The police force in Uvalde Texas failed to confront the shooter in time, leaving the kids and the teachers in the elementary school to the cruelty of the shooter.
A civilian in the Indiana shopping mall killed the shooter before the police did, and was referred to as “Good Samaritan” as a result.
This ironic contrast reminds me of my experience when I was working for my former employer, a public research university in California.
One day, when I entered the office, I found lots of ants on the carpet and some climbing onto my desk, one after another. I initially suspected that some magical electromagnetic field in the office attracted them. This entire team of ants came through the office door. I traced the origin and found out they were from outside the side door of the building. Unable to get rid of them by myself, I reported this to the admin office. They immediately notified the university, and several hours later, a special task force arrived at our building. They sprayed some liquid outside the building, hoping to disrupt the ants. The next day, the ants were still here and even more rampant.
I only had one coworker in the office, Dr. Shapiro. Seeing me fretting about the ants, he told the boss Mr. Osman calmly, “Slim has a very strong reaction to ants.” I didn’t respond, because I knew clearly that his indifference was based on the fact that the ants weren’t on his desk.
I reported to the admin office again, and the special task force appeared again. They sprayed even more liquid this time, here and there. I truly hoped it could work. That was a Friday.
The next Monday, when I arrived at the office, I saw the ants had migrated onto Dr. Shapiro’s desk. He had left his unfinished coffee on the desk and therefore the ants were attracted by the chemicals. I took a picture of his cup and emailed it to him as well as Mr. Osman, saying, “Everybody be careful! Don’t leave any liquid in your office overnight. We are raided by the ants!”
Dr. Shapiro arrived and saw what was happening on his desk. “Oh my god. How can I work with all these ants here? The spray didn’t work?”
I shrugged with no facial expression.
Obviously, I couldn’t rely on the institution anymore. I texted my landlord and asked him what I should do about the ants, since he knew how to take care of everything in his house. He played the uncle image for me during my stay in his house, to some extent, and I could tell he was far more capable than my Y chromosome provider.
Minutes later, the landlord texted me back and told me to buy a special drug (liquid form) from ACE. I bought it during the lunch break. There were 2 small cups in a box, so I placed one cup inside our office and the other cup in the corridor to the building’s side door.
The next morning, we saw corpses of ants lying on the carpet, from the building’s side door all the way up to Dr. Shapiro’s desk. (Mr. Osman, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, shouldn’t be very excited about this scene…) This box of drug cost me 6 bucks plus tax. Problem solved for good. I brought the receipt to the admin office.
Of course, I got reimbursed almost immediately. It was just 6 bucks plus tax. The department manager was there too, and she saw everything. I was treated with respect by her until the day I left that painful job under Mr. Osman.
When you work for an institution, you get institutionalized. I once said this jokingly, and people laughed very hard.
Where and when did I learn that word? From The Shawshank Redemption, in my sophomore year in college. The lecturer teaching the Creative Writing course required us to watch this movie.
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