Angry Writing

Generally speaking, I'm not one who gets upset or angry easily. I have a fairly calm demeanor for the most part, but I do have my moments. Usually, they are over minor things. Or what most people would view as minor things. The projectionist at a theater makes a mistake with projecting the film improperly. Who goes to tell the projectionist without missing any of the film? The sound cuts out during a movie. You leave your seat to complain. The sound comes back and cuts out again. You complain again. This continues until you receive a refund or some sort of comparable compensation. Needless to say, when something happens at the cinema, I'm used to complaining.

Today, I had one of those moments, but not at the movies. As soon as I got back home from school, I sat down in front of my TV and turned on my local CBS affiliate, waiting for the US Open. I watched the rest of “Let's Make a Deal,” and waited. Then Ellen came on the TV with her talk show. At this point, I figured that there had been a rain delay or something of that nature and that they would join the match once it began. I waited and waited. Finally, I just gave up, assuming that it had been delayed until later in the night, or that our local CBS affiliate just decided to not show it live, but in prime time tonight.

I was a ball of rage when I found out what had actually occurred. The US Open finals were going on. WABI, our local affiliate, chose to show local programming instead of the US Open finals match. Considering that this was the only network that could show the final match in the US Open, I figured I had to let them know that I was upset. I e-mailed them with the following complaint:

Hi,
You really thought local programming was more important than the US Open final? Really? Thanks!
-Tony

A rude e-mail, I do admit. Understand though, that I was really upset. A few things to note about this e-mail and writing e-mails in general. Generally, I try to keep e-mails where I have a complaint fairly civil, courteous, and as polite as possible. I teach my students to do this and tell them to approach everything in a mature and proper manner. This time, I clearly was not courteous and did not approach things in a mature fashion.

In this case, I don't regret the way I approached WABI and can't say that I would have done anything differently. If we, as passionate tennis fans, watch all of the US Open on the same affiliate, and then are denied watching the final because someone decides local programming is more important, then I view that as a sign of disrespect. I can't help but view this in any other way. Clearly, the local CBS does not care about me as a viewer and so my opinion of them automatically changes. While I try to teach my students to approach things in a civil manner, even if it is something that is minor in the grand scheme of things (like missing the first two sets of the US Open finale), it's hard to maintain a cool head at all times. As a teacher and as a human being, I understand that.