Way back in 2003, I think before we had actually slammed into Iraq with Shock and Awe, I had to visit my car insurance agent.
(If this visit wasn't before Iraq II, it was shortly thereafter.)
Anyway, I showed up, and the agent was off in his office, with the door open. He saw me, and gestured for me to sit down in the waiting room.
So i sit down, and he is having a conversation I can't really hear, and then he starts to scream into the phone, "I don't think you should care about your pension - you need to get out of there while you have enough life force to do it! Isn't it enough that so much of that building was destroyed?"
There is quiet for a moment, while whoever was on the phone makes their reply.
And the agent again screams, "If I didn't care about you, I would say, 'Fine, wait till your pension kicks in." But the Dick Cheney - Rumsfeld Legion is there and in force - you really need to get out while you still can!"
Again silence in the suite of offices while the person on the other end replies. Then I hear the agent say, "Well, no need to thank me for voicing my concerns. If this talk helped you at all, then I am glad of it." A short pause, "You take care too. And call every week, okay?"
The agent comes out into the waiting room, still red faced from his phone encounter. He shakes hands with me, asks briefly how I am, then says, "I hadn't heard from my uncle in several months. Normally he calls every ten days or so.
"And I called him at home today, as I am scared of calling him at work. Apparently he had taken a sick day, as normally I would be leaving a message on his home machine. But today he was at home, rather than work.
"He works at the Pentagon, and he has been in opposition to all the proposals coming from the Rumsfeld-Cheny side of the Bush regime. And due to his opposition, he has been transferred to a desk in the basement of the Pentagon, where he sits all day twiddling his thumbs. He has no support among co workers, as everyone else that he knows who views the political realm as sanely as he does, has already left the Pentagon.
"Anyway I think he should leave and leave now."
He then apologized for keeping me waiting. I immediately let him know that his uncle certainly had my support and that no apology was needed.
I was struck, on my drive home, that he had "lost" it while a client was sitting and waiting for him. Insurance agents are taught not to carry on about politics, and definitely not while a client is in their presence. The fact that this professional agent had "lost it" emphasized for me how upset the agent was with the experiences of workers at the Pentagon. When all the sane people leave such an important place, then who ends up running the show?
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