Pausing in the story telling, Collin remarked, “This is an obvious and severe case of balloon puncturing.”
The group members laughed aloud, and Owen remarked, “Just by their appearance and presence, the Lawtons unintentionally punctured that supervisor’s balloon of undisciplined pride.”
“Yeh,” added Donna Coyne,” and I’ll bet she got plenty angry. I know what that’s like.”
“She did get very angry, as we shall see,” responded Collin as he continued the story.
“Durwin and Canda had been standing in line now for nearly three hours. Finally it was their turn. They were called from the end of the line to the wicket at the very end of the counter by the young woman working there. This woman was probably in her late twenties-a different generation and therefore not a pal of the sour looking supervisor who was supervising that same area of the counter. The supervisor was presently busy overseeing a transaction at another wicket. The Lawtons explained their case to the young officer at the counter and presented to her the papers they had received at the border crossing. She was very pleasant and efficient, examined the papers carefully and handed them back to Durwin. ‘From here,’ she said, ‘you have to go up to the twelfth floor. I will give you the room number and the name of the man you are to see.’ She wrote the room number and name on a slip of paper. As she tore it off the pad to give to Durwin the supervisor came roaring down. ‘What’s this,’ she growled as she snatched the slip of paper out of her hand. Then she turned to Durwin ‘Where are you from?’
“‘From Secundaterra,’ said Durwin.
“You have no business to be in this country, and I’d suggest you get back out of it,’ she snarled.
“As she began to say something else, the near mortified counter person shouted above her, to the Lawtons, ‘go and see Mr. so and so in room number such and such.’
“The Lawton’s got the message and after thanking the young woman walked away as the supervisor continued to sputter. It was a case of open and unabashed hostility by a belittler. No subtleties were necessary in this office. She knew she could openly do as she pleased and get away with it.
“Durwin and Canda went to the twelfth floor, found the room and the person they were to see. He, being a very cordial and helpful man, examined their papers received at the border crossing, approved their temporary immigration into the country for one year, and gave them another paper granting them permission to work.
“‘From here,’ he instructed, ‘you should go back down to the counter you just left and pick up a set of papers each, number such and such for permanent residency and come back another day with them prepared for submission to the same counter. You have a year in which to obtain your permanent residency.’
“‘Do we have to stand in line all over again today’ asked Durwin, ‘it took us nearly three hours there this morning?’
“‘No, not this time, but the next,’ replied the man. ‘For today I will give you a signed slip which will enable you to go directly to the counter, and hand in the slip. The counter person will give you the papers.’ He then smiled at the Lawtons. ‘Good luck,’ he said to them, ‘I wish you well.’ They were encouraged greatly.
“As they rode down the elevator, Durwin and Canda decided they would go to the same counter woman they previously had. She was positioned at the end of the counter, and easily accessible to them without their breaking through the lines of people. And besides, this young woman had been very pleasant and now already familiar with their case. The supervisor wouldn’t be able to do them much harm they reasoned, because they had already been admitted to the country.
“As another customer left the young woman’s wicket, the Lawtons approached and handed her the slip from the man upstairs to whom she had sent them. She bent down beneath her counter momentarily, came up with the necessary papers, and began to give a brief commentary on them as she passed them one by one to Durwin. There were several papers.
“As Durwin held some of the papers in his hand, and the young woman held some in her hand, still commenting on them, the supervisor came roaring over again.
“‘What are you back here for now?’ she snapped showing much hostility on her face.
“The young woman protested, ‘they have come to pick up such and such sets of papers.’
“Durwin chimed in sternly. ‘Look Lady, Mr. so and so has approved our temporary admission to this country, and told us to pick up these papers here.’
“The supervisor snatched the remaining papers out of the young woman’s hand, throwing them out across the counter as she snarled, ‘take your papers and see where they’ll get you.’ Most of the papers fell to the floor at Durwin’s feet. While he stooped down to pick them up, Canda attempted to gather the few papers remaining on the counter. The angry supervisor snatched them out of Canda’s hands and threw them down to the floor where Durwin was stooping to pick up the others. Some of them fell over his head. Durwin patiently gathered them all together. Then he and Canda, ignoring the supervisor, thanked the young woman for her helpfulness. She looked at them kindly, tilting her head sideways in affection, then immediately called the next person in line.
“The Lawtons walked away in near shock. ‘Is this what it means to be an immigrant in the land of opportunity?’ Canda remarked to Durwin.
“‘We have to come back to the same counter with these completed papers,’ responded Durwin. ‘We are in for a hard time, I do believe.’
Making an interlude in the story, Collin said to the support group, “Incidentally, some years later, when Durwin told this actual experience to a Christian person in a responsible position, that person said that such a thing could only happen in a communist or third world country. He wouldn’t believe the story.”
“I guess that Christian person had never read in newspapers or heard on television how employees of another North American government department were ruining peoples lives. News of it was widespread in the media.
“To quote one of them:
“Nationwide, IRS abuses are the product of a badly dysfunctional agency, a seemingly totalitarian financial regime where bullying personalities can find a place to exercise unbridled power over peoples lives. As tearful witnesses testified to the Senate, that power wielded arbitrarily, has destroyed businesses and broken up families. In other cases, taxpayers have been unjustly imprisoned-even driven to suicide.” (NEWSWEEK, 251 West 57th St, New York, NY 10019, Page 34, October 13, 1997)
The cover of that same issue of the magazine read: “Inside the IRS, Lawless, Abusive, and Out of Control.”
“That system was eventually fool-proofed somewhat so that the employees couldn’t do such things to people. However, what motivated them to do it in the first place was their wayward characters; seeking power and control over people even to the point of destroying them.
“Then there are the stories on various media about government prosecuting attorneys concealing evidence from defense attorneys so as to secure a conviction in the interests of promoting their own career; and sending innocent victims to prison for life to do it.
“All it takes to have such things happening in any democratic country is a sizable number of its people of such wayward character as living for self alone. In such a life, they use self as the measuring stick by which to measure what is allowed and what is not allowed, what should be and should not be, what is good and what is not good. They let no higher being, God or human, guide their standards. If someone else is a cut above them, then to them that is wrong, and that someone has to be put down or destroyed. Such selfish, self-centered mind-sets as that cause numerous and diverse problems in society. The Lawtons’ experience with immigration is only one manifestation of many similar and related problems.