People are rude.

This is not an astonishing statement, but a fact of life that seems to have developed over the past generation. It seems that with the world spinning at flank speed, too many men and women have lost their senses of civility.

Whether it is road rage, with the driver behind you riding your bumper and then extending his finger as he passes or the high decibel phone caller ruining your dinner as she tells her friend about the pants she saw at Goody’s, the times they are a’changing.

My wife recounted a recent experience that makes the point.

An obviously busy young woman entered a Subway restaurant talking on a phone. She got in line, ordered her meal, paid her bill, got her soft drink, and walked out the door still in conversation with the party she was talking to when she arrived.

Clearly, it was rude to deal with restaurant staff while talking on the phone, rude to subject others in line to her chatter, and ruder still to push out the door, forcing others to step aside while she continued her talking.

By the way, when was the last time you saw a man open a door for a woman? When was the last time you saw a younger person give up a seat to a senior?

A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll confirms this point. It indicated rudeness has increased significantly over the past 20 to 30 years, and the trend is evident in both big and small cities in the country with people in rural areas reporting a 67 percent increase in bad manners while folks in major cities feel the percentage is close to 75 percent.

One etiquette expert, Peggy Newfield, points out the generation that came of age in the 1960s and ’70s are now parents that don’t put an emphasis on manners in their upbringing of children.

One example of this point involves the Northwestern women’s lacrosse team. Invited to the White House to meet President Bush, some members of the squad arrived wearing flip-flops. They apparently saw nothing wrong with that, but I bet most of my neighbors in Whispering Pines would.

People today use crude language and offensive phrases without thinking twice. My generation rarely if ever swore when women were present, and the only time I remember the air turning blue over a conversation was when I served aboard a destroyer in my Navy days. (Swabbies were that way!)

All of us have probably seen a customer chew out a sales clerk over some matter, loudly berate a waiter or waitress because the order was mixed up, or barrage an airline agent with expletives because the wrong seat was assigned or the flight was delayed.

But too seldom do we hear someone referred to as “Sir” or “Ma’am” or someone just saying “thank you” or “please.”

Today’s Americans aren’t alone in being ruder than past generations. Britain, once a major example of politeness, is experiencing so much bad behavior the government is about to step in.

Businessmen push past others without an “excuse me,” teens harass people on the street, and shoppers virtually throw money at checkout clerks with nary a thank-you received in return.

As a result, one day in October was designated National Courtesy Day in England and thumb-sized stickers were issued by the thousands, urging “Thumbs Up for Manners.”

British bobbies have been given special powers to issue ASBOs (Anti-Social Behavior Orders) for noise, graffiti, littering, riding bicycles on sidewalks and even for failing to maintain a tidy lawn. (Bob Tice and that the Whispering appearance committee might take notes!)

More than 4,600 ASBOs have been issued thus far with initial citations resulting in banning the culprit from a bus, pub or some specific location. Serious infractions or multiple citations can result in fines up to $35,000 and/or five years in jail.

British humorist Simon Fanshawe weighed in on the subject.

“People say it’s my right to do this or that,” he said. “Well, no, it’s not your right to eat kebob on the top of the bus or scream down your mobile phone or play your Ipod too loudly. That’s selfish behavior.”

Several books on manners have been published In London with the most recent appropriately titled “The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life (or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door).”

I’m not trying to say manners have disappeared from Moore County. Civility is still present more often than not and the AP poll figures would probably be much lower if just the Sandhills were targeted.

But even here, rudeness is on the upsurge.

I visited the Marine Air Station at Cherry Point a few weeks ago, and though I was just a civilian guest, the guard on duty at the Main gate saluted and said “welcome, sir.”

That felt nice. Maybe we need more of that in our hectic lives. It can’t hurt.