Thank You...A Polite Gesture or Self-deameaning?

I have a question. I was just reading a critique of a query on a blog that I frequent and the agent said that you should not thank an agent for her time, because your time is as valuable as hers. I was wondering how people felt about that? Personally I think when you take time out of someone's day you should thank them. Regardless of those circumstances. I thank people at the store who check me out. I thank customer service people who I speak to on the phone. I don't think my time is one iota more important than theirs regardless of their position in the world. We're all on this planet for a very short time in the grand scheme of things and whether you're cleaning my carpet or delivering my baby the time that you spend helping me is that much time out of your life. You might only be doing it so you can feed your kids, or you may be doing it because you're just a nice, helpful person. I don't care why you're doing it. The end result is that you're helping me get the things done that I need done.

What do y'all think? Do you thank people?

What Happened to Gentility?

So I was just witness to possibly the best example of what is wrong with the world...

I was driving on my university's campus and was coming up on a crosswalk. Now you have to be very careful about crosswalks here, because people are crossing all the time without looking. So a girl in a lovely dress with nice hair and cute sandals comes up to the intersection. She has headphones on and probably can't hear much. So two cars that should have stopped for her go on through. The last car would have easily hit her if she hadn't stopped. So what does she do? Instead of muttering something under her breath as most of us would have done, she flips off the person in the car.

Okay, not the most ladylike thing to do. I probably wouldn't have done it, but oh well what's done is done.

So the car might have not seen the person at the crosswalk and perhaps that is why they didn't stop. Maybe? Nope. He/she at least saw the girl when she flashed the bird. So the driver stops the car and opens the door to yell back at the girl. I mean instead of acknowledging that they did something wrong by not stopping for a person at a crosswalk and just going on their merry way, this person actually opens the door and screams back at the girl they almost ran over...

So on this note, I'd like to invoke a day of politeness. Even if people are rude to you, be polite back to them. It will surprise them! Trust me! I use it on a regular basis, and I won't lie to you. Sometimes it doesn't do a bit of good. Other times people apologize for their rudeness and everyone goes away happier. Besides nothing is more entertaining than the look on someone's face that has just been rude to you when you smile at them, and are painfully polite right back.