I Got Mine

[Duncan Frissell]

At 08:39 PM 12/3/98 -0800, Blanc wrote:
>(Yes, but how do you actually respond to a real
>live representative standing at your door (they showed me their Batches),
to a
>real-live situtation when you are taken to a little room and asked to strip
>("asked"?) at the airport?)   

I was discussing this very question with the inamorata of a member of this
list recently in San Jose.  We were trying to figure out why I knew
instinctively what to say when confronted with government agents and she
didn't (though she is an attorney).  I figured out that it was because I
read Heinlein.  He taught a lot about how to respond to these things.
Those who haven't read Heinlein (or don't learn from books) won't know what
to say.  And in these high stress situations, answers which you have
thought about in advance or conducted mental simulations with will come out
more easily.  

You say - "Go away."  "Write me a letter."  "I only deal with government
agents via my lawyer."  "Where's Your Warrant."  Or how about -- "My
lawyer's name is X, I have officially informed you that I am represented by
counsel and thus you cannot question me without counsel being present."

When they write a letter, you handle it the way Rumpole of the Baily
handled those letters from the Inland Revenue.  You throw it away.

Some years ago at 5000 Bonny Doone Road Santa Cruz, CA an IRS agent rang
the bell outside the gate in the fence of the reinforced concrete house
owned by Robert Anson Heinlein.  He wanted to talk.  Heinlein said "go
away" "write a letter."  The Agent said "you're not going to make me drive
all the way back to San Jose, are you?"  Heinlein said "Yes."

You don't have to talk to government agents -- even if they arrest you.
Saying "No" and "Go Away" is short and easy to say.  

>And above all else, beyond being
>symbolically defiant, I would first aim for being Real.   It can be the
hardest
>thing to do, stand your ground and be calm and real.

Just Say No.

DCF