Rant
This evening, ESPN showed their top 10 countdown of rants. I couldn’t actually hear what was being said during these rants because I viewed it from across the room while eating supper at a restaurant. I could read a few of the lips, but I won’t repeat them here. The idea of the segment was to show how the frustration of coaches and players sometimes comes out in verbal tirades. Sometimes we all need to rant a little–to blow off steam, to tell someone (anyone who will listen) about our frustration, to scream about injustice.
Tonight, I need to rant. My wife, my son, and I had an experience this afternoon that left us shaking our heads and wanting to scream at the stupidity and uncaring attitudes of bureaucrats and systems. I won’t bore you with the details except to say we were dealing with a social service agency and a private contractor employed to offer help to our son. It took six months of paperwork, phone calls, and general harassment on our part for us to get the service agency to agree to services. It should have taken a couple of weeks. After working with my son for less than two months they wanted to withdraw services because he openly shared some information about himself that sent them into a tizzy. But it is that very information that demonstrates he needs help.
Why is it that institutions get so bound up in rules and desire to protect themselves that they lose track of what they were created to do in the first place? This particular social service agency and the provider we encountered today were created with the best intentions–to provide help to people who need it the most. Over time, however, the institutions lost their focus and became a slave to policies and procedures that result in excluding those very people who need help the most. I’m not just ranting about my meeting this afternoon. I’m ranting about institutionalization, the loss of vision, and bowing to the god of self protection. I’ve experienced this frustration first hand numerous times in the past 30 years. I’ve even regrettably participated in it while working in the church (another organization often guilty of uncaring institutionalization). I know my sins and confess them openly. Okay, I’m ranting. I’m blowing steam. It hasn’t helped. I’m still angry.
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