Saturday, August 18, 2018

"Screwball Central, How May We Not Be Of Assistance?"

According to news reports, a postal carrier in Columbus, Ohio called a man a homophobic slur and then cut off his mail, as it were. "You homophobic slur!" she almost certainly didn't say. We know what she said. This disturbs me on a couple fronts. Starting with the postal part.

I carried mail for 31 years. The Postal Service, admirably, hires every kind of screwball there is as long as they can read an address, or screwballs with a lot of veteran's-preference-points if they can't. As our friend Stricky used to say, shaking his head at the inane patter du jour, "We've got 'em all down here." And durn near every one of us considered our duty sacred. We even had a name for it: "the sanctity of the mail." So no matter what brand of personal idiocy we subscribed to, we got the mail through.

It's possible this doesn't apply anymore. The job is different. The carriers have bar codes tattooed on their asses during Orientation and are constantly tracked in the system like the letters themselves, which is not a policy designed to elevate morale or foster personal pride or encourage initiative. It encourages trudging, is what it does.

But maybe other things have changed too. Maybe there's some new Religious Jerkwad Freedom Initiative that's allowing letter carriers to discriminate and harass on the basis of the deeply held belief that some people are too icky for mail service.

I watched the video of the carrier in question. It all started when the gentleman tried to reach for his mail when the entire residential gang box was open instead of waiting until he could use his own key. This is a postal no-no. I used to cheerfully remind grabbers that I was so sorry, but I couldn't allow it because of security concerns, which I was sure they'd understand, but I'd be done in a jiffy.

"But you just handed that lady her mail!"

"Yes, but I do know who she is," I'd say, usually without actually adding And she gives me twenty dollars at Christmas time.

But personal animus never entered into it. What I did not do is say "I'll be done in a minute, Spanky Pants, so you can keep your fat pink capitalist hands off those letters, which are my letters until I shut this box, and if you do not take three steps back this instant I'm telling your wife about that little chippy in Accounting, and telling everyone else that you order adult diapers."

Because I am a nice person.

There are a few legitimate reasons to quit delivering your mail. If, for instance, your unrestrained wolf hybrid threatens me, that's it for your grocery circulars and election flyers. Even more fun, I can quit delivering mail for the whole block. That's the trick that usually gets your attention. Unfortunately for me, I'm supposed to deliver a Bad Dog letter to you first, to explain things.

Not sure the Postal Service thought that one through.

So is this incident similar to those poor persecuted bakers who thought making a wedding cake for women was their first station on the train to Gomorrah? Hard to say. If that was an ethical stand, which I contend it was not, this incident falls somewhere below it. This is just an asshole on a power trip. Mail carriers don't have many ways to power-trip, so ripping someone's name off his mailbox and stomping off is about the limit. And it should be a firing offense.

The second thing that was disturbing was that the asshole in this case was a black woman, which goes completely against the narrative. I count on black women to have a much better grip on matters of justice, and although it is never fair to generalize, I'm still disappointed. If some representative of the Postal Service is going to go rogue like that, I want that person to be a recognizable deplorable of some kind. Any of your standard villains. Or at least a man.

18 comments:

  1. If one's "moral convictions" are such that one would refuse service to someone that one considers "immoral", then perhaps one should go into a line of work that doesn't require dealing with the public in its myriad gradations.

    When I waited tables, I had to wait on everyone, even those who practiced such immoral acts as not leaving a tip. I would get to them... eventually. After I waited on my regulars who tipped well. If I had refused service saying, "I'm not waiting on her because she never tips and her kids leave a mess for me to clean up," I would have been fired on the spot. Dealing with the public means sometimes dealing with people you just do not like. You have to put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

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    1. In any profession, there are probably myriad ways to metaphorically spit in people's food, right?

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  2. We all are on edge these days with all that swamp cleaning. Hoping folks can do better!

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    1. I've been hearing that "drain the swamp" thing for so long that I only just realized how offensive and wrong it is merely on the basis that swamps shouldn't be drained, and generally are just to get more concrete poured on them.

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  3. Yes, sometimes the deplorables walk among us. Scary, ain't it?

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    1. Fewer right here than elsewhere. I'd be seriously depressed if prevailing local opinions were other than what they are.

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  4. Yes, I found out that the whole block wasn't getting mail because my crazy neighbor was shooting at his mailbox when our mailman was trying to deliver. I had to do an intervention. I don't think anyone else was brave enough to talk to him about it. ha... He really wasn't mean just a little crazy. Eventually we got mail.

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    1. You know...[shudder]..."a little crazy" works just as well as mean.

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  5. I don’t think your bar code comment is far off. I was tracking a package from UPS one day and it showed me a map of my (rural) area with a tiny moving UPS truck. To my delight I could see him turn onto my road! I thought it so cool until I realized what it meant for the poor UPS guy. He told me how they know if he opens the door, fastens his seat belt etc. creepy.

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  6. It's a good thing you are a nice person!!

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. That guy on the right in the first photo is fairly scary looking. Please tell me that's a mask or at least a fake beard . . .

    I would not want to be tracked all day. Not by my employer, not by anybody. I know a person who has an app on his phone so his wife knows where he is (within about ten feet) at every moment. Eep.

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    1. She probably just wants a ten-minute warning when he's coming home because...

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  9. You do not have to be crazy to live in North America during 2018. But craziness will help you make "sense" of things (if that makes sense). Which may explain why we have so many crazy people, and so many trying-to-be crazy people.
    Best of luck in the run-up to the elections in November.

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  10. Hi, I am from Ohio and read Columbus 10tv everyday, I haven't seen this; what day was it? I'd like to watch the vid, thanks.

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  11. Oh, I also did my own internet search and the only thing I could find was on the Advocate with a picture of a black woman with face blocked out, quotes of what see allegedly said, and no playable vid. If you can find a reliable report I would like to see it.

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