Last Monday, while I was at the self-check out counter at our public library, I saw a tall man in his late 40s approach a library staff at the counter complaining about a boy who was around my son's age. I took notice of the boy the man was referring to because he caught my attention earlier while I was browsing through the DVD shelf. The boy was fooling around with a friend who was on the computer. I heard the library staff tell the man that she will look into the matter as she was still attending to the queue in front of her. Her answer seemed to satisfy the man as he went back to his computer.
But after a few seconds I heard this very strong but subdued voice say "Out!" and when I turned to the direction of the voice I saw the man glaring at the boy who was several feet away from him and pointing towards the door. He repeated his order in the same tone of voice three times with the boy not comprehending what was happening. The boy just stood still looking left and right as if calling for help. The scene was definitely unnerving. I didn't see what happened next because I had to gather my two sons together just in case. My librarian instinct told me to approach the man and try to calm him down but my pragmatic self told me that wasn't my turf.
As we were ready to leave the library, I overheard the library staff the man earlier spoke to and a colleague tell the boy to just stay away from the man. I was quite surprised to hear this because that was not how I would have handled the matter. I would have told off the man, too, for his behavior. But as I said it wasn't my turf. Furthermore, no one has the right to kick out a library patron just because he/she is annoying. There is such a thing as diplomacy.
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