Christine's FOX-25 Blog

So we have this guy who was sending nasty emails to the general manager of the MBTA, Dan Grabauskas, complaining about late trains.  Okay, so the guy has a legitimate gripe...heaven knows that I have a list of beefs with the T as long as my arm.

But Mark Roberts took it too far.  A Department of Corrections employee, he took to writing numerous emails to Mr. Grabauskas, full of profanity and gay slurs (Grabauskas is openly gay).

Usually when people write complaint letters or emails that are peppered with profanity, they are just thrown in the trash and ignored.  But in this case, the gay slurs do constitute hate speech.  Also, Roberts was sending these emails from his work computer, which makes it all the more worse.  Now, he (Roberts) is on disciplinary leave, and is in danger of losing his job for good.

Honestly, I do understand Mark Roberts' frustration.  This is why we hardly ever ride the T anymore; my husband and I are both very frustrated with it.  We're sick to death of the endless busing on weekends between Oak Grove and wherever they feel like it this week.  The correct info is NEVER on their website, so we never know where to park to avoid having to ride those awful buses.  I could go on and on about other problems we've had, but I'll spare you.  I'll just say that perhaps Dan Grabauskas should watch Dougie's SkyFox segments every morning, see all of those cars on the Southeast Expressway and the Zakim Bridge heading into Boston.  Maybe there'd be fewer of those cars, if the T were better than it is now.

It's understandable to be angry and want to swear at people when there's a problem.  But before you hit that SEND button, you have to sit back, take a deep breath, and calm down.  Then write your complaint letter.  Explain the problem in a calm, rational manner.  Do not use even ONE swear word.  Try to use proper grammar, as well as a spell-checker.

You want to come off as a rational person, with a legitimate complaint, and not as a raving nutcase.  Those are the letters that will be read and most likely to be responded to.  This has worked for me time and time again when I've had a gripe with a business.

As for sending letters or emails of complaint to the MBTA...most of the time, they ignore you even if you aren't acting like a raving nutjob.  The only time I ever received a response was when I complained about a bus driver refusing to pick me up at the Malden T station at 1AM.  He told me there was another bus coming, and left.  He was probably in a hurry to get back to the garage, and didn't want to bother to finish his route for one passenger.

But there were no more buses that night, and I ended up having to spend money on a cab that I couldn't really afford at the time.  In my letter, I did ask that I be reimbursed for it; they could have given it to me in tokens if they liked.  (This was long before they started the Charlie card system.)  I did get an apology, and reassurance that the driver in question was facing disciplinary action.  But no refund of cab money.  Oh, well.

So, I say to Mark Roberts:  was it worth it to send all of those emails to Dan Grabauskas?  Was it worth the possibility of losing your job over?  Was it also worth the possibility that you could be charged with a hate crime, being that you used some not-so-nice words about gay people?

You have a legitimate complaint.  If you have just calmed down and worded things better, you'd not be in such hot water now.

Well, I signed up for this blog thing ages ago, but have never posted on my own.  I have five blogs hosted on my own domains, but I thought it would be nice to start using this one, too.

So, I saw Mike Beaudet's story the other night about sexual deviants going to the circus, and possibly to other places where children and families are present.  It's appalling that this is allowed, but it made me think about something else.  How about PARENTS who let their kids run wild in such venues?

During the summer, my husband and I go to a lot of minor league ball games...another place where there are lots of families with kids in attendance.  At some of these ballparks, we are subjected to free-range kids, running wild, no parental supervision in evidence here.  Yeah, I'll be upfront and say that these kids annoy us and interfere with our enjoyment of the games.  And these aren't teens, they are little kids who are still young enough to need to stay with a parent or guardian.

But so many times, I halfway expect to return home from a game, turn on the FOX-25 news, and the lead story is about a missing kid.  Oh, I saw that kid, he was running around, unsupervised, at the ball game we just came home from!  You can bet that if this ever happened, I'd be on the horn to the police.  And I'd be sure to mention that I saw the kid running around, unsupervised, and I had no idea who or where his parents were at the time.  I'd definitely want the parents to be held accountable for this, as well.

Not that I think it's okay for child molesters and other sexual deviants to be out and about like this (especially when their handlers fall asleep on the job).  But parents need to realize that the world is not the same place it was when we were kids, these perverts are everywhere, and it is up to parents to keep an eye on their young children at all times.  It would be SO easy for a predator to snatch a child from one of these ballparks, it is not funny.

So, parents...even if you don't care whether or not your kids interfere with our enjoyment of the game...it is still YOUR obligation to keep an eye on them, don't let them run wild, and keep them safe.  Don't just smile and say that *this only happens to other families*.  It can happen to ANYONE.  Since the Mass Department of Mental Health plans to continue these outings, this is all the more reason to be extra careful.

Doing so is a win-win situation for all.  Well, except for the perverts.  But they shouldn't be there, anyway.