I picked up a lot during my career as a clean-up person, including stories and concepts.

B. was a real go-getter City Plant Manager, through various levels, with the city schools. So much so he often was handed, before everything was subject to multi-candidate interviews on a site, folks who were disciplinary problems. Such was the mixed bag of being very scrupulous with the pen, which we used more often then.

Late in his game as "regular" custodian, time frame of the first half of the 1970's a part of the concept, I was chatting with him in one of our promotional classes. I had heard a story of a custodian who had molested a child in a school and was still working. The parents were frightened of traumatizing the child further in court. Funny, we were told from early in this service even an accusation can be a career ender. The various supervisors were on him like stink on the stuff we were there to remove to try to fire him for, well, anything they could leverage.

B. was an employee activist and counter-cultural enough, often indicated by the "Nixon? Ptooie!" divide. And he said to me in so many words he wanted to help this guy. At this time I was a shaggy but otherwise, well, what would we say, reverse-rebellious conservative. These days the juggernaut of those who use the term "conservative" as The Bright Shiny Magic Word claim to have been outraged and indeed took their equally shining turn right, often allegedly in one compact but explosive epiphany, in response to authoritarian-liberal college professors of the era.

And "bleeding heart" criminal rights advocates in growing numbers playing follow the leader to said professors and others. Oh, yes, the defense attorneys who "socked it to" those evil cops, and who would grill the child and anyone else on her side. A skill "those liberals" admired often in vocal tones similar to those used by musty establishmentarian adversaries from their tormented youths.

Embellishment has always been a growth industry and the tapping fingers here, all two and a half, want their fair/unfair share.

I asked B. for a little more light; oh, he abhorred the crime. But prosecute for that, not set up precedents that could be used to harass custodians for stuff unrelated to job performance. And a lot of the latter went on in the turbulence of the 60's and 70's.

A very interesting dilemma which, though some positions have refined, is with us through many horrors and outrages.

I know there are readers on this blog. Any thoughts?