The Twelve Blogs of Christmas... #11

     In the eleventh blog of Christmas, my blogger gave to me... 11 egos clashing, at-TEN-tion to detail, 9 musicians playing, 8 important events, 7-ty degrees, 6 guards a-guarding, 5 reso-luuu-tions... 4 days to New Years, 3 golf stories, 2 Christmas wishes, and the story of HCG...

     Nothing says inflated ego and over-blown cases of I.S.S...(my own diagnosis standing for Inflated Sense of Self) like a political gathering.  We have a new mayor in the city of Phoenix and newly elected members of the city council and today was the inauguration ceremony and the list of "dignitaries" was enormous...( I prefer to call them "Indignitaries" because of their pompous attitude).  There is nothing that rattles my cage as a security guard more than someone asking the question... "Don't you know who I am?"   That is the absolute surest way to get me to do nothing for you.  And that question came up...you guessed it... exactly 11 times. (This is truly the stars aligning to keep the twelve blogs of Christmas alive and kicking).  I can see the officials of city government having their day on the stage and it was a nice ceremony with the the winners saying all the right things and hitting all the hot spot issues and promising to do the job for which they were elected as the "candidate of the people"...(but very few actually complete the job they promised).  But, other than the immediate family, no one gets preferential treatment because "I'm with the candidate".  Technically, I'm with the candidate because I'm there to keep these I.S.S. sufferers away from the candidates.

     But the issue that disturbed me the most was that this ceremony was open to the public and the powers that be running the show decided that there would be no searches or wanding for weapons.  And this on the heels of the tragedy in Tucson with Gabrielle Giffords where several people were murdered at a political gathering.  When I heard this was the case, I told my boss that the only way I would work this event...(and I was requested by the Convention Center), was that I would work in the lobby away from the stage and potential gunfire.  Nothing occurred and the event went flawlessly, but I can't believe that an event where all of the city power...(mayor and city council) was on a stage in a public forum, that safety and security would be backburnered to prove that the candidates were unafraid.  Everyone knows that security checks, bag checks and searches are a way of life these days and I rarely find a person I search objecting because of inconvenience.  To allow everyone to come in unchecked is completely irresponsible and I was not comfortable doing it.  But again, the only threat was from the size of the egos entering the event.  And I managed to stay clear of the huge heads and remain completely professional...