European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 24, 1973, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes saturday november 24, 1973 letters to the a Ding a Ling with the american express the following is an accurate recount of two weeks of encounters with our magnanimous monopoly of the banking world american express mob and i wanted to pass this experience on to your readers for their enjoy ment. american express May i help you yes i found a message on my desk when i returned from lunch saying that i was to return your Call. Is there some problem with my account no the reason we called is to inform you that a stateside Check that was written to you and that you cashed in our office has been returned for insufficient funds. So we Are calling you to inform you that we have debited your. Checking account for the amount of that Check plus the charges for its having but i Don t have enough Money in that account to cover that debit Why did you take Money out of that account with out telling me beforehand Well since you put that num Ber on the Back of the Check we assumed that this account had enough Money in it to cover the Check in Case that it was re but the signs in your office say to either put an Amelco account number or your Complete military address Telephone and Ssan for information purposes. If i had put my address on the Back of the Check instead of my account number would you have debited my Apo number i m sorry Mam but for that information you la have to Call the Post office. I think you had better make a Deposit or else your account will be Over but i did t write any checks to put my account into Over draft i m sorry Mam but that s not our problem. Click american express May i help you i just received my statement today and i see that i have a $2.50 charge for an overdraft that i did t create. You people debited my account without consulting me to cover a Check that some body else wrote and just happened to Bounce. Why do i have to pay for the mistakes that you made in debiting my account arbitrarily i should have to pay for your inefficiency i think i understand but this really in t our problem. Why Don t you Call the office where your account is held and maybe they can Clear this up. Click. Amelco May i help you i have a question and i Hope you can help me. Could you please Tell me your company s policy regarding returned checks i notice that there Are charges incurred when a Check bounces and i just wondered Why yes you see when a Check bounces if it s one that was writ ten to you and that you cashed the charges cover the time involved in making the collection of that Money. If it bounces and it came from your american express account we like to think of it As sort of a penalty for your not knowing How much is in your account and it also covers the work involved in returning the see but you did t expend much Energy in trying to collect on the Check that was written to me last week and happened to Bounce. In fact you did t even Contact me until after you had overstepped the Bounds of my financial privacy and put my account into overdraft without even telling me that s really too bad but since you had a returned Check we Are authorized to take any Steps necessary to Clear up the but you did t Call me you did t even Call my Boss in fact the Check was returned Friday morning and Friday morning you debited my account and then you decided that you d better Call me what kind of an organization do you run i m sorry Mam but that s not my Click american express May i help you yes i just went to the pm and. They would t approve a Check that i wanted to write since one of the checks i wrote last week to them was returned because you debited my account putting it into overdraft. Now i am on a bad Check list and will remain there for six months. I had enough Money in my account last week to cover any Check i wrote but since you debited my account without telling me i now have the reputation As a bad Check writer. What Are you going to do about this i did t write any bad i see but you had a Check that bounced and so your credit in t any Good anyway is it besides,1 your credit rating really does t concern us so it really in t our problem is it Click Good morning a m. May i help you yes i m Here to close my checking account and have a certified Check made out to the following checking account num Ber located in the states. Older and Wiser Frankfurt Germany 5 a i \ \ Russell Baker pot headaches this Story about the new York town that chos e a Blind Man to censor its movies has been lying Here on the desk for weeks de manding attention. Very Little that was sound was written when it first appeared. There was some predictable editorial comment to the effect that Blind people Are poorly qualified for the censoring line of work and some of the censor s constituents were said to be threat ening Legal auctions apparently on the ground that Blind censor ship was too silly to be supported. How that stands i Don t know and it does t much matter out Side Clarkstown ., which is the town in question. For the larger body of Mankind the important thing is this Story s illustration of the general debilitation of our judgmental reflexes. So Little that is sensible Hap pens in today s world that when something eminently and beautifully sane occurs in Clarkstown ., our first reaction is to conclude that every body up there has gone bonkers. In fact it will be seen on Calm reflection that a Blind censor is the most sensible of All possible censors. Indeed had Clarkstown confined itself to this one censor one Harry Snyder sometimes known As mister truth it might have qualified for a Cham Ber of Commerce award this year As Wisest town in the . Unfortunately Clarkstown went ahead and spoiled it by choosing eight other censors All of whom can see. Even Snyder does not seem to have perceived the importance of his selection for he told a reporter in a some what apologetic line that other Board members would sit near him during movie screenings and fill me in when the screen goes the apologetic note was unnecessary. Snyder was on sounder ground when he told his inter viewer pornography in t a Case of seeing it s a Case of feel Here he came closer to a definition of pornography than the tortured Legal prose of our finest judges. It in t a Case of seeing. It s a Case of feeling. It would be interesting to sit be Hind Snyder at a screening and hear what his eight colleagues whisper to him in those moments when the screen goes silent. In a random group of eight some body presumably would say it s so filthy i can t describe and somebody else for $5, this is All you get in most towns somebody would probably be yawning. In any Case each will be re porting to Snyder what he feels rather than what he sees. Each will be trying to sell a personal response to a sightless jury. Ideally of course Snyder should have to get along without reports from the seeing popu lation. If there is to be censorship which is to say suppression of pictures and print based on per Sonal feelings it is obviously easier for a person to decide his feeling if he is not confused by the irrelevancy of visual Evi Dence which can Only provoke argument. It is something like eating snails. People who absolutely certain that they can t eat snails usually turn out never to have eaten one. There is also aesthetic Beauty in a censorship left to the Blind for those who cannot see work in the service of those who will not see. Community standards of obscenity which May now be imposed with supreme court bless ing Are most nearly expressed by what television audiences will sit still for. This is because the Community does not go to movies anymore nor read books. The people at the movies and those with books in their laps Are not the Community. They Are Odd balls. The Community is watch ing television. If movies and publishing had to rely on the Community for sur Vival they would have been dead since the Golden age of wrestling which was about 1949, what is the Point of imposing the Community s standards on films and books if the Community in t interested in films and books it is an especially cruel imposition on movies which sur Vive largely because of the Odd Ball minority which wants some thing stronger than television s watery Gruel. � if movies can t go beyond Maude Why should anybody go to the movies you can always go to the attic to escape the commercials. Censorship shelters the Community from what it does not go to see. It is Protection of the Blind. It is right that it should be done by the Blind. C new York times my wife and i Don t smoke pot but were bothered by an Ameri can neighbor who did. Often times our Small apartment would reek of pot. Of for our neighbors but Why did we have to smell of it too fortunately this situation does t exist for us anymore but we Are sure other american fam Ilies must have this problem. What can an american family living on the Economy do about this situation or. And mrs. Edward o Brien or. Kitzinger Germany editor s note col. Harry a. Heath assistant chief. Usa eur office of Public affairs said the solution to this problem is very simple report any incident involving illegal drugs to the nearest military police station. By making such reports you Are performing a civic duty which is your responsibility european edition Captain Edward g. Mcgrath us editor in chief it. Col. Gary l. Werner Usa Deputy editor in chief Mert Proctor managing editor Elmer d. Frank production manage Henry s. Epstein circulation manager this newspaper is an authorized unofficial publication for us armed Force overseas. 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