God’s Gunner’s, Booty Bandits, & Bad Boys
By R25288 ( c ) 2006-2007
Chapter Eighteen
Etc., & Big Bobby Bee Falls
“In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethern;”
II Corinthians 11:26
If you go to www.patrickcrusade.org, and click on book reviews, you’ll find one for God’s Gunner’s, Booty Bandits, & Bad Boys.
If you go out and purchase Stephanie Sammartino McPherson’s new book, Tinker v Des Moines and Students’ Right To Free Speech, by Enslow Publishers, Inc., you’ll find my parents and my picture on page twenty.
On page ninety-six, you’ll find this writtten:
“The Appellants Today
“Besides its national legacy, the Tinker case has left a profound impact on the lives of all those who were involved. ‘As a child, I saw the system work in Tinker v Des Moines,’ said Christopher Eckhardt. Recent difficulties have not changed his views. In 2001, Christopher was sentenced to prison for a nonviolent crime. Released after serving almost five years, he is still determined to establish his innocence. He is also writing a book about his experiences in prison and working as an energy consultant.
“Christopher states:
“I think we have a glorious country. I love America. Yes, there are problems, but the fact of the matter is we have the right to complain. I appreciate freedom much more now, having been through the degradation of prison.”
“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.”
John 11:41
If you were to access the archives of the St. Petersburg Times for October, 2006, it might read something like this:
“Deliveryman wounds robber in shootout
“A quick-acting deliveryman with a gun thwarted an armed robbery at his restaurant job Wednesday night by shooting one armed robber and chasing off another.
“The wounded man, Big Bobby Bee, 25, of 123 Main St, ended up in intensive care at Tampa General Hospital. Big Bobby Bee has a lenghty criminal history, and is charged with attempted murder, armed robbery and possessing a firearm with altered identification.
“His unidentified accomplice remained on the loose Thursday.
“That’s why Temple Terrace police wouldn’t give out the deliveryman’s name, and neither would the Little Bear Restaurant. Workers there Thursday declined to comment.
“A police spokesman did, however, describe an evening shootout that made the usually quiet restaurant neighborhood appear more like the Old West.
“Spokesman Michael Douglas said two gunmen pulled into the stand alone restaurant’s parking lot about 10pm. An employee outside was grabbed and held by one gunmen, so the patrons inside would not be warned of the immenent threat.
“The second man, Big Bobby Bee, strode inside brandishing his gun and announced the robbery.
“Moments later, the deliveryman returned from a dropoff and saw guns pointed at people he knew. So, he got a gun from under his seat, got out of his car and started shooting.
“First, he shot at the outside robber, missing but sending him running. Next, he headed inside and aimed his gun at Big Bobby Bee, who was aiming his gun at the deliveryman. They shot at one another.
“Big Bobby Bee missed. The deliveryman didn’t. Big Bobby Bee took a bullet ‘below the waist’ and was in serious condition at the hospital.
“Police have not charged the deliveryman with a crime for his involvement in the crime. They did, however, send a message.
” ‘We always tell people, Don’t take the law into your own hands,’ Douglas said. ‘But this situation occurred spontaneously.’ ”
Pray for Big Bobby Bee, that he didn’t kill anyone, or get himself killed. He will probably not see freedom again, and getting shot below the waist, may now have made him just Bobby Bee.
If it sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the John Travolta and Samuel Jackson movie. Maybe Big Bobby Bee and his partner in crime had just finished watching it. Too often, the criminal mind is not a compassionate or thinking mind. It is too often a mind of limited vision, due to limited development. The development is a systemic problem that needs addressing. We have the choice to either stone him or heal him. What would Christ do? Therein, my dear gentle reader, lies the answer.
Like the homeless among us, the criminal too, is avoided, pitied, disdained, sent away, out of sight, out of mind. Let us go to our botox to remove the wrinkles, the blemishes, the warts, the ugliness we see. Remove all unplesantness, lest we see our weaknesses, our humanity, our homeless, our criminals, ourselves.
A year ago today(January 30th, 2006), I was released from prison. Life is good.
“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”
Thomas Jefferson
