Mood:
loudTopic: "Thank You Rand Paul"
Every once in a while Frodo needs to be reminded about who he is, and what he happens to believe. He was reminded last night by a guy Frodo calls a "Librarian." Librarians are perfectly logical people, witness the Dewey Decimal System, who present themselves as authority figures in a controlled environment. Their predisposition is that all of society is merely one big library, and the librarian serves only to maintain order. Who enters the library is of no concern to the librarian, unless it is someone whom the librarian feels justified in excluding. No one, ever, questions the right of the librarian to make that decision.
Frodo has always wondered about that person who is excluded from the library.
When Frodo was 12 years old, the McLean Baptist Church adopted a new Constitution. A question was raised about the passage whuch stated that the "Church exercised the right to refuse service to anyone." The librarian explained that some people may not be properly attired, or had not adequately cleaned themselves, thereby making them offensive to their neighbors in the McLean Baptist Church.
Frodo wondered, perhaps for the first time, WWJD? Frodo decided that such a conclusion was above his pay-grade, so he stepped out the door of the McLean Baptist Church one more time, and never since that day has he crossed back inside.
When Frodo was 15 years old, he went to the Virginia State High School Debate Finals held on the idyllic surroundings of America's most beautiful university. On the way back home, the bus stopped by a wayside diner, that really was retired train car, to allow the all-white passengers to enter for burgers and shakes. Bobbie Howard, who was dating one of Frodo's best friends stood outside, and would not enter. Frodo was not aware of her concern until he saw the sign on the door, which read "Management Reserves the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone." Frodo, Bobbie, and the bus driver, were the only ones who stayed outside.
Some years later, on a night when Frodo had two tickets and no date, Frodo took Bobbie to a play, and when he walked her to the front door of her home, she kissed him. She said, "Thank you for sitting with me outside that diner that night."
Frodo never knew the bus driver's name, and he doesn't remember even speaking to him as he got off the bus, but he remembers the smile, and the fingers touching the brim of his cap.
It is too bad that Rand Paul never got to know Bobbie Howard. But the worst part is that he probably has no knowledge of the names Schwerner, Chaney, or Goodman.
Librarians suck.
