RIghts vs. Privileges

I remember a while back I was stage managing a show for Georgia Ensemble Theater. At the first get together I told everyone that it would be $5.00 per person for the coffee and tea fund for rehearsal. There would be another $5.00 per person for the performances. Once they paid in, I would label a mug for them and they could have as much as they wanted. At the break I had two actors tell me that according to Equity Rules the theater had to provide coffee and tea for the actors. Now I took a course in the various rules and rule books at Yale. I knew that a potable source of water had to be available to the actors but I also knew that coffee and tea were no where mentioned. I gave them the rule book and told them to find it. The Equity Rule book is a convoluted mess of rules with things tacked on with inserts and very little rhyme or reason to organization. After two days they came back and admitted that it was not in the rule book. I posted in the Green Room, after cleaning up the fourth mess of the day, “Coffee is a privilege not a Right. Clean up or you lose your privileges. Signed Your Stage Manger not Your Stage Mother” The actors organized a clean up schedule and I didn’t have to deal with it.

I remember that story because I just finished reading through about 3 weeks of various lists I belong to. On a couple of them people were complaining about various things about the lists. On one the list monitor was getting chewed up for violating this other person’s “rights”. Well the moderator of this list pays for it and the upkeep of the boards out of her pocket. She pointed out to the idiot that participation on the list was a privilege not a right since it is a private venture. The individual kept it up and found themselves banned from the list. They then proceeded to e-mail various members of the list about how unfair the moderator/list owner had been and their rights were being trampled. I didn’t receive an e-mail but then this person knows my low tolerance for idiots.

Rights and privileges are two different things and I wish people would stop trying to prove that their privileges are rights. Driving is not a right but a privilege that can be taken away for a number of reasons. You do not have a right to talk on your cellphone while you drive especially when you become a driving hazard while talking on your cell phone. And if the blond dye job in the red Explorer who tried to run me off the road while talking on their cell phone is reading this, I have your license plate number. The fact that you had 2 car seats for younger children and you were smoking while using your cell phone makes me sad for your children.