Letters from North
America
Perhaps
I’m just getting too old
and set in my ways, but
each day that passes
brings new events which
just set my teeth on
edge. I cannot begin to
describe how depressing
some of these things are
to me, and perhaps I’m
wrong for feeling the
way that I do, but it
sure seems the world is
spinning out of control.
This weekend I recorded
a movie called… “Public
Enemies” which was about
John Dillinger. Now, you
may have liked it, but I
sat through about half
of it and then deleted
it since I felt it was a
piece of garbage. I
guess I was expecting
something along the
lines of a documentary
not a puff piece making
Dillinger out to be some
kind of benevolent
citizen. He was anything
but. Dillinger was a
thug and a killer. Not
someone I’d like to be
friends with. I tend to
not want to watch
programs that glorify
criminals and their
lifestyles. First off I
think they serve no
useful purpose and
secondly I think they
tend to be a bad
influence on the youth
of this country. If you
are a teenager and you
see programs or movies
that make drug use, bank
robbery and murder to be
a glamorous way to live,
then why study to be
something useful to our
society? Why according
to these depictions, you
can make more money in a
week than others can in
a year. Of course, they
don’t show you the
downside of this kind of
life, do they? Not in
Hollywood Land. Wouldn’t
make any money.
You might ask yourself,
what in the world got
his BB so high this
morning….? I’ll tell
you…there is a piece in
today’s paper about the
so called… ‘bare foot
bandit.’ This is the
name given to a nineteen
year old kid named
Colton Harris-Moore. Mr.
Moore has been on the
loose for nearly two
years and is thought to
have committed a number
of burglaries over a
wide part of the
country. He was arrested
in the Bahamas after he
was thought to have
crash landed a airplane
that had been stolen in
Indiana.
So, you think this kid
is a lot of trouble?
Think again.
His mother has hired a
well known entertainment
attorney to field all of
the calls she is getting
for a book and movie
deal based on her son’s
escapades. Apparently
there isn’t any law that
prohibits her and her
son from getting rich if
these were to
materialize. But here
comes the good part.
The mom has met with the
U.S attorneys office and
is discussing a deal to
turn over any profits
from the book and movie
deal in exchange for
freedom for her son. The
US Attorneys office said
they could use the money
to pay off any of Colton
Moore’s victims.
What a deal.
So let me see if I get
this right, you break
into houses, steal a
airplane, crash it on
some island and hide
from the authorities for
nearly two years and
folks are falling all
over themselves to put
you in print and on the
big screen? Is this
crazy or what?
I suppose if I went out
and found me a bunch of
old guys and we started
robbing banks and
whatever, we’d
eventually become some
sort of folk heroes and
be able to swap our
stories of our
adventures for a
multi-movie and book
deal just so long as we
turned over the money to
the authorities…..as
they said in the above
statements…they could
use the revenue.
I don’t know about you,
but the thought of this
actually taking place
turns my stomach and
makes me ashamed of our
judicial system. A lack
of tax revenue is no
excuse to allow
criminals to run rampant
over our society and
make victims out of our
neighbors in exchange
for monies for
entertainment purposes.
It just isn’t right.
I’m not exactly certain
how many other countries
there are in this world
of ours, but there must
be some place where
sanity is still being
used in a civilized
society. Let me know if
you can think of some
place because it is
shaping up to not be in
this country, is it?
Comments got to
www.pearyperry.com.
Complaints go nowhere.
