R.I.P. Civility

There was a time when my favourite city's nickname was "Toronto the Good". Not anymore. At least, not when Torontonians are riding the public transit system.

Every day I see the same acts of rudeness:

1. Perfectly healthy young men and women sit on subway and bus seats while pregnant women, parents with small children, and the elderly are forced to stand.
2. People of all ages place backpacks, briefcases, and shopping bags on the empty seat next to them, so as to drive other commuters to seek another seat elsewhere or to stand.
3. People playing their music at incredibly loud levels which can be heard across the bus or subway car.
4. People conducting conversations about work, their personal lives, the personal lives of others, the presumed personal lives of others, or the desired personal lives of others at such loud volumes than one cannot help but become party to the information.
5. People heavily salting their conversations with obscenities including that perennial favourite, the "F-word".

[If you happen to be the young lady whose telephone conversation I overheard would make a sailor blush, may I recommend Paul Fussell's excellent book on the Second World War, Wartime. Not only does his chapter on said word use it almost as much as you did, but he does it in a witty way, which your conversation was sadly lacking. But I digress.]

I won't even get into the lack of civility on the roads -- especially around intersections on yellow lights.