By Thomas Lickona, Catholic Education Resource Center - Commented Public Agenda's president, Deborah Wadsworth: "Lack of manners for Americans is not about whether you confuse the salad fork with the dinner fork. It's about the daily assault of selfish, inconsiderate behavior on the highways, in the office, in stores, and in myriad other places . . . ."... "In the long decline of the civilized West," observes one social historian, "there has been nothing so grating as the gradual disappearance of manners."