[Al Skierkiewicz]

Laura,
Feel free to use whatever if it helps. Learn something new every day is very important.
I agree with your respect viewpoint but I take it a little further. Everyone gets/should receive a certain amount of respect when you first meet. It is up to them, however, to add to that measure or to subtract from it. If you show me and others the same respect, add to someone's knowledge, help them become successful, you continue to add to that respect. There is no high limit, you can continue to gain my respect indefinitely. However, do something to take away from that respect, treat someone badly, without respect, or do something malicious or ungracious and you take away from your respect pool. There is a limit here as you can only lose so much before there is nothing left. I think I can count on one hand the number of people who achieved this in my memory.
There are a few individuals that this process does not apply fully. Certain people deserve our respect regardless of your opinion of the job they are doing. One of those is the President of the US (or the leader of your home country). While you may not like his/her policies or have some other personal issue, you should not lose respect for the office. Whether I agree with his politics or not, he/she is my president and that means he/she deserves my respect. In the US, that person is sworn to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States". That is a pretty big job and often entails sending citizens into the fray. For that, the office has my highest respect. Do not read this as a political statement about the current President, this is a general statement about the office.