A few months ago, I wrote a column about ethics, or what I perceived to be lack thereof, in the grocery store checkout line.

Without belaboring the point, I talked about how I was waiting in a long line when a checker opened the line next door; a free-for-all of people jumping from the back of the current line to the front of the new one ensued, and I wound up exactly where I was originally (stuck in a long line) and with a bit of a sour attitude.

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Quite a few of you emailed and called me with your thoughts. Many were sympathetic and, as fellow line-jumping victims, glad to hear the problem didn’t just happen to them.

Several suggested I should have contacted the store manager and set in motion a series of events that might have freed the cashier to take control of the situation next time, rather than letting the inmates run the asylum.

A few were less sympathetic, indicating that maybe I needed to “man up” and move more quickly next time; otherwise, I should just keep my mouth shut.

And a few suggested that what happened deserved something akin to armed rebellion, and that at a minimum, I should have confronted the offenders right then and there to teach them a lesson.

As it happens, I did nothing then, and I’m still queasy about doing something “next time”. After reading a recent study conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, however, I suspect there will be a next time. And a next time. And a next time …

The Josephson study,