Courtesy is not weakness

As a librarian and public servant it is my job to serve my customers courteously and considerately no matter what my personal opinion is of the matter at hand.  This is particularly true of challenges to library materials where my belief in intellectual freedom stands in stark contrast to any challenge.  However, I find that my willingness to help someone (my customer or just a random person) is greatly influenced by their courtesy to me.  As I research the teen lit challenge in West Bend, WI I noticed a pattern of the challengers either playing the victim or being hostile to the library board and others.  This is a tactic I've seen in other customer service situations which confuses me greatly because there is no faster way to ensure that I will be unhelpful than to play politics of victimization or become hostile toward me.

I  witnessed this again, but in a slightly different context, in the divide between Liberal and Conservative.  I found a podcast of a conservative talk radio host (Mark Belling) on Ginny Maziarka's blog in which he railed against the weakness of liberals and their inability to fight terrorism because they care too much for the integrity of the justice system.  Somehow having ideals and an unwillingness to subject innocent people to torture makes me weak.  The fact that torturing guilty people does not yield good intelligence means we're not doing it hard enough not that people are resistant to force.

Granted, I have seen many a public official (usually elected) roll over at the slightest bullying, but for the rest of us, what makes someone think that being a bully will get them their way?  I will not be bullied.  I will fight bullies wherever I find them, be that the school yard or the corner store, the city council or congress.  Bullies get their way only when others allow it and do not expect to find resistance.  Resist bullying, make our world a more civilized and tolerant place by refusing to allow vitriol and spite to break your courtesy while refusing the demands it makes.