🚀 go-pugleaf

I've only once scuffled with a cop.  But then it was with 3 of them,
at the Registry of Motor Vehicles on Nashua Street.

Just like poor innocent Ron Newman, I went to renew a license and a
registration.  I was helped out by perfectly reasonable, totally
efficient, pleasant and friendly people.  I will not tell you whether
any of them was attractive.

I was so amazed by the speed and pleasantness of my visit that I
complained to the Registry police at the information table.  I told
them that with such good service I'd lose my respect for the awful
majesty of the Registry, and maybe expect something similar next time,
with disastrous results.  I told them to do something about it pronto.

Now that, as you might guess, was a mistake.

One of the cops looked at the other and said "Oh, oh, he's going to
ruin our reputation.  Throw him out before he causes trouble."  The
three of them jumped up and frog-marched me out of the building.

I barely had time to scream that you can't throw an inmate out of an
asylum without giving him lunch before I was out, and they were
running back in.  Someone was photographing the building from the
steps outside, and they didn't want their guilty faces in the
newspaper.

			the PC Gestapo Strikes
				Back
		    ==============================
	WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG about Ron Newman saying he encountered
	an "attractive" young woman at the Registry?  I admit it isn't
	critical to the story line, but it was something he noticed,
	and a factor in making his visit yet more pleasant and perhaps
	surprising, for all I know.
	    If she struck Ron's fancy, for whatever reason, that's his
	business, and nobody is invited to negate it.  He doesn't owe
	anybody an explanation of his sexual orientation, equal time
	for gays or those into bestiality or even chastity (yech!), or
	deliberately suppressing his feelings.

	He didn't say that he made a pass at her or belabored her for
	her attractiveness in any way.  So he presumably behaved as a
	gentleman.  (I know the guy.  I have absolutely no doubt he
	behaved decently.)
	
	My guess is he tried to use that person's attractiveness to
	indicate that not everyone who works at RMV is one of life's
	embittered losers.  I hardly noticed it the first time around,
	but then again I'm not spoiling for a fight with inoffensive
	people.


	Mr. Kamens, you not only flamed Ron, but after he explained
	himself (and I won't evaluate his explanation, but I'll note
	that he owed you nothing,) you did it again, with the line
	that "two wrongs don't make a right."
	
	Your flame was gratuitous and wrong the first time, and in its
	unrepentant sanctimoniousness even more wrong the second time,
	and you're damn tootin' two wrongs don't make a right.  In
	your case, they compound each other.

	Whatever imperfections Ron has, I don't doubt his basic good
	will.  Having watched you try to rub his face in dirt TWICE,
	without his trying to hassle you, or even hassle you back, I
	cannot say the same for you.

	Mr. Salz, your response was also gratuitous, though at least
	you didn't go to the trouble of dressing Mr. Newman down.

	You other people, offering to pass along any possible reports
	of attractive men at the Registry to your unattached(?) gay
	friends, get a life!  You want to score, go there yourselves,
	check out the scene.  Passing suggestive comments on this
	newsgroup is hardly the mark of winners in the game of love.


Summary: Yes, they've been known to be nice at the Registry, including
the cops, who I thought showed remarkable humor, and a fair amount of
energy.

Oded Feingold  oaf@osf.org     Contractor at  Open Software Foundation
OSF:   11 Cambridge Center     Cambridge Ma. 02142      (617) 621-7265
Home:  21 Oxford Circle        Belmont   Ma. 02178      (617) 489-6918