Respect: a relation to or concern with something specified; an act of giving particular attention; consideration.
That's the official definition, but what does it mean to me, good question. What does it mean to me? Respect is something that should be earned not just given. There are a lot of people who do not respect others, and that is one of the things wrong with society today. The gang members who spray graffiti in their own neighborhood on other people's property, they need to be punished cause they show no respect for anyone or anything. Behavior like this probably begins at home.
Many families are single parents only so children are not taught respect in the home as in the past. They learn nothing about values, because there's no one to teach them. They pick it up from the streets instead. They learn to disrespect themselves by subjecting their bodies to drugs and alcohol. They learn to disrespect others so they can be cool, and not only people but property as well. How de we correct this, don't know. All we can do is show them respect and hope in some way they can respect us back.
Most societies show much respect for the elderly, except for the U.S. The elderly have much we could learn from, but for some reason we just put them in nursing homes and let them rot. Other countries hold the elderly in total and utter respect, listening to their every word, and acting on it. We could learn something from these other countries. We tend to think of ourselves as the perfect society, but in many ways we are flawed. As we learn new ways the old ones are tossed to the side. What happened to the days when the youth would gather around a WWII vet and listen to his stories of the war. Nowadays we"re too busy to listen, and because of this we suffer for it. Old traditions are tossed away as easily as yesterday's trash. Maybe it's time we stopped and looked at how others respect their elders and start doing the same couldn't hurt.
