Part 1: Ordinary evil at the DMV
It was my turn at the DMV window. I greeted the woman behind the glass and cheerfully explained that I have hearing loss, and asked her to please face me and try to speak up. She looked at me skeptically as she said, “Yeah, I’m not going to do that.” Through the rest of the interaction, she seemed to intentionally avoid facing me when she spoke, and to step back, so her voice never penetrated the glass. She was visibly irritated every time I asked her to repeat herself, but she still refused to accommodate me. I stayed friendly and kind because I wanted my license, and somehow muddled through the rest of the interaction. Eventually, it was time to write the check to pay for my new license. I asked the amount several times, wrote my check, and slid it under the glass. The woman looked at the check and began to laugh. She faced me then, still laughing, and said “you really can’t hear!” I had written the wrong amount.
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