Hillel vs. Shamay

Today in Jewish History, we learned about two famous rabbis, Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shamay.  One particular story was about a cynic who went up to each of them and said "If you can teach me the entirety of the Torah while I stand on one foot I'll convert."  Shamay has a fairly normal reaction and tells him to get out.  Hillel, however, says "Don't treat others as you wouldn't have them treat you."  Now, while Shamay's reaction was perfectly reasonable, I think we can all learn something from Hillel's reaction.  When someone is being very rude and he had every right to be rude back, he used it as a teaching opportunity.  Sometimes I believe that we need to do this more often, take a moment that seems very impossible to be productive in and turn it around.  By doing so, we can not only possibly gain new members of Judaism, but also maybe de-alienate other religions who may feel isolated.  If every rabbi and every Jew acted like Hillel, Judaism may be a bit bigger today.  It is also important to just be nice to other people simply because that's human decency, and if you don't give any respect, you can't expect to get any in return.  The world owes you nothing until you try to help it.