Renting a Car in Miami
OkiePundit just returned from a biz trip to Miami, Florida. Nice weather but too much inefficiency. My adventures at the rental car place epitomize Miami for me. To begin with the taxi driver didn't listen to me (English wasn't his first language) and took me to the wrong branch of Alamo. Once inside Alamo it was pure chaos. The lobby looked like a third-world airport just hours before the rebel troops were set to entire the capital city. The lines were long and unmoving. Angry customers were fuming. Cranky bored children were wailing.
It took an hour to get waited on by a dismissive clerk that never acknowledged my existence. When I tried to find my car it was not in the designated slot so I had to re-endur the refugee scene but none of the clerks would help me. They kept shunting me off to someone else and ignoring me as other angry customers vied for their attention. Finally I started yelling at the only managerial-looking person behind the counter and got his attention for a millisecond. He yelled something in Spanish to someone else and they promptly resumed ignoring me.
After a lot more screaming and abominable customer non-service I got a car and left - having wasted an entire afternoon just trying to get a car in Miami.
Now I understand more about the hanging chads.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
No Remorse
About 10 years ago the case of the rape and murder of Sri Sedjati Sugeng, an OSU student from Indonesia, was news. She was found dead in the bathtub of her off-campus apartment in Stillwater. Her family back in Indonesia was devastated of course. Can you imagine learning that your child has been brutally murdered on the other side of the Earth and there's not a thing you can do about it?
Lloyd Edward Mollett was found guilty of the murder and rape and was sentenced to death. The punishment was overturned by a Colorado judge because the District Judge Donald Worthington had foolishly refused to answer a question from the jury. I wonder what the victim's family thought about the American judicial system when they learned that the death penalty conviction had been overturned?
This week Mollett was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Tulsa World reports that Mollett has shown no remorse. I've seem the state pen at McAlester (on a tour) and the thought of spending the rest of a life locked in those tiny cells would possibly be worse than death. Just the thought that one's life has been wasted would be bad enough. As awful (and deserved) as that outcome is, the victim is a young lady from a far off land that came to America to pursue a dream. No one other than Mollett, no one else in the world, is responsible for snuffing out her possibilities and the hope of her family. Mollett needs to apologize to her family.
On a hopeful note, I'm reading a book by Noah Levine, "Dharma Punx", his story of his descent into drug addiction and crime and his turnaround to become a Buddhist teacher and writer. From not caring about his victims (which included his family) to a life of profound compassion. How does one get from one point to another? Read the book.
About 10 years ago the case of the rape and murder of Sri Sedjati Sugeng, an OSU student from Indonesia, was news. She was found dead in the bathtub of her off-campus apartment in Stillwater. Her family back in Indonesia was devastated of course. Can you imagine learning that your child has been brutally murdered on the other side of the Earth and there's not a thing you can do about it?
Lloyd Edward Mollett was found guilty of the murder and rape and was sentenced to death. The punishment was overturned by a Colorado judge because the District Judge Donald Worthington had foolishly refused to answer a question from the jury. I wonder what the victim's family thought about the American judicial system when they learned that the death penalty conviction had been overturned?
This week Mollett was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Tulsa World reports that Mollett has shown no remorse. I've seem the state pen at McAlester (on a tour) and the thought of spending the rest of a life locked in those tiny cells would possibly be worse than death. Just the thought that one's life has been wasted would be bad enough. As awful (and deserved) as that outcome is, the victim is a young lady from a far off land that came to America to pursue a dream. No one other than Mollett, no one else in the world, is responsible for snuffing out her possibilities and the hope of her family. Mollett needs to apologize to her family.
On a hopeful note, I'm reading a book by Noah Levine, "Dharma Punx", his story of his descent into drug addiction and crime and his turnaround to become a Buddhist teacher and writer. From not caring about his victims (which included his family) to a life of profound compassion. How does one get from one point to another? Read the book.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Libraries and Hanging On
I almost didn't get back from OKC in time to vote in Tuesdays library bond issue in Tulsa - but I did. I voted for it of course. I wanted a much better library. Unfortunately, the negative nabobs, the anti-tax at all costs folks, outvoted the forward-looking citizens that remembered to vote. The result finds me again contemplating giving up on Oklahoma and moving somewhere more progressive. I know this is heresy - but I'm not the only one wondering if it's worth hanging on. Life is short.
I love Oklahoma so this is hard to admit.
I almost didn't get back from OKC in time to vote in Tuesdays library bond issue in Tulsa - but I did. I voted for it of course. I wanted a much better library. Unfortunately, the negative nabobs, the anti-tax at all costs folks, outvoted the forward-looking citizens that remembered to vote. The result finds me again contemplating giving up on Oklahoma and moving somewhere more progressive. I know this is heresy - but I'm not the only one wondering if it's worth hanging on. Life is short.
I love Oklahoma so this is hard to admit.