MY religious symbol . . . and why it's rude

I realize this is my second consecutive post ranting about the rudeness of others, and I am sorry for this, but I feel compelled to write this blog; so onto it:
So, is it just me, or are people growing ruder and ruder as the days pass? Let me give you a quick example as to what I am referring too. I was in the restroom the other day where there are two sinks and only one paper towel dispenser. I was on the outermost sink, and another individual was washing in the sink nearest the paper towel dispenser. He lingered at the sink for a few minutes, which I really didn’t mind. Besides it gave me a chance to purge myself from the uncleanliness of the restroom for a greater period of time. However, not wanting to be rude myself and go around him I waited patiently for him to finish his business. When he finally turned off the water he moved towards the paper towel dispenser and pulled himself out a few towels to dry his hands. Now, this is where the individual becomes extremely rude because he does not back away from the dispenser (and trash) to dry his hands. He dries his hands in front of the dispenser, leaving me to drip dry my hands for another ten seconds until he was satisfied enough with his own dried hands to finally throw out his trash and move out of my way. To me, this was extremely rude. I felt it would have only be polite to either speed up his washing of his hands, or at the very least move back so I too could have access to the paper towel dispenser and we both could have dried our hands simultaneously.
This seems to be an epidemic that is not going away. The other day I also had someone comment on one of my tattoos on my leg. I have an Ohm on my leg – for those of you that do not know what it is, look it up – and an eastern-looking-man came up to me and exclaimed – without a single word of introduction – “why do you have my religious symbol on your leg?” I attempted to play it off, not wanting to reveal the inner-workings of my mind and my religious convictions – only for him to exclaim the same query again. My first thought, besides attempting to deflect something that was none of this unidentified man’s business – was “since when is Hinduism considered YOUR religion and YOURS alone” – but I refrained from such a statement. Finally, I told the man that I believe in the eastern philosophies (which I do and I believe many Americans could benefit from studying them), however, apparently I came off a little too brash in my wording because this unidentified man’s buddy said “I think he’s mad” just as the elevator doors opened and we all got into the crowded elevator. The subject was promptly dropped, but in my mind it remained – since when have people grown so unbearably rude? Yes, I may have come off rude myself when I finally answered, but the fact remained, why did he even feel the need to comment about something on MY body in the first place? And without any form of proper introduction from this individual? To me, it was completely rude, so after my deflection was denied by this individual, I would agree, my response was, in effect, rude, but it was that situation in which something about ME did not need to be revealed to this man of which I have zero affiliation with.
It is like my rant below about drivers – people are so rude that they can only be bothered with themselves even when driving what can easily become a deadly weapon, they only worry about their own little world and their own little circle, never once considering the feelings of others around them.
Maybe I am too sensitive to this matter, but I was raised better, and I was raised to be polite and empathetic – which you can define as “not being annoying and rude.” Others just seem way too rude to ever want to talk to and when they do talk they are abrasive and rude themselves; assuming their queries of “why do you have my religious symbol on your leg?” as being a valid inquiry – which it was, and remains, completely inappropriate. My religious affiliations are not your business, unless you want to use your dimwitted little mind to figure out that the reason it is there is because I, too, have a right at agreeing with the philosophies of “your” religion.