It?s not a crime to run with scissors
From Pamela Rogers, to illegal immigrants, to The Hot Dog Man, I think I?ve exhausted just about every Warren County topic there is to address. That?s why I thought I?d take a stroll around the region and check out some of the more unusual stories.
I just love the news coming out of Murfreesboro where a bookstore manager stopped a potential robbery using a pair of scissors. According to police reports, the would-be robber entered a Christian bookstore where the clerk was working alone. The robber handed the clerk a note demanding money and pretended to have a gun under a folded newspaper.
The clerk, Tim Davis, quickly examined the robber?s newspaper, determined it wasn?t thick enough to have a gun concealed beneath it and told the robber, ?I don?t think so.? Davis then grabbed a pair of scissors and chased the robber out of the store.
After a short foot chase, the robber was cornered in the back of the shopping center. Davis said he thought about stabbing the robber with the scissors but thought police might arrest him for assault. ?The only thing I did wrong was run with a pair of scissors,? said Davis.
And here?s where this robber turns into a real wimp. He allowed Davis to call police on his cellphone while he was held at bay with scissors ? yes with scissors. Police arrived and arrested the robber.
Folks, if for whatever reason I?m looking at prison time and a Christian bookstore manager with scissors is the only thing blocking my freedom, I?ll take my chances with the bookstore manager. That sounds better than hardened criminals who would like nothing more that to call me ?sugar pie.?
? And how about the news coming from Suwanee, Ga., where a high school junior was suspended for singing about shooting her teacher. Beth Anne Cox was suspended for singing, ?On top of Old Smokey, all covered with blood, I shot my poor teacher with a .44 slug.?
Naturally Cox claimed she was just joking by singing the song. I guess this girl operates under the assumption that attempted murder is just hilarious. Show her the door.
? Back in Tennessee, there?s a legislative push to pass a new law that requires universal carding for anyone who buys beer. Like it sounds, the new law would require store employees to ID everyone who buys beer ? regardless of how old they appear.
Opponents of the bill says it?s absurd to card 85-year-old grandmothers who are buying beer. I say if grandma has the strength to put back a six pack, she can muster the energy to show the store clerk her driver?s license.
? And finally I end with news on a global note. It pertains to the 18-page letter the president of Iran sent to President Bush. A central theme of the letter was religious freedom.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Bush for claiming to be such a religious man, but he didn?t mind killing thousands of innocent women and children by bombing Iraq.
?If Prophet Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishamel, Joseph or Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him) were with us today, how would they have judged such behavior?? the Iranian president wrote.
The White House quickly dismissed the letter as irrelevant and void of any meaningful content.
That?s what I just love about the Bush administration. It will send American soldiers across the globe to establish democracy in Iraq and cost U.S. taxpayers billions, yet it dismisses any opinion that?s opposite of its own. Isn?t the core of democracy listening to what others say?
James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].