Professor Dustin
ENC 1102
15 September 2010
The Lost Art of a Simple Message
Leonard Pitts, columnist for The Miami Herald, argues that the public is rude and manners no longer seem to matter in his article, “JetBlue Case: The Lost Art of Simple Courtesy.” In the article, Pitts claims that rude behavior is taking over our society. He describes the dramatic exit of a JetBlue flight attendant and a rude exchange he witnessed while waiting in line at the cable company to illustrate his point of an increasingly rude society. Throughout the article, he argues that “the public is a bunch of rude, obnoxious jerks.” Pitts distracts the audience from what should have been a valid argument by his use of coarse language and name calling, a general bias in his approach to the subject, and his own revenge fantasies.
Although Pitts makes the valid point that manners may be lost in our society, his own poor choice of words made it difficult to focus on his message when the reader was tripping over his words. He assumes that, at some point, everyone finds themselves exhausted from dealing with obnoxious people. This valid warrant is illustrated with the JetBlue case and his story of the cable company. Unfortunately, in both instances he affects the validity of his claim by choosing coarse language in an attempt to defend his assumption. Pitts precedes his JetBlue story by referring to the general public as a “cavalcade of boors, boobs, bums, bozos, and troglodytes,” and wraps up his cable company story with a message to the “boorish public.” This blunt name calling is used frequently throughout the article, leaving the reader wondering at Pitts’ own rudeness by using such insulting terms. This type of name calling also risks alienating a large portion of the general audience who would like to see Pitts use a more neutral tone in his language.
In addition to Pitts’ name calling, a biased approach to his message distracts the audience. This one-sided article shows Pitts’ attempt at coercing his readers to agree with him. He shortchanges his opposition by skimping on a valid counterargument. In fact, he assigns a mere two sentences to the possibility that the JetBlue case may have guilty parties on both sides, and depicted the cable company employee as the clear victim who, in his mind, was entitled to some revenge if she chose to exact it. A better attempt at creating an unbiased article would lend some authenticity to Pitts’ argument and examples, instead of setting the stage for destroying his two critical examples by concentrating on the revenge scenario.
Thus, relevant examples become lost in Leonard Pitts’ article that highlights one man’s actual revenge and the imagined revenge of another. Pitts wanted his assumption, that the public is rude and uncaring, to carry his example of the JetBlue case. He wanted to argue that the rude public deserves what is coming to them; however, his revenge fantasy of the employee’s retaliation distracts educated readers. Pitts transitions to his story of an angry customer’s outburst, which leads him to the thought of the verbally abused employee shoving a “cable box where the sun don’t shine,” while a line of waiting customers applaud. It almost seems as if he would rather entertain the reader with thoughts of instant karma than allow the facts to be convincing examples on their own. It was Pitts’ own shaky arguments and daydreams that led what should have been effective examples to unravel.
I happen to agree with Pitts that society is becoming ruder. I also agree that both the JetBlue case and his cable company story are examples of a decline in a polite community; however, his own writing style utterly destroyed the credibility. He left me distracted with his own immature name calling, frustrated with his biased article, and confused by his own message, which was a simple message lost in Pitts’ own extravagant writing style.
Works Cited Comment by Edison: Please note: this is MLA 7- you should use the most updated version of MLA. See Purdue OWL and the Modules section for help.
Pitts, Leonard. "JetBlue Case: The Lost Art of Simple Courtesy.” Miami Herald. Miami Herald,
22 Aug. 2010. Web. 12 Sept. 2010.
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