Over the years, I've told colleagues and friends about things I have seen or experienced. Many times, people have said that I should write them down so that they won't be lost and forgotten, since some of them might be useful parts of our history. I've been writing them down, without being sure what I would do with them. I decided to gradually post them on this website, and see what reactions I get. I suggest reading from the bottom up (starting with the August 2017 post "The Meritocracy"). Thoughtful and kind feedback would be useful for me, and would help me to revise the exposition to make it as useful as possible. I hope that while you read my stories you will ask yourself "What can I learn from this?" I'm particularly interested in knowing what you see as the point of the story, or what you take away from it. Please send feedback to asilverb@gmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on them!

I often run the stories past the people I mention, even when they are anonymized, to get their feedback and give them a chance to correct the record or ask for changes. When they tell me they're happy to be named, I sometimes do so. When I give letters as pseudonyms, there is no correlation between those letters and the names of the real people.

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Christian-owned

Does the younger generation even know what a travel agent is? The Ohio State University gave us a list of three approved travel agencies, and required faculty to book our business trips through them. Only one of the three was anywhere near the university or where I lived.

One day, the agency was crowded. I took a number and sat down in the waiting area. To my left were assorted magazines and brochures on a low table.

I picked up a brochure that told customers to only frequent Christian-owned businesses, and gave a list of Christian-owned local businesses that included this travel agency.

I have no objection to people making their own decisions about where to shop. But it did not seem reasonable that a state university should essentially require me to purchase all my plane tickets for business travel from a place that told its customers not to patronize businesses owned by Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, atheists, etc.

I assume that OSU faculty now buy their flights off the Internet (and hopefully travel less to help save the Earth). I have no nostalgia for travel agencies.