
Dad didn’t think twice. “That son-of-a-bitch”, I remember hearing him mutter as we screeched into the station. He hopped out quickly and I remember seeing he and the station owner in a VERY heated argument through the station’s front window and hearing bits of my father’s side of the dispute as he yelled “NO…you are GOING to take the sign down NOW!” Not the kind of directive that most men would take lightly…as indeed this gas station owner didn’t. Out the man came, my Dad right behind him. As the man pulled down the sign and my Father was getting in the car, he left the opportunist with the promise that if he put the sign up again,he would regret it.

That was eons ago. My, how things have changed. But have they? There is very little that I can take from “the good old days”. Very little was good then, and only in contrast to things I see today are such comparisons even worth remembering. But an important object lesson was taught that day. I thank my Father for that knee-jerk reaction and the instruction it provided me. Of course there are still those that would fight that gas station owner and his greed…but not enough to keep such activity at bay, it would appear. Too many of us grin and bear it. And have to be reminded that we are being taken advantage of;and to kinda look after the next guy a little bit. Oh, well. That long-ago gas-jockey may not have been of the yiddish persuasion but his enterprise has been co-opted by some MAJOR tribal concerns.
I have been half-heartedly following the Ed Snowden snow-job. With all the pundits and politicians weighing in, and “I think to myself♫, what a gullible world♪”. I wouldn’t say that the diversions of the 4th estate are getting any more inane, but they certainly aren’t getting any more sophisticated. Nor are they coming any less frequently.
But since everyone is putting their two cents in…here’s a buck-three-eighty.
Again we are being played like a cheap fiddle and the tune harmonizes with others I have heard coming from the roof. Others see through this, but I think they are making some erroneous conclusions where one will suffice. Although there are MANY facets to this latest stage production, it all boils down to one thing. War. Forever. Or at least as long as it can be sustained by those that don’t have to suffer such conflict’s devastation. It is what keeps the economies and the philosophies of most every nation on earth afloat. There are no good guys and bad guys, folks. Just war.
It may change its face from two armies fighting each other to world armies killing civilians but it always boils down to killing and making a profit for those that don’t fight but direct. A child can come to this conclusion. It isn’t rocket surgery.
So at long last I’m of the same opinion as the filthiest politician…
HANG EDWARD SNOWDEN FOR TREASON!
Oh…and while we are stringing people up…let’s start producing gallows instead of drones. I’ve got a list longer than my wee-wee of gas-station owners to swing. So whether Snowden’s Oscar performance is meant to produce the West’s easiest access to yet another declaration of war…cold or hot. Or it is designed to make surveillance a rallying support of the age-old “us-against-them” dynamic, or both…the outcome is the same. Constant conflict for ‘us’ and constant wealth for ‘them’
I guess that is what I keep looking for around me nowadays. A human reaction. Someone saying enough is enough. No debate. This is inhuman. Take the sign down or you will regret it. Close your business. Leave town or pay the consequences. Human reaction is getting harder and harder to find. I think maybe Gallup is selecting it out of the survey.
As my Father very demonstrably taught me one day, common sense is very common, and should be allowed to flow freeely…well…like water.