September 13, 2011
1. Newblog2011: 09/13/11 The Boston Public Library continues to encourage my being harassed.
Today, the Boston Public Library has again put yellow "Caution" tape across the entrance to a hallway that's off the hallway that leads into the room that has the public access computers. There are also several large, orange, "Caution" poles in that room, the kind that are meant to be outside; it's all obviously visible to anyone who walks into the computer room from that hallway.
This is a LIBRARY. It is a LIBRARY; people are supposed to be making an effort to keep their noise to a minimum in a library. It is completely unacceptable that I have been abused here.
I tried to handle the matter in an appropriate way, and my efforts met with no success; the level of noise produced by people who repeatedly, blatantly fake sneeze, cough and make vomiting sounds here can be heard throughout the entire room, even though it's a large room. People also walk by me and stand and sit near me specifically so that they can make those sounds while they're near me.
If I have gotten frustrated with having been abused here every day that I've been here, it's not surprising.
Yesterday, I saw that a female staffperson who was at least in her 50's heard me say "Shut up!" to someone who was being harassing to me. The harassment goes on the entire time that I'm here. I saw her raise her eyebrows, and today, the "Harass Lena" display is in the hallway off the hallway that leads into this room, as I described at the beginning of this essay.
It is completely unfair. It is absolutely unfair, and it's disgusting. It is DISGUSTING to make references to genitals all day. The people who do that are the ones who are being disgusting, and none of their disgusting behavior is going to succeed in making it true that I'm the one who's disgusting.
Let's review again what the "Caution" tape and the road signs in that hallway are saying. They're saying "Your vagina exudes so much moisture that it's a danger to entire buildings. People who harass you every day, for hours, for as long as you're here, by making unbelievably loud, repeated coughing, sneezing and vomiting noises IN A PUBLIC LIBRARY to indicate that your vagina smells so bad that they're choking on the smell from the other side of a large room are the good people, and you are the bad person. Not only is the library not going to try to stop those people, it's going to encourage and reward them for their behavior toward you. The library is going to encourage and reward people who stand next to you or who sit across from you and who rub their noses to indicate that they can smell the horrible smell of your vagina. The library is going to encourage and reward people who kick your belongings."
Why shouldn't I be the one to raise my eyebrows at getting that kind of message from the Boston Public Library?
One of the purposes of a library is to provide the public with chances to educate itself, to ameliorate narrowmindedness and to improve itself. Is that what the library believes it is doing in regard to the public at this time?
Copyright L. Kochman, September 13, 2011 @ 1:47 p.m.
1. Newblog2011: 09/13/11 The Boston Public Library continues to encourage my being harassed.
Today, the Boston Public Library has again put yellow "Caution" tape across the entrance to a hallway that's off the hallway that leads into the room that has the public access computers. There are also several large, orange, "Caution" poles in that room, the kind that are meant to be outside; it's all obviously visible to anyone who walks into the computer room from that hallway.
This is a LIBRARY. It is a LIBRARY; people are supposed to be making an effort to keep their noise to a minimum in a library. It is completely unacceptable that I have been abused here.
I tried to handle the matter in an appropriate way, and my efforts met with no success; the level of noise produced by people who repeatedly, blatantly fake sneeze, cough and make vomiting sounds here can be heard throughout the entire room, even though it's a large room. People also walk by me and stand and sit near me specifically so that they can make those sounds while they're near me.
If I have gotten frustrated with having been abused here every day that I've been here, it's not surprising.
Yesterday, I saw that a female staffperson who was at least in her 50's heard me say "Shut up!" to someone who was being harassing to me. The harassment goes on the entire time that I'm here. I saw her raise her eyebrows, and today, the "Harass Lena" display is in the hallway off the hallway that leads into this room, as I described at the beginning of this essay.
It is completely unfair. It is absolutely unfair, and it's disgusting. It is DISGUSTING to make references to genitals all day. The people who do that are the ones who are being disgusting, and none of their disgusting behavior is going to succeed in making it true that I'm the one who's disgusting.
Let's review again what the "Caution" tape and the road signs in that hallway are saying. They're saying "Your vagina exudes so much moisture that it's a danger to entire buildings. People who harass you every day, for hours, for as long as you're here, by making unbelievably loud, repeated coughing, sneezing and vomiting noises IN A PUBLIC LIBRARY to indicate that your vagina smells so bad that they're choking on the smell from the other side of a large room are the good people, and you are the bad person. Not only is the library not going to try to stop those people, it's going to encourage and reward them for their behavior toward you. The library is going to encourage and reward people who stand next to you or who sit across from you and who rub their noses to indicate that they can smell the horrible smell of your vagina. The library is going to encourage and reward people who kick your belongings."
Why shouldn't I be the one to raise my eyebrows at getting that kind of message from the Boston Public Library?
One of the purposes of a library is to provide the public with chances to educate itself, to ameliorate narrowmindedness and to improve itself. Is that what the library believes it is doing in regard to the public at this time?
Copyright L. Kochman, September 13, 2011 @ 1:47 p.m.