In one of my previous
lives, I used to sell swimming pools in the Phoenix area. I worked with a guy who had previously been a
cop in a large city in the south. This guy was as country as cornbread and was a laugh-a-minute.
He told a story about a guy that he worked with in the police department that was called “Rerun” because
he looked so much like the late Fred “Rerun” Berry from the ‘70’s hit, “What’s Happening?”.
Rerun worked as a mechanic for the police department and, more than anything, wanted to be a policemen.
After much persistence, Rerun achieved his dream of becoming a cop!
After he completed training at the Academy and served his time of riding shotgun
with a veteran policeman, Rerun was given his own car and beat. One of his first calls was for a robbery
where a manager for a local Burger King was robbed while making a night deposit at the bank. Not long after
arriving on the scene, Officer Rerun radio’s in this message: “I be SO confused.
Who got robbed? Burger King, the manager, or the bank?”
We laugh but, when you stop and think about it, Officer Rerun’s question
was very legitimate. You don’t think so? So, who got robbed? Did
Burger King get robbed? It was certainly BK’s money. However, the robbery didn’t
take place at Burger King. Was it the Manager? Really? Was it HIS
money? No. Maybe in the sense of when an armored truck gets robbed but, then, was it
the armored car or the company that owns it? Okay, then, it was the bank that got robbed. Well,
no, not exactly. While the manager and the money was on the bank property, the robbery didn’t take
place IN the bank during normal banking hours. So, one can’t say that the bank got robbed.
This story has come to mind a lot in recent months as I’ve
watched the countless news stories such as bailouts by the federal government, missing U.S. aid (in the billions in Iraq,
for instance), and other such tales of woe. Who is getting robbed? The government, the banks, the taxpayer?
My vote is the taxpayer. After all, if you take them out of the equation, there would be no money
to rob.
What we need to do
is answer this question: Who is doing the robbing? Criminals, politicians (on both sides of the aisle), or the banks?
Take your pick because it seems that each of them is using Clyde Barrow’s line (as played by Warren Beatty in
the movie, “Bonnie and Clyde”), “We rob banks!” My vote is the politicians on both
sides of the aisle. Watch them closely, and keep all this in mind the next time you vote because it really does matter.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going
to go through the drive-thru at my bank and order a Whopper and see what they say!
