PRIVACY — A LEGITIMATE PRIORITY!

By Edwin Cooney

A couple of weeks ago, a dear friend of mine sent me a most interesting article from the New York Times under his own subject, “A Telling Observation.”

The “telling observation” was a commentary by Brown University Professor John Edgar Wideman who teaches Africana Studies and Literary Arts twice a week at Rhode Island’s most prestigious venue of learning. A resident of “the Big Apple,” Professor Wideman travels to and from his job via Acela train. His route takes him through, as he expresses it, “one of the most educated, affluent, sophisticated and enlightened” areas of population in the northeast.

Over the last two years, he’s made something of a sociological study in which he is both the subject and the observer. A “man of color,” he’s noticed that the seat next to him inevitably remains empty unless the train fills to its capacity. What he didn’t say was whether the empty seat next to him is always the last seat to be occupied when the train fills up. That, it seems to me, would be more convincing than the information he offers us in his October 7th, 2010 commentary.

Nevertheless, Professor Wideman seems to be convinced that his color is why he enjoys the delights and conveniences of extra space along with the occasional pang of loneliness which appears to this observer as the force of energy behind his commentary.

Notably, Professor Wideman points out he suffers not from such maladies as “body odor,” “bad breath,” or, interestingly enough, a deformity of any kind. Hopefully, one would have had to choose the seat right next to the learned gentleman to notice those first two maladies, but “deformity”? Does the good professor really consider physical “deformity” legitimate grounds for social isolation?

My guess is that if one were to put this question directly to Professor Wideman, he would respond “of course not,” yet in this most erudite sociological commentary he uses the very absence of deformity in defense of his own acceptability!

Still, it’s very possible that color is a factor in his twice a week high speed combination of convenience and abandonment.

Many years ago, when I would ride the Greyhound or Trailways buses of upstate New York, I frequently hoped that an attractive lady would choose the seat next to me. After all, despite my disability (which is most notable because I carry a cane and wear dark glasses on the darkest day and in the darkest bus), I was sure that I looked sufficiently handsome and sophisticated in my trench coat, sport coat and newly purchased briar pipe to draw the attention of a most sophisticated, attractive, and sensitive lady. (Yes, indeed, back in the 1960’s, one could even smoke a pipe on long distance bus trips).

Gone today from almost every social situation is the lure of any briar or smoking pipe. I’m still comfortable in a sport coat and, during cold weather, an overcoat. No longer do I particularly care about attractive or sophisticated ladies occupying the seat to my immediate right or left. Still, like most people, when I get on a conveyance of transportation, I have only one primary thing in mind besides my safe and timely arrival.

What Professor Wideman seems to have let get by his notice is the realization that the first thing he and his fellow passengers insist on is their own personal comfort. Such comfort generally requires maximum space, a window seat and, above all, privacy.

A quick glance up and down the aisle of a sparsely occupied train, bus or even a plane will demonstrate that most people prefer the window seat. Furthermore, many people need the time, especially during an hour or two hour commute, to prepare for the day ahead, analyze the day just concluded, or to read or reflect on matters affecting their lives.

It’s my experience that few people commute, even on public transportation, to socialize. Thus, their private sense of well-being inevitably (and I assert legitimately so) has priority.

As for Professor Wideman’s assessment of his twice weekly social status, he is, of course, more than welcome to his private conclusions. Nevertheless, had he taken into consideration the power and the legitimacy of purely private and personal comfort, his conclusion that he’s being isolated because of his color might be, at the very least, altered.

Unless someone’s actions affects another person’s rights or well-being, that individual’s right to privacy ought always to prevail.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY