The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2015

12 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL long line of people, mostly visa appli- cants, seeking admission. We were also informed that cell phones could not be brought inside the building. e Dutch guards could o er no advice as to what everyone was supposed to do with their devices—which are ubiquitous in mod- ern life—and this odd stance triggered reactions ranging from consternation to mirth and outright scorn. e applicants seemed otherwise perfectly resigned to tolerating an already inconvenient and intrusive battery of security precautions, but this was hardly leaving them with a stellar rst impres- sion of America. Ultimately, my son and I gained entrance. We were informed that there would be a $100 fee to have two sig- natures notarized, a process requiring no more than a few moments of a vice consul’s time. In my day, a visiting retiree would have been treated with in nitely more common courtesy throughout a pro- cess like this. I am not suggesting that consulate employees, American or local, were derelict in the performance of their formal duties. But overall, I do see a dis- tressing lack of common sense and basic courtesy at work here. Not only did I feel personally let down when my modest appeal for an appointment was disregarded, but I was professionally unsettled by the seemingly irrational and disproportionate behavior I saw exercised “at the gates” in the name of security. We have all come to perceive at least some of these measures as unfortunate necessities in geopolitically complex times; but there is also a point where, if unleavened by some modicum of com- mon sense, such measures threaten to alienate the very people whose support we are tasked with cultivating, and all those otherwise well-disposed towards us and the values we claim to uphold. All around, I expected a more approachable and genuinely American welcome during these several encounters with the State Department and the con- sulate general. I was instead confronted by the monolithic and indi erent face of a rulebound authority. I am chagrined that no one inside the very bureau in which I spent the bulk of my career felt moved to return my phone calls. Larry Cohen’s column notes that the U.S. military actively promotes continued interaction between its active-duty and retired personnel. Shouldn’t the State Department do the same? I built my career on a conviction that public service was an unequivocal force for good. But recently, in darker moments, I fear that this may not neces- sarily be the case, and that my experi- ences of failure in the daily workings of government at State are not just minor, quotidian anomalies. I fear they are symptomatic of a more distressing failure on a structural scale, the kind of failure that predictably fol- lows when we neglect the core values that should inform everything we do. ose values have always been (and must remain): courtesy, proportionality and common sense. Carroll Brown Minister Counselor, retired New York, New York n Share your thoughts about this month’s issue. Submit letters to the editor. journal@afsa.org Take AFSA With You! Change your address online, visit us at www.afsa.org/address Or Send changes to: AFSAMembership Department 2101 E Street NW Washington, DC 20037 Moving?