I am <THIS> close to laying down a square on the floor made out of tape that is out of arm reach of anything important and telling ‘em it’s the naughty square, for LT’s that don’t learn.
Oh, lord and lady, Dia,
please forgive me, but I couldn't get this out of my head when you talked about the Showcase Square and I got to wondering how someone higher in the command chain might get to do it:
"
What did I just walk into? I've been on my shift for
ten seconds - if that - and I find this equipment has been treated like it's part of this government's souvenir stand!
Do you have authorization to touch that? No? Then explain this miracle to me, as to why your fingerprints are decorating something you are not cleared to touch? Just what were planning to do with that equipment, recruit? Were you planning to adopt it? Give it a name? Take it home and read it a bedtime story about responsibility, maybe? One where the two of you could learn together since you clearly have yet to learn the concept yourself?
Do not answer! I can already see the gears turning in your head and I am concerned for their safety!
In this binder here there are instructions - a protocol, if you will - to prevent this very thing from happening and here you stand, a living demonstration that paper alone is not enough to stop someone from saying to themselves "Yes. Today...
today is the day I will place my hands exactly where they do not belong!" That was your time to shine. And this is mine!
I want you to imagine that everything here is labelled with a simple instruction: "Do not touch unless authorized." Now, when I say "authorized" that does not mean I am issuing a challenge! I am not gift-wrapping a puzzle to be solved! I am not inviting interpretation! This is not one of your phone games where the CO gets eaten by a snake if this equipment goes unpawed! I am telling you as clearly as I can that if this equipment had feelings, it would
at this moment be lodging a complaint for harassment! You are
not here to explore! You are
not here to examine! You are here to follow orders
so precisely that even your shadow will wait for permission to move!
From this day forward,
when you feel the urge to let your hands wander across things where hands were not
meant to wander, you will perform the following actions. You will
stop! You will
stand still! You will do
nothing! And then you will ask yourself, "Has anyone in a position of authority given me permission to touch what I am about to touch?" And if the answer is "No", then you will
fight that urge like it just insulted your momma.
Do I make myself clear?
And
if I catch you doing so again, then you will do a tour as exhibit on the Object Lesson Display square in the hopes that others may learn from
your inability to do so!"