Friday, February 24, 2012

Father William Crumley, C.S.C.

On Friday noon, February 10, 2012 I walked to my temporary quarters, St. Joseph Hall on the campus of St. Edward’s University. The days previous had been uncommonly cold and rainy for the almost always sunny Texas capital. Sunning himself (at first I was reminded of an iguana on a fence in Mexico raising the temperature of its cold blood) was an old man. Had I seen him on Granville here in Vancouver I would have looked for his hat to deposit some coins. The man, with an untidy beard and a moustache that almost covered his mouth smiled at me. There were some gaps.

On the previous day, my friend and mentor Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C. had told me that a Father William Crumley, C.S.C. from a small town in Louisiana had come to Austin for a colonoscopy. It seems the man while in the hospital earlier that week, waiting for the procedure had had a terrible heart seizure. Reggio told me that the man did not look good and could have been mistaken by a tramp. Here he was three days after his hospitalization.

The man facing me, said to me, after I greeted him and told him who I was and my suspicion of who he was, “Here I was waiting for this colonoscopy and suddenly I wake up in a hospital bed.” They gave me all kinds of medicines. I am experiencing some strange hallucinations that are really bothering me. I hear voices.” “I hear voices, too,” I said. “In fact down there I can hear a volleyball game going on.” He corrected me, “No, not those. I hear other voices.” I reminded him that St. Joan of Arc had heard voices, too so that hearing such a thing wasn’t entirely unusual. He looked at me seriously now and suddenly I could discern that the man in front of me was indeed Father William Crumley, C.S.C. and that as terrible as he looked he was all here and the intelligence behind his eyes promised intelligent discourse. I was to get some of that in the next few days.

It was here, as he sunned himself, that I recounted how every time I walked on the campus of what had been my high school alma mater back in the late 50s, I too heard voices or imagined them. I told him that I even felt that as I walked the paths to Old Main (where I had lived, learned and slept) I could pass through the ghosts of my fellow students, Brothers of Holy Cross and occasionally even my old self. He smile but did not disprove my theory. I think it was then that we became friends. I gave him a warning, “Father, avoid Brother Edwin, at all costs. Look at the haircut he gave me. He is out to make you decent.” Father William just smiled.

Before I left for Vancouver, Father William, looking pretty good after Brother Edwin’s extensive trim, gave me his card and a book.



On the way home I read the book. I was soon giving it my full attention and the long, almost all-day trip back, felt very short. One chapter, 4, The Federal Reserve was an eye-opener to this Canadian. I did not know that the Federal Reserve Bank, made up of 12 throughout the US, and that one of them, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York being extremely important, was not a federal institution but a private one.

On the second page of Chapter 4, Father William Crumley writes:

What does matter is the control of money is no longer I the hands of government officials. What we failed to appreciate in our dispute with the Soviet Union was the Government of Russia did not control the finances of the nation, the Communist Party did. The Communist Party was their central bank. It operated much as our Federal Reserve. It created the money. It kept the “State” in debt. It kept the nation at war so the debt would continue to grow. Despite all propaganda on both sides about the glories/evil of capitalism and socialism there was/is very little difference between the two systems. Their system has collapsed. Ours has also. We simply maintain the façade of an operating system.
Why We Are Always Broke – things we need to know about the economy. Rev William Crumley, C.S.C.

At first I thought I might mail my copy of the book to President Obama, or to NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof or Paul Krugman. Would you believe that I hold off as the book has written in it: Alex Hope you enjoy the book. Bill Cromley, C.S.C.

I have another crazy idea. I am going to email the link to this blog and an explanation to that redhead columnist, and Roman Catholic, too, Maureen Dowd. Who knows?

It seems that one publisher, when Father William was looking for one, asked him, “What does a priest know about economics?”

Plenty, I think.

Why We Are Always Broke