She
refused to give me the form stating I was
asking for the "wrong one, that all I
had to do was send back my old passport; and
to step aside." I knew I
was asking for the correct form because I
had the 'How to Apply in Person for a
Passport,' in my hand. I
suggested she read it. She refused. I
then requested to speak to the manager but
when he came out he stated that he knew
"nothing about passports."
That she was probably right and they did not
want to be doing this anyway. I then
asked for the "general manager"
before I called the State Department on my
cell phone to tell them they were refusing
to give me a federal form. He
told me to wait in the room where they take
the passport photos. I had my own two
pictures with me. After about thirty
minutes he came back into the room and we
went over the documents I had in my
possession. Then he left to photocopy
some of them. Federal law prohibits
the copying of some of them. While he
was absent another woman came into the room
and was rude to me, then when I told her I
was having problems renewing my passport she
called me a "witch." I told her
not to disrespect me. She then left the
room and at the top of her voice in front of
employees and the public, she said:
" she ought to be thrown out of
this building." At that point the
manager came back into the room and we
finished what we were doing and put all the
documents into an envelope to send to the passport
agency to the State Department.
I
complained to him about the rudeness, abuse
and insults I had received by the two clerks.
He responded they were "under
stress." I told him I felt the
second one owed me an apology and I wanted
her name. I only got one of their
names. I told him she had no right
to defame me in public and that I would be
calling my lawyer.
I pity the elderly and
the handicapped who cannot stand up to this
type of abuse. The problem that many of us
are encountering here in this area of
Florida is that people in certain jobs
are taking it upon themselves to violate the
civil rights by misinterpreting the
Patriot Act. Librarians are also
complaining that civil rights are being
violated left and right. I don't know
about you, but I resent being treated like a
common criminal, and things have gone just
too far when an ordinary citizen cannot even
renew her passport without being
humiliated and insulted by someone whose
authority has gone to their ignorant head!
We
are becoming a vulgar nation and an angry
society and people are taking it out on each
other. Talk about road rage and cell
phone abuse! People are fed up with bad
manners and lack of respect. We find
it not only in post offices and department
stores but also in schools. Manners and
respect have to be reinstated into our
culture before we deteriorate into
barbarians! And most Europeans think
it already!
