To the Editor:

Have you ever met an ugly person? I’m not talking about physical beauty. I’m talking about the kind of person who lies, lacks integrity, is pompous, displays arrogance, and is corrupt, selfish, or basically evil.

It has come to my attention that many people display these unattractive qualities in our society. What happened to manners and politeness?

We should have evolved from primitive man to a specimen of a higher concern for our fellow man.

We should have also attained a sense of emotional intelligence.

I’ll define emotional intelligence as being an ability to exhibit common sense in life situations and a general feeling of empathy for individuals with whom we come in contact. Kindness, thoughtfulness, and basic caring for each other have given way to greed, ugly behavior, and a lack of patience with each other.

Instead, we have nasty people all around us. Just visit your local grocery store with a smile on your face and see how many people respond in kind. Most people will turn away and have a scowl on their faces; they will then continue their entire shopping experience wearing that ugly face through the store.

This response is what so many individuals have ingrained into their everyday behavior. Everyone is myopic in his vision. It’s all about them and their needs and wants. As soon as they feel threatened, even by a simple smile, anger leaks out of their pores and they display wickedness.

Niceness has become obsolete in our society. My grandmother used to say, “It doesn’t cost any money to be nice.”

Unfortunately, we have several generations of rude, insolent, fast-talking, young adults who could care less about their parents, grandparents, brothers, or sisters much less be kind or just considerate to a stranger or a prospective client.

We may have all the new technology in our lives, but our humanistic qualities have suffered immensely and the real tragedy is that no one wants or has the time to sit down and talk about these issues.

They’re always too busy connecting to the next device and they don’t want to get involved with these “feeling” issues; it makes them feel too uncomfortable. Individuals need to take personal responsibility for their feelings and behavior and stop blaming everyone else for their obnoxious personality.

The vicious circle will continue and ugly people will persist spreading their evil ways unless parents start to instill old-fashioned values within their offspring.

If “ugly” people are not encouraged to rid themselves of ugly behavior, this corrupt infiltration will destroy whatever good feelings are still left to be shared. Only then can we hope that future generations will have less greed, anger, and selfishness in their hearts.

Remember: Behavior defines reality! It may be time to start redefining yours!

Bernadene Marie

Guilderland