Fair is Foul: What's up, Docs?

What's the difference between a cop and a doctor? A firefighter and a doctor? They all save lives, but there are some obvious differences. Most cops can't write prescriptions. Most doctors don't carry guns. Most firefighters can't perform surgery. Most doctors wouldn't know how to safely extinguish a structure fire. But even more fundamental than all of these, what is the difference between most first responders and most doctors? In a word, manners. I'll elaborate.

I teach courses for a small research center at a university in Tampa and my primary audience is the first responder community. Less often, I teach for hospitals, clinics, and medical organizations. Most of the time I have quite a few teaching materials to bring into the classroom. When I find myself at a police station or a firehouse, which is pretty often, I am bound to be greeted cheerfully by an average of 1-3 of the cops/firefighters from my class. Normally they've come early, set up the room, made coffee, possibly put out doughnuts, and now are ready to assist me with whatever I need. They will always offer to carry my plastic tub full of teaching materials, my boxes of empty paint cans (I have 25 on average, used to transport samples), my work bag, even my purse and car keys. Usually, there will even be another guy there to make sure that I don't have to open any doors for myself. I'm not a princess by any means, but it is refreshing to see men being so chivalrous, and they truly enjoy it as well. I don't have any photos of them carrying my materials to illustrate my point (if I had a camera, they'd probably be carrying it anyway) but I found this great example of helpful cops on the web.

When I teach at a hospital, things are a little different. Yesterday was no exception. I drove 4 hours to the south Florida location and arrived early to set up the room. I had actually been told ahead of time exactly where I would be teaching. This was exciting, since ordinarily they haven't seen fit to do so and I am forced to seek help from the "Information Desk" at the main entrance (they have never been able to help). When I arrived in the room to prepare, I was told it was booked until 1:00 (my start time) for a lunch meeting. I left to find myself some lunch and returned at 12:55. The room was still full of doctors but the meeting was clearly over. They were standing around, chatting, ignoring the fact that I had an armload of teaching materials, a laptop, and my bag. In fact, there were 4 male doctors and 1 female doctor standing in the doorway to the room, effectively blocking me from entering. One of the men was actually leaning against the door, propping it open. They glanced at me but didn't stop their conversation long enough for me to say, "excuse me." As I was trying to politely get around them (my arms were getting tired), the gab session broke up. All five of them walked straight toward me as they left, looking right at me. Because they were walking toward me in a herd, I couldn't get to the door until they passed. The door, no longer propped open by the ignorant doctor's ass, was closing fast and slammed in my face just as I reached it. Three of the aforementioned group looked back and witnessed this. NOT ONE OF THEM STEPPED BACK TO GET THE DOOR! Nobody even offered! Because the door had actual handles you had to turn, I had to put down my materials, open it and hold it with one foot, retrieve my supplies, and let myself in.