I'm surprised how many of you say to ignore them, say nothing, not even a sweet, "have a nice life." I've only invoked my right to remain silent once, when I thought I was dealing with violent people. Otherwise I can't seem to keep my trap shut.
On that bus ride after 10 minutes of comments to and at me, staring and pointing because I was hogging two seats, I stood up and offered the young man my seat. He dissolved into pitiful stammering, saying something like, I can't take a seat from you, you are three times my age, you deserve the seat, I don't, you are old.... I then offered it the the first Chinese-speaking guy, he turned it down, as did his friend. So I turned back to the young man, shrugged as if to say, I've run out of people to offer it to. He begged me to sit back down which i did. He then turned his face away and almost pried the front door open to get off at the next stop.
I felt guilty that I had embarrassed him and ashamed of myself that I had stood up to come down to his level. Isn't that Rule No. 3 of Civility 101: avoid doing anything to make someone uncomfortable?