Non Platinum Behavior - Susan G. Komen Style

Alot of people complain about the Metro behavior of visitors to Washington D.C. The complaints are long and obvious. They stand on the left of escalators. They try to get on the metro before people have gotten off. They don't know how to use the farecard stations. The list goes on and on. While it is always frustrating in the moment, I try to keep my cool about things when they happen in addition to offering help when I can. Being an out-of-towner (like 90% of the city), I remember what it was like to learn the rules of the game, and I didn't have to do it with two kids under five years old nagging me. So I try to cut the tourists a break as much as possible.

The people I don't cut a break for are locals who, for whatever reason, don't obey the rules. Most of the time it is people who don't ride the metro very often and are using it for their once every three months trip into the city for some major event. Enter the Susan G. Komen Race for the cure, happening this morning at the same time I was headed to the BoltBus. I get on the Metro at my usual stop and it's packed. No big deal, right? Wrong. A family has decided to place not one, but two large strollers directly in front of the doors. Now for the 95% of the bus that was going to the Race, this is not a problem. But for the 5% of us that needed to get off before then, it was absurd. People were sucking in their guts just to fit between the crevice created by the door and the family's absurdly wide stroller. Trying to justify the situation, the mother stated matter-of-factly, "The wheels (on the stroller) are locked." I think she meant to imply that this was the reason why she couldn't remove the stroller from the metro in between stops so people could get off. This told me two things about her. 1) She has no sense of metro etiquette. 2) She had somehow forgotten how to disengage the lock on the stroller wheels in the time since she got onto the Metro. I left feeling frustrated at the world and the sometimes unplatinum people floating around it, even when they are on their way to do something I support.

All was better when I arrived at the BoltBus and the bus driver, in a wonderful voice that is impossible to convey through writing, said, "Raphael. I like that name." I'm on wifi right now and going to see friends. Life has moved back to equilibrium.

Random Platinum Link - Charter schools creaming from the "bottom?"

The Post Office is SOOOO not platinum...

So I went to the post office two days ago to mail something. No biggie, right? Wrong. Despite the fact that 1) Christmas has been going on for quite a while and 2) the U.S. Postal Service has a pretty good idea that this means a few more packages going out, the post office near me has the same two individuals working behind the counter. No extra help. No rearranging of schedules to increase workers. No anything. Just two incredibly slow and surly individuals who do not seem to be interested in working very hard.

For my accompanying friend and I, we each had relatively simply goals. We each needed to get stamps and mail some letters. Unfortunately, we needed the stamps so that we could mail our letters. When we walked in, the line to deal with the aforementioned super pleasant civil servants (Ironic Titles R Us called and wanted to give props to whoever came up with that one) stretched out the building. Looking to avoid the line, we went straight for the machines that dispensed the stamps. Wouldn't you know it, both machines were out of stamps/broken. Perfect.

My buddy and I stood in line, talking trash about the entire experience for the next 25 minutes. When we finally got to the front, my friend went up and asked for stamps. The lady, in her "I'm doing you a favor telling you this, even though I don't really need to" voice said, "We only have one kind left." She handed it to him, and he looked at me and chuckled. I walked up and asked for the same thing. She repeated the line and gave me the stamps. I quickly understood why he was chuckling.


Yes, that is the Virgin Mary and baby. How ironic that at this time of year, that's the one stamp they still have extras of. I mentioned to my friend how unamused my Jewish mother from New York would be if the same thing had happened to her (or if I sent her a card with one of those on the envelope). I couldn't help but laugh. The experience of witnessing, of all places, the Post Office, run low on stamps reminded me of when Milton Friedman said, "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."

Platinum Choices vs. Platinum People

After I finished college, I had a week to kill before I needed to report for my Teach For America training. Naturally, I went home to St. Louis to hang out with friends and family before my impending move to Hawaii. After going through the process of looking for jobs and making decisions that would have ramifications in both the near and long term, I was pretty reflective with regard to the reasons why I was going into teaching. Simply put, I felt lucky. Despite the fact that I come from what I consider to be a good family that cared deeply about my education, I would call the schools I attended mediocre at best. Looking back, there were maybe three teachers that I thought had had a positive impact on me as a student. The number of teachers who had a negative impact on my learning was easily above 15. Simply put, I became a teacher so I could even that number up a bit for some kids who had probably had even worse experiences than I. You can then imagine how freaked out I was when I saw that Sterling Johnson, one of the three or so teachers who I would have included in my good list, did this.

Pretty messed up, right? Nevertheless, the experience of seeing someone I held up pretty high fall from grace was good. It taught me that everyone is flawed and that my responsibility is not to judge them (aside from the whole super illegal thing), but to try and understand other people on their own terms.

Looking back, I can say honestly that Sterling Johnson wasn't that great a teacher, but at a time in my life where I didn't know if I was coming or going, he was a friend. So while what he did was atrocious and by my own standards I'm pretty sure he should have been fired much earlier in his career (I'm pretty sure I witnessed Mr. Johnson drunk at school several times but was too naive to realize it), I can't help but reflect on the things I learned from him.

I guess it reminds me of that thing I would say to any of my own students when they messed up. I'm disappointed in his poor choice, but I don't think he's a bad person. I think. At the same time, pushing that to it's logical limit means a moral relativism that this dude cannot abide. I guess the question I end up with is when do we go from non-platinum behavior to non-platinum people. I think there is probably no truly consistent rule and the best I can do is go by my gut/logic to attempt to form a system that has some general premises but allows for flexibility given circumstances...any thoughts?

I just slipped and fell and landed in a pile of not-platinum...

Thanks universe! Real nice of you! I didn't spit in your water bowl. Why did you have to go and let this bit of embarrassment happen? For those of you who don't know me, I do tend to shame my own expectations on a regular basis, but that aside this was unnecessary.

So the team and I were putting some good ideating to use in one of the small conference rooms (i.e. the old intern's room, one for my dead hommies) and we were bashfully taking a moment or two from time to time to shoot hoops on one of those stick-um basketball hoops that most offices have as corny give-aways. Yes we have quite a few, and yes I am getting quite good at miniature basketball. Bring it! When all of a sudden there came a shinny demon, and she said!! "Could you guys keep it down in here, every time you throw that basketball it echoes through our office..." she was, of course, referring to my bosses office. With our tail between our legs we all of course blamed Jen, who had no part in the basketball shenanigans.

Not-platinum successfully avoided. With a lie? Yes. But mean platinum was maintained...

Be it platinum or not-platinum, I leave it up to you.