Went to downtown SF to renewed my passport in person (by appointment) today. (It had expired in April and why do things the easy way when you have time if you can do them the hard way at the very last minute?)
Julia and I disagreed about whether the State Department security people (the guy who did crowd control at the building entrance and the guy at the metal detector) were being rude to applicants. I say yes; she points out that they have to deal with a lot of crap over the course of the day and certainly could have been a lot worse.
In any case I've heard a theory that the ugliest of the "ugly Americans" are actually (ironically) members of the diplomatic corps and staffers at various U.S. embassies. For example, apparently visa applicants are often treated worse than dirt. This is nth-hand anecdotal evidence, of course.
Given some of the horror stories New Yorkers could tell about UN staffers' abuse of diplomatic immunity, I find it entirely plausible that U.S. diplomats would also misbehave.
Note that the people at the actual service windows were skillful and friendly, more than making up for security guards' rubbing me the wrong way (figuratively). Also, the instructions on the State Department web site I found quite clear and easy to understand, apparently unlike a lot of applicants.
Posted by Matt Bruce at June 7, 2006 03:24 PM