Had a little excitement around Ye Olde Town the other day. When I arrived at the post office, a cop car with lights flashing sat in a nearby bank parking lot.<\/p>\n
No, not a bank robbery. As I headed up the steps to the P.O., a woman just ahead turned and in a most accusatory way demanded, “Did you leave a little boy in your car?”<\/p>\n
What? Do I look like somebody who totes toddlers around? Me and this silver hair?<\/i><\/p>\n
“Um … no. Why?”<\/p>\n
“Well,” she said with a glint that you really had to see to understand, “somebody<\/i> did. The little thing was wandering all over the bank parking lot.”<\/p>\n
“Oh, that’s too bad,” I answered. “I can see leaving a child in a car for a minute as you run a quick errand, but …”<\/p>\n
“Ohhhh, no!” she snapped. “Ohhhh, no you wouldn’t. That’s against the law! It’s illegal!<\/i> You’re not allowed to leave a child alone in a car even for one minute<\/i>! And with all the terrible things perverts do to children these days …”<\/p>\n
She continued to rant as she walked to her post office box and I to mine, but I couldn’t tell you anything else she said because I tuned the mother-of-a-canine out.<\/p>\n
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not in favor of child endangerment. (Well, some children — particularly those who can’t behave in restaurants and on airplanes — could use a little endangerment, but that’s a different matter.) And of course, toddlers shouldn’t be roaming the mean parking lots alone, even in a town like this one (where, I must note, few perverts roam).<\/p>\n
But c’mon. Parents have a life. Getting tots into and out of vehicles, especially these days when every kid is required to travel in its own mini-tank, requires major effort. The day was mild, the errand quick, and had the Evil Culprit secured little Rover-boy more carefully while dashing in to cash a check, it would have been no big deal and nobody else’s business, law or no freaking law. <\/p>\n
Anyhow, how many times in the real world do adventurous tots wander away from their parents in perfectly innocent ways? If that’s a crime, every parent who ever lived would probably be rotting in prison.<\/p>\n
I had the feeling — though I can’t be sure — that Madame Indignation might have been the one to call the cops. And I wondered, whoever called the cops … why didn’t they just take Rover by the hand, walk into the bank, and ask, “Does this little boy belong to anyone here?” Or if fearful of being misinterpreted when touching a stranger’s child, just stay by the kid to keep it from wandering into the street until a parent emerged?<\/p>\n
Seems that would have been the neighborly thing to do.<\/p>\n
But no. Whether she called the cops or somebody else did, it was pretty clear that this woman loved the drama and self-righteousness of police going after an erring parent. In fact, from her tone and expression I’m guessing Madame Busybody would have liked it even better had Rover been hit by a car or gotten himself carried off by a perv. Then<\/i> she could have really, really enjoyed her self-righteousness and her superiority. Even better (in what I suppose to be her warped view) if Rover had ended up dismembered or something. She could have gotten years<\/i> of self-satisfied tongue clucking and personal I-told-you-so glorification out of bloody toddler limbs turning up here and there.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, I’m pretty sure the average person in town would have done the neighborly thing. I also doubt that the cop hauled Mom or Dad off to jail — probably just gave ’em a firm, no-nonsense what for. So that part is to the good.<\/p>\n
Thank all stars, Madame Law-n-Order remains an aberration hereabouts. <\/p>\n
But her howls of “that’s against the law!” brought me up short. She clearly didn’t care about the tot. Or about neighborliness. Or common sense. Or right or wrong. Or the decent thing to do. To her, “the law” trumped everything. If something is against the law, then ipso facto<\/i> no decent person would ever do it, and anyone who goes ahead and does it anyhow deserves whatever punishment they get. <\/p>\n
And presumably, as long as something is<\/i> the law, then it’s okay no matter how stupid, cruel, or unfriendly it is.<\/p>\n
Used to hear that kind of thing a lot — before so many ordinary people finally realized we’re all lawbreakers one way or another. These days … well, I’d like to think people like that woman are a throwback to a more rigid era and mindset.<\/p>\n
But I dunno. Not a day later, I was reading Joel’s blog and Tam (the Queen of Snark) threw in a comment<\/a> that made me wonder if she and I were running into some of the same weirdos. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Had a little excitement around Ye Olde Town the other day. When I arrived at the post office, a cop car with lights flashing sat in a nearby bank parking lot. No, not a bank robbery. As I headed up the steps to the P.O., a woman just ahead turned and in a most accusatory way demanded, “Did you leave a little boy in your car?” What? Do I look like somebody who totes toddlers around? Me and this silver hair? “Um … no. Why?” “Well,” she said with a glint that you really had to see to understand, “somebody…<\/p>\n