Anniversary of Infamy; Yet a Day of Hope

SAN ANTONIO — Well, here we are in the center of Fiesta, otherwise known as Mardi Gras, minus the aura of New Orleans. It was a fun night last night with lots of rowdy, yet well controlled, celebration. What more can an over-the-hill editor ask for! There were parties, an excellent exhibit hall, and numerous claims-oriented sessions, all part of PLRB's annual Claims Conference, the highlight of their calendar. PLRB's executive vice president, Tom Mallin, one of the most quiet and outwardly unassuming gentlemen in the industry, rules behind the scenes with an iron fist (and we mean that as a compliment.)

Over 2,300 registrants, joined by 1,500 exhibitor personnel, descended on the convention center here and came together to make this exactly what participants expected: another PLRB conference that lived up to all expectations. And at this writing, we still have a day to go. If you weren't here, it's really your loss.

Some exhibitor nervousness over the fact that PLRB overlapped with the massive RIMS Annual Conference in Philadelphia, proved to be unfounded. However, this editor's nervousness was not … unfounded. On the bright side: I could walk the exhibit hall and receive kudos from attendees and exhibitors who love Claims, for various reasons:

• Hey Phil, thanks for running our article in March. We got reprints and have received lots of positive feedback.
• Love your magazine. You're on the mark, month after month.
• Give Kevin Quinley and Ken Brownlee more exposure in future issues. Those guys are terrific!
• Your coverage of the catastrophic hurricane season was extraordinary.
• Your new photo on the Editor's Note page is more realistic. (Yeah? So is that beer belly you put on since last year in Chicago!)

Then, on the downside:

• When are you running the article I sent you six weeks ago? (We're not.)
• How come you edited the guts out of my recent submission? (Because, that's what we're paid to do. You could just say “thank you”!)
• Why do you keep running Brownlee's Iconoclast? He really ticks me off! (And why do you think we call him the Iconoclast, you goose?) Through this gauntlet of negativism I keep my mouth shut and mentally repeat the editor's mantra: Diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. And tomorrow I'll go home … exhausted, and yet, invigorated.

On another front, today (April 19th) was the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Continual TV coverage on CNN, with footage never before seen, was horrifying. Granted, Oklahoma did not deliver the devastation magnitude of 9/11. But with 9/11 there was nothing left but rubble. We never experienced the horror of mangled dead children pulled from the day care center. Or the hundreds of sometimes irreparably injured pulled from the Murrah Federal Building rubble. At that time, they said it wouldn't happen again on American soil, that “steps would be taken.” Then came 9/11.

So the next time you encounter an irate claimant, or the next time you note yourself getting aggravated at security measures in the airport when you're running late for your plane, or at a sporting venue where they won't let you bring in your cooler full of beer; think of the dead children in the Murrah Federal Building and all the other lost souls in Oklahoma City and New York's World Trade Center. Vent your displeasure and disgust by replacing them with a prayer for the victims and their families and then be glad that you're still here and you're not living with the day-to-day memories of any of those lost souls (like I am. Yes, I lost friends in NYC.). And then do your best to help disgruntled, stressed-out claimants because we're all in the same boat, surviving in a new and sometimes crueler world.

Now I'm going to go have a good cry for my two lost friends, and for all the others who have succumbed to terrorism. You do it too, because it's somewhat soothing; and vow to do an even better job for all those claimants you encounter in the future, whatever the magnitude of their loss. At the same time, remain vigilant for fraudulent claims. After all, we still must function in the real world.