No Points for Missing the Point
Wife-of-a-Librarian,
Friend-of-Librarians Rant
From yesterday's Wall Street Journal, a
story guaranteed to rile Our Heroine right the heck up (no linkage, because the
WSJ has a particularly restrictive website). The general thrust of the story
was about people whose credit reports are getting dinged from overdue municipal
fines sent to collection agencies.
One enterprising gent whose
mortgage rate was affected by overdue library fines was quoted. His kids (among
them a 2-year-old) had failed to return library books in a timely manner, and
the resulting fine and his failure to pay had affected his credit.
His response? He has
forbidden his kids to go to the library. Instead, they go to B&N which does
not "retaliate.*" Yes, because when young children in your care and under your
guidance don't return their borrowed library books on time, and you as the adult
responsible (I use the term loosely) for their upbringing fail to pay the
resulting late fees, the only obvious recourse is to
forbid the use of this
educational, civic institution.
Should we even get into the
issue of whether or not "retaliation" is the proper concept when we are talking
about two organizations which differ in their basic model - one which lends you
something for a predetermined period of time and after which has the basic right
to charge you usage for failing to return it and one which exchanges the same
something for cash up front? No, let's not. My poor head, she can't handle the
exploding.
*Pardon, I'm
not sure if this is the exact term used - I'm working from memory
here.
Posted: Wednesday - January 04, 2006 at 06:51 PM
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