With Friends Like These, Who Needs........

Credit Union unity is a noble idea, but it's "a hard dog to keep under the porch."  


For those of y'all who don't understand the "hard dog..." phrase; you need to understand that most Southerners live in the country in houses and trailers set up on cinder blocks.  In a rural Southern setting, everyone and his brother keeps at least one dog, although a pack of three or four is generally preferred.  Let me assure you, that down here, the dogs of choice are not poodles, pomeranians, nor pekingese. Shepherds, rottweilers, pit bulls and dobermans are local favorites.  Repeat offenders with surly personalities are particularly prized.

Not the Southern dawg of choice..!!

A country dog is a working dog, providing household protection, crowd control, and clean-up services.  If an intruder should trespass on your property, you want your dogs up under the house taking care of business.  No one is brave enough, and few are dumb enough, to advance on a symphony of snarls leaping out from the darkness underneath a front porch.  It's not too difficult for one to imagine what those unseen throats have in mind.  This is one of those situations in life where what you don't see is what you get.  Highly excited dogs engaging a quarry "with permission" is a sight most people are unwilling to watch.  The thought of a starring role in such a spectacle will send most folks back down the driveway in a heartbeat....

Don't get distracted...!

But, dogs, like people, can easily be distracted and enjoy wandering away from every day duties to sniff around a bit.  A dog "out and about," when confronted by danger, gives up three important tactical advantages.  First, there is always greater safety in numbers and a lone dog presents a much easier target.  The axiom divide and conquer kinda comes to mind.  Second, a dog out from under the house also gives up the home court advantage.  Your odds of victory in a brawl are always better when you choose the time and place of struggle.  And lastly, a pack of dogs waiting in the dark always enjoys the element of surprise.  Actually, it's something a good bit more than surprise.  It's closer to that sensation you felt when your big sister, hidden under the bed, used to grab your ankles just after you turned out the light at night.  Not certain how to describe that feeling, but it sure can make you wet your pants.

A lack of unity also creates a few strategic difficulties.  First, there's the possibility that while distracted, you may not recognize the impending danger until it's too late.  The Trojan Horse gave us an excellent example of just such a strategic catastrophe. Second, being out from under the porch and away from the center of the action, you may misjudge or misread the level of danger, the intensity of the threat.  General Custer sorta had this problem at Little Big Horn.  His estimate of the opposing force was off a little - say ten or twenty thousand.  And, lastly, the greatest risk is that, out on your own, you just may come to think that you have no stake in the fight.

Some of you have sniffed around "out in the yard" quite a bit of late.  No credit union is looking forward to "the struggles" at hand.  We didn't pick these fights.  But our adversaries, our detractors, even some of our "fellow D.C. stakeholders" have been kicking up their hind leg all around the home place for quite some time now.  Take your pick - biz loans, risked-rated/secondary capital, membership definitions, taxation, regulatory overload, or self-serving demands that we must "serve time" for their flagrant indiscretions - all these issues blocked by groups who have politically failed or who have "accidentally" or purposefully failed the citizens of this Country. These opponents most certainly intend to continue "to have a go" on your favorite tree in the future. 

"It" ain't workin'....

Who allows "them" to continue to "dis" us so?   You and I do.....

Aren't you embarassed to be mocked for your continuing political "collaboration" - it's not "cooperation" ! - which gives aid and comfort to your avowed enemies?  Shouldn't you be ashamed to financially support quisling organizations, which seem to appreciate having their political heads handed back to them on a platter - time and time again?

No way to hide from this one. No other cheek to turn. This little scrap is far beyond the point of compromise...so c'mon now...it's time....

Expect a lot more, forgive a lot less....

Get on up under the porch with the rest of us. Bare your teeth!

Practice your snarl!

You don't need permission; ... isn't it time to go for the throat?