The Issue Issue

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Boz

I can’t pinpoint when issue reared its euphemistic head and took the place of problem or difficulty in the general parlance, but the usage is now of epidemic proportion. The media are replete with sidebars about anger issues and relationship issues and weight issues. Students’ excuses for late homework run the gamut from parking issues to childcare issues to domestic violence issues. My work email has recently included a message from the physical plant about compressor issues and from the security director about weather issues.  Continue reading →

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Customer Service

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Boz

Regrettably, I spent thirteen years of my life working at Kmart. I sold shotguns and fishing rods and licenses to use both; I drilled bowling balls and hoisted 110-pound barbell sets into shopping carts; yes, I even announced Blue Light Specials. I knew from the beginning that my job was customer service. I knew who the customers were, and, within reason, I chanted the customer-is-always-right mantra.

But then I began to work for the government, deciding whether people were qualified to receive disability benefits. Not until I had been at that job for about five years, however, did customer service become a watchword at our agency. I reacted with scorn when the administrators purported to judge our performance based on this concept that is clear in the marketplace but fuzzy indeed in a world where nothing is sold nor bought. I even compounded my rebellion by taping the definition of the word customer to my filing cabinet.  Continue reading →

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Bathroom Words

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Boz

Since March 23, North Carolina has been embroiled in a war of words about the so-called “bathroom bill,” House Bill 2, whose most controversial—and, notably, most innocuous—provision states, “Local boards of education [and public agencies] shall require every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility . . . to be designated for and used only by persons based on their biological sex.”

Reactions have run the gamut from the hilarious to the alarmist to the inflammatory. An editorial in the Fayetteville Observer posits long lines at both bathrooms as armed guards check birth certificates and genitals.[1] The website ACLU Action charges, “North Carolina’s law makes it public policy to harass, bully, humiliate, target, and punish LGBT people – especially transgender people just trying to use a bathroom.”[2] Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam, Maroon 5, Cirque de Soleil—and Itzhak Perlman—have cancelled scheduled performances to protest the law. Business and governmental organizations have followed suit; Deutsche Bank and PayPal have decided against expansion in North Carolina; Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington have prohibited official travel to the state. Continue reading →

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Gonnegtions

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Boz

In the early 1980s, I was watching  an episode of Charles Kuralt’s Sunday Morning in which he chronicled the demise of an important family-owned newspaper. I’ll have to call it the Tribune because I have long since forgotten the newspaper and the family and the city that mourned their passing. However, I remember clearly the line that allowed me to articulate a belief that has been a central theme of the rest of my life. Narrating the personal story of one printing-press operator who was losing his job, Kuralt said, “He has seen the moment of the Tribune’s greatness flicker, and in short, he is afraid.” Continue reading →

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