The Street News Saga : Part One

The Bad Guys Come Down Like a Hammer on Good News If They Get Wind Of It

Anybody who ever wonders how I got so cynical, it is easy to understand.

I’ve tried to save the world a dozen times. Whenever I was making headway either working alone or with others, people with authority over me and the power to put me or my companions in jail stepped in to make sure we immediately halted our enterprise. I have worked for several people in life who I believed were pursuing something truly useful to benefit the rest of the human race. Each one of them was ganged up on by their own employees as well as everyone else in the world and ruined. Nobody is more willing to betray the good men and the honestly successful than the rest of mankind. None of them is motivated by altruism and when they encounter somebody who is they enter into common cause to destroy that person. If you’re too good or too honest, they’ll send you to prison and keep you there. Nobody forgives anyone who solves the problem they said was impossible to fix.

Mankind is just no damn good. I have a lifetime of observation to back that up. Turns out God had it right in scripture and mankind wasn’t even close to the truth given the liberty of self-evaluation.

Lots of people insist if only we had smart enough guys working on these problems we could solve them. I learned early on that guys smart enough to solve these problems will be lucky if they don’t end up dead the instant they make any effort to change anything. Sure, you can pretend to be solving the problem but you are forbidden to use any approach that actually works. I’ve been there around a couple men who were sincerely motivated to change things for the better. They all got destroyed by the Cabal - every single one of them - the instant it became apparent they were succeeding in some small way at something.

I’m not talking about myself. I am thinking of my former boss at Street News, Hutchinson Persons. Possibly one of the few bosses I ever had I respected enough to give my genuine best effort to when the situation afforded it. Hutch was a flawed man like all of us. Flawed like I am and like you probably are too. On the other hand, everything is relative. Hutch was one of the best people I have ever known. He was still young and idealistic when we met and I got to see a lot of his best side. I saw him change into me over time and he was the worse for it. I liked him better when he still believed you can change this evil world.