Morals, Manners, Integrity?

 I read a quote once, attributed to the tennis player, Roger Federer, where he said, he liked to “play with respect and win with grace”
How nice life would be if we all ‘played’ like that.
 
There’s a certain discourtesy that seems to be infiltrating our daily life: We hear stories of ‘road rage’, rude shop assistants, impudent children and general disrespect for others -  and others’ belongings.
It’s a sad state of affairs.
 
And, as the inauguration of Donald Trump looms ever nearer, I am drawn to the words from New York Times columnist, David Brooks, of over a year ago. In writing that he would miss Barack Obama mainly because of his ‘personal qualities’, David Brooks said, “Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance”.
We could do with these qualities spread throughout our entire world!
How pleasant life would be if we all shared the attributes of “integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance”.
Life would not only be more pleasant, but would be easier in many ways.
 
But there’s a certain noticeable difference between the outgoing and the incoming POTUS.
I don’t think it’s necessary to list here the ‘personal qualities’ of Mr Trump but I fear that they do not match those of Mr Obama.
 
Interestingly, I read in today’s papers that on the day of the upcoming inauguration there is a planned gathering of (so far) 750,000 demonstrators who will line the streets of Washington in an attempt to paralyse the city to show their displeasure at D.J.Trump’s accession to the presidency.
These protestors will obviously not be displaying good manners in undertaking this action, nor will they be showing any signs of graciousness, but they are desperate and (at this stage) have few other ways to indicate their displeasure. So, how do we view this behaviour?
Difficult.
On one hand many folk in US may be wishing and hoping for grace and integrity, but on the other hand, when they see Donald Trump’s performance, and note his past indiscretions AND know that he is the one to be leading them into an uncertain future, what can they do?
 
Roger Federer’s notion of ‘playing with respect and winning with grace’ has certainly not been evident in Trump’s performance at all.
So, is it ‘gloves off’ and ‘anything goes’ now, as far as good manners and integrity?
 
Poor USA!