Archive for December 9th, 2004

Grudges

Posted by Bob in Musings about Life on 12/09/2004

Often what I say sounds like a joke, and I hope it amuses you. That’s because it sounds so obvious and simple. But if you think about it, you will get some good advice out of what I say.

Here is one example:

If you keep a list of the people who have insulted you and done you harm, it will become a very thick book. Getting all of them back is just plain too much WORK.

On the other hand if you keep a list of the people who have helped you, it will be a very short book.

The names of people who do you good are few and, like all rare things, they are precious. You will never be able to get back at all the people who hurt you, but you can do something for all of those who helped you.

Not the least of the things you can do for them is to let them know you remember what they did and what good people they are. You would like to get a note like that, long after you think the incident was forgotten. So do they.

I am not against revenge. In the nasty worlds I inhabited, I had to have a reputation as somebody who you could not go up against without getting hurt. You are not hearing this from a preacher, but from a scarred old veteran of many kinds of wars. Maybe it is precisely because of that that I appreciate the good guys so much.

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Shooting in Ohio

Posted by Bob in How Things Work on 12/09/2004

Four people were shot by a nutcase on a rampage, including one famous rock musician. He would have killed more, but a cop there shot him before he killed more people.

That is because that cop was the only honest person there who had a gun on him. Gun rampages don’t happen where people are armed.

The one group that really violent people hate most is the police. But have you ever heard of a gunman going into a police convention and shooting people?

There are no special security arrangements at cop meeings. But everybody in the room has a gun on him. And there are no mass shootings.

About twenty years ago, I was talking to a cab driver in New York City. I asked him if he had ever been robbed, and he replied, “Man, I’m a CABBIE.” Cab drivers in New York City were killed about one a week at that time by armed robbers.

Suddenly, the rate of taxi robbery dropped like rock. What happened was that policemen had been given permission — not assigned — to drive cabs to supplement their incomes.

Even off duty, a policeman must be armed at all times.

Robbers started getting shot.

Cab drivers were overjoyed. Liberals were outraged at the number of robbers pulling guns who got gunned down without due process. So the mayor stopped policemen from driving cabs and things went back to normal — for New York City.

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