I'm Better Than Them

Try as I might, I continually find it hard not to be an elitist. There are just so many stupid people. I was just reminded of this. A man in his mid to late 20's and a woman of roughly the same age came into the library. They were talking loudly and asked me where the restrooms were. I gave them the standard "Down the hall, on the right." He then asked me "Which hall? This hall?" as she dragged him on, saying "thank you." This interaction seemed odd, but didn't raise me on a pedestal.

When they were leaving, they stopped at the desk once more. He asked "I was wondering if you could do a favor for me?" I waited for him to describe the favor, taking in their appearance. He was wearing a dirty t-shirt, with outlines of tattoos up and down his arm. Just the outlines, though, nothing filled in. While it could have been an intricate piece, it looked to be multiple small pieces, making me wonder if he simply decided that tattoos were something of the quantity, not quality variety. His female was the perfect companion piece to this white trash composition. Her too-tight t-shirt accentuated her breasts, and exposed her midriff. Her dark, nearly black hair was marred by multiple inches of brown roots. Her face had too much makeup, and her lacy underwear rose a good inch and a half over the waist of her jeans. A few seconds had passed and neither of us had spoken, as I gave him my best "yes?" face.

"Well, can you do me a favor?" he inquired again.

"It depends on what you're asking."

"I was just wondering if you could help us by looking up something on the computer. See, some guy who lives on our street is on the Megan's Law website. We were wondering if you could look it up and print it out for us."

I was torn. For the uninitiated, the Megan's Law website lists all of the registered sex offenders in an area. Every state has one. They show the convicts photo and list their name, address, charge, as well as identifying features, etc. It is one of those internet voyeur goldmines, like the Allegheny County Assessment's page or Google Street View. It's better though, because beyond the voyeuristic nature, it also combines an element of the taboo in it. You're looking at the skeletons in other people's closets, the really bad ones, the ones of a sexual nature. And you're judging them the ENTIRE time. It's impossible not to. And you can feel okay about it, because they've been convicted. It's not like Pet Abuse.com, which just makes you feel bad. These are the ones who have gotten caught and are found guilty by a jury of their peers. I enjoy looking up areas I've lived in and seeing the number of sexual predators nearby. I have yet to actually know any of them.

But here, here was a chance to live vicariously through these poor, dirty people. On the other hand, though, I had other things going on online. It would involve googling the site, searching the street, printing it out, and above all, helping these people. I really am an elitist. There is not a doubt in my mind that I am better than these people. To help them would be to go against my nature.

So I said no. I told them something about only being allowed to look up information regarding call numbers, etc., and sent them on their way. I'm sure that if they had complained, my supervisors would back up my actions, considering libraries are known for being strongly against invasions of personal privacy, or simply that something of such a tawdry nature could make me feel uncomfortable. That means I win.