The Way It Goes

I am working this year as a Program Associate for a freshman living-learning community. This means I have the privilege(?) of living and working with 24 freshmen in a sociology course. One of my responsibilities is to set up the lab experiences that accompany the class, which involves a lot of e-mailing and calling various people in D.C. who work in areas studied by sociologists...so everything. One week, I am arranging for a speaker from the MPD Gang Unit to come do a presentation. I called him today to set up some logistical things about that event and he asked if he could call me right back. "Sure." Ten minutes later the phone rings and he casually says, sorry he was catching up with another officer after one of their colleagues funerals. "That's the way it goes," he says. Really? Is that how it goes? You mourn for a friend and then resume conducting business with a college student with an in-the-whole-scheme-of-things pretty damn trivial request? I mean, I guess that is the way it goes, but that sucks. And yes, "that sucks" doesn't begin to cover it, but is there anything I could say that would? No.