Kindness of strangers

By Doug Page | Monday, June 23, 2008, 02:33 PM

The life of a hard-bitten street reporter is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Hollywood got it in its head that there was something glamorous about sticking your nose into other people’s business.

The same can’t be said, for instance, of a plumber. Glamour can’t begin to describe rolling out of bed at 3 on a cold January morning to repair a broken 16-inch water main.

Likewise, glamour can’t begin to describe searching for one final piece of information demanded by a heartless editor.

The primary source is on vacation. Nobody told you, which explains why he hasn’t returned your numerous phone and e-mail messages. Which became more and more desperate as deadline approached.

The No. 2 source is tied up in meetings all day. No. 3 is heading out the door on a mission of mercy concerning his wife, a broken water pipe and a plumber.

“Call Joe,” he said. “If anybody can help, it’s Joe.”

It is then the words of Blanche DuBois come to mind.

“Whoever you are, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers,” she said to a doctor who was to take her to the sanitarium at the end of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Joe, whoever you are, please answer the phone.

Instead, a secretary explains that Joe is out and about doing his job.

If I leave a message, will he get back to me?

“Well, of course, he will. I’ll make sure he will.”

For 30 years man and boy, I’ve been sticking my nose into other people’s business, talking with politicians, political appointees, elected officials, civil servants, tenured professors, social workers, condemned men and baseball players.

After three decades, there is one thing I can always take to the bank. When a secretary tells you something shall happen, it will.

Joe called. Not only did he have what I needed, he made copies of supporting documents.

Hey, you’re busy, I’ll just come by and go through the documents.

“It’s what I get paid to do,” Joe said.

Civil servants — bureaucrats — are a favored target of talk radio screamers. I wonder what world Rush Limbaugh and the boys live in.

Walk into a Miami Valley courthouse. Ask a question. You’ll get an answer and in most cases some knowledgeable advice.

You may not like the answer. That’s not the civil servant’s fault. Look up your elected official.

There is always exceptions. There exist those who feel the best way to handle the public is ignore it.

Such attitude is not confined to the courthouse or city hall. Getting service from the so-called retail service industry can be challenging.

But guys like Joe, and about every secretary I’ve ever dealt with, out number the drones.

It’s a good thing, too.

When the wife and I were in Siberia many years ago, the only government officials we ever saw were safely ensconced behind steel grills. Their answers were always the same no matter the question: Nyet!

Yet the kindness of strangers got us back home. Home where those strangers include public servants.

A good thing for hard-bitten street reporters.

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