffles me immensely and continues to be a source of bewilderment for me.
 Weeks ago,I was passing time(what most millenials call chilling) in a friend's room in the popular Lumumba Hall of residence at Makerere University when an incident that left me on the cruel side of spectators and observers unfolded. We heard a peculiar knock on the next door.The knock continued a couple of times, to no answer.The "knocker" moved on to our door,knocked once and before receiving the obligatory "come in" chant of encouragement turned the knob and let himself in.In walked a tall gentleman whose huge dark shade glasses made me establish at once that he was blind.What he did next is what shocked me.He uttered as if in a commanding tone,"Someone take me to the canteen ".With great unease,I assumed I had heard him wrong and so,on a bid to grant him opportunity to correct his mistake and mend his statement, I asked rhetorically as if seeking clarification," Excuse me?" to which he retorted again that he "wanted" a person to take him to the canteen downstairs as the person who usually does the service was not available. I could not help notice the shock and judgemental stares from my friends as I gave the gentleman a piece of my mind, a free lecture on polite language and asked him to leave and only return if he cdecides to rephrase his statement until it metamorphoses into a request. While we sympathised greatly with his condition, it was no excuse to be rude to us as we all had programmes in the lives we led and the help we were to offer was an optional discretion we had to exercise, not a right he was entitled to.I have had a similar exchange with a physically disabled colleague who had the nasty habit of ordering people around to give him lifts to all the different destinations he wanted to go to within campus.
 When(read if) we learn as a society,that no one is obliged to follow our nonsensical whims or play along with society's game to fill different holes of expectations that life throws onto us,earth will be a merrier habitat for all members of our specie. From the lover who slaps you with a hair or shopping bill whenever she sleeps over or that neighbour who on telling you about his/her cousin's abrupt passing early in the morning, and express shock when you hand them a Shs 20,000 note as condolence and they mumble how they expected a person of your financial standing to give them about Shs 100,000.Teach those parasitic relatives of yours that lending a helping hand is not a result if guilt or the fulfillment of a compulsory societal obligation (social responsibility) that they are entitled to but also a kind gesture and that scathing your hand does have consequences.

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