the problem is........nobody says no at the right time.
the right time to say no is when, if you're the principal - or even the substitute principal - and you walk into the room and the students are calling the teacher an f-ing b and they're throwing textbooks across the room. what you say is, "NO! AB.SO.FRICK.IN.LUTE.LY. NO! AND YOU ARE IN AN UNFATHOMABLE AMOUNT OF TROUBLE FOR THE REST. OF. YOUR. GOD.-GIVEN. LIVES."
what you don't say is, "now, friends, what seems to be the problem in here? i know it's hot. i'm hot, too. this is an old building and we don't have air conditioning. i know that's hard. i'm sorry, but that's the way it is."
the wrong time to say no is when someone asks you for help and you really don't have to and you really don't want to. as in, excuse me, ohio department of taxation, could you please help me by picking up the phone and explaining to the 3 major credit bureaus that i did not owe you 17 thousand dollars for non-payment of income taxes and that you, in fact, committed a gigantic major screw-up when you said that i did and an even gianter major screw-up when you assigned a lien to my property? and that they need to adjust their credit rating on me to reflect that?
that is not the right time to say no.
you f-ing b.
