The
Good Guys and the Bad Guys often are hiding in the Corporate
Briefcase...The
Good Guys and the Bad Guys often are hiding in the Corporate
Briefcase...
A Brief Statement on Values versus economy...
As I have learned over the last six months, a lot of people I once thought were the good guys, a left-over from my childhood if there ever was one, are actually some of the villains, while some of the people I was taught by my parents to regard as the bad guys never were as bad as my parents tried to tell me.
Most politicians fail at being good guys, although their Public Relations contacts would like you to believe otherwise. Most members of the news media likewise fail the test because their bosses tell them what is and is not the truth, rather than let them tell the truth as they see it. In fact, most of the people you might think are truly the good guys are not that, at all.
Take cops, for example. If you listen to the warbling jaybirds which is what I call most television news broadcasters, the cops are all heroes, they are truly the good guys, and they always tell the truth, even if it hurts one of their own. While I never particularly subscribed to that theory, and admittedly I have held a deepset distrust of anyone given that much authority over others, until recently I have tried with varying degrees of success to overlook my personal prejudices about men with badges, to always give them the benefit of the doubt. I doubt I will ever make that mistake again in this lifetime.
You see, like most anything in this life, the longer anyone has been in the police department, the closer they resemble their adversaries. Some of the worst crooks I have ever pursued wore badges and were as clever and mean-spirited as the very criminals they pursued. I even helped put a cop in prison several decades ago. I'm proud only of the fact I finished the job, even if I could have honorably stepped aside at one point. I have several friends in law enforcement whom came to wear a badge late in life, long after they had learned the arts of reverence, respect and deep understanding of people outside law enforcement. They have taught me by example, to respect that badge and honor the law but distrust anyone who's been wearing it far too long.
On the other hand, I have known a number of cops who have little to show for their twenty years in law enforcement except their retirement. In twenty years they have become so much a part of the law enforcement establishment, they have no allegiances, even to self, that surpass the economic need to achieve retirement. Friendship, family, even the truth can be overlooked in the pursuit of their retirement. The further they have advanced in their twenty years, the worse the problem becomes.
So if you cannot trust the cops, who can you trust? Chances are the good guys are standing close to you already. The quickest method to discern the difference between the good guys and the bad guys is hardship, adversity and pain, for if they come to your side without question when any of these conditions strike, they might truly be good guys. If they stand, should-to-shoulder with you in adversity, regardless of whether they agree necessarily with you, then they are truly good guys. Whenever you are in harm's way, if friends come to your side without fail, chances are they are the good guys.
There are a number of good guys I've met in my sojourn living in the City of Spokane. If you have access to the usenet news server, you may already know some of their names. Only because my history is primarily that I have lived most of my life outside the city, most of the good guys I know hail from the countryside. Perhaps as time and energy permits, I'll tell about some of the good guys I've known here, but for the most part, I'll tell about them in the last bastion of journalism as I was taught it should be done, in usenet news.