It's 9AM

Breaking the Law

I can’t imagine, she said.

I could.

I was pretty good at it.

Imagination was something of a specialty of mine.

I’d had plenty of practice.

Plus the constant input of books and movies and television.

And a steady diet of news, both headline and feature.

Except when I went on a break.

From the news, not books, not movies though I did take five years off from regular television.

I have a not so unique ability to see what could be, instead of what is.

Which can get me in trouble, because a lot of people see what is, and think that’s the end all.

The be all.

Like home.

Pine Bluff, also known as Crime Bluff.

The only city in the state with negative job growth.

They’re losing more jobs than they are making.

It FEELs like a place of desperation.

It looks like a place without hope.

There is corruption in the city council, there are questions about the Mayor and tax money and the only real jobs built in the last decade were at the casino.

But…

There are bright spots.

Main Street is being rehabbed and rebuilt.

Sixth Street is growing a cultural corridor, and it is actually under construction.

Literal builders in the lots, which is a good sign of progress.

And we are down at least one copper thief.

He cooked himself stealing wire from a building on Main St, and though a passing cop saw his buddy run away, this criminal is fricasseed and gone.

These parasites and their ilk are the bane of rebuilding in the Bluff, because they have stripped houses and buildings of their electrical wiring, which increases the cost to come in and repair.

I shouldn’t celebrate the passing of a soul, even if that soul was fueled by meth and made zero contributions to the well being of his fellow man.

Unless you can suggest that his stealing copper kept the price lower on the overall market and there was an indirect benefit to everyone.

In which case, RIP.

Thanks for recycling.

There are more out there just like him.

Fueled by drugs. Fueled by need.

I imagine that if criminals were as inventive and worked as hard at jobs as they do at illegal activities, they would be just as successful or even more so.

Still, we all choose our paths, and sometimes outlaws just realize the law is something made up by City Council members who take casino tax money or Mayor’s who get kick backs from contractors.

It is one of those things that make you wonder, what would you do if you could get away with it.

Are you a rule breaker by nature?

Does my need to speed sometimes outweigh the public good for safety?

Speeding’s just a common example because so many people do it, and it is outside of the law.

If I spent some time thinking about it, I might find a dozen other laws I don’t mind bending.

Maybe one hundred.

Does that make me an outlaw?

A criminal by nature?

Because I do think some rules don’t apply to me, because I imagine myself a good guy.

Yet some rules I follow to the letter.

Like going slow in a school zone or never passing a stopped school bus.

What does that say about me that I can pick and choose which laws I follow?

And what if I was on a city council and some guy in a track suit walked up with a duffel bag packed with cash and suggested something outside the scope of the law?

Would I be okay with it, so long as there was also a benefit for the greater good?

I grew up on Robin Hood and stories about Jessie James.

Sure, they stole, but it was from the rich to give to the poor.

With a percentage from themselves.

Would I have felt the same way about old Robbing Hood getting shot or hung as I did about the copper thief killed?

Ethics and morals man.

Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine.

Are you an outlaw too?

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