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[Teach]

“Don’t hang around with that guy,” my mother said. “He’s bad news,” she added. “That Guy” my mother was referring to was fellow teen-ager named Greg. Greg and I both lived in one of Boston’s inner-city neighborhoods. Although we lived just a few blocks from one another, we had little contact. Greg hung around with a group of kids who could have just as easily been nicknamed “The Hustlers”. Greg and his buddies would hang around the local pool hall. It seemed as if Greg ran the place. He was “the boss”. The Chief Honcho. Greg and his friends would shoot pool, hustle bets and run numbers.

Well, one day, back in the mid-1950s, as I was about to enter high school, my friends and I headed for the local pool hall; this particular pool hall also had bowling alleys. Around these parts we call it candlepin bowling.

Well, the name of this Boston pool hall was: “Mickey’s”. As you walked in to “Mickey’s,” there was a sign at the entrance that read: “If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich!” The pool hall itself was a dark, dank, dingy kinda place. On warm summer days, even the walls seemed to sweat. What I remember most is the sound of the billiard balls clacking against one another.

As I recall, on that summer afternoon, as my friends and I were bowling a few strings, I took a break in the action for “a tonic”. For you folks who live in other parts of the world, that’s Boston-talk for soda. As I was sipping on a Coke, Greg approached me. He said to me, “Walt (we knew each other), how would you like to earn some extra money?” It would be hard for you to know this unless you grew up in my neighborhood, or one that was similar, but the word “money” was like saying the magic word on the Groucho Marx TV Show.

In my neighborhood, where most of us were poor, when someone talked about money, it quickly got your attention. “What are you talkin’ about, Greg?” I timidly asked. I can teach you to shoot pool, Walt.” I should pause here and say that Greg was an excellent pool player. He could have easily been labelled: “The Willy Moscone of Greater Boston.” Greg was great at luring what he called “pigeons into his coop”. Greg would start off with a small wager. He would then quickly size up his opponent and then, in most cases, gradually up the ante. Greg could be purposely be sloppy…if he need to be. But he could also quickly morph into “a pool shark”; he’d make shots – one after another - with pinpoint accuracy. Greg’s motto was: Do you want to go: “Double or Nuthin?” Greg would sucker his “pigeon” till he bled you dry.

At that moment, Greg continued with his pitch. “Walt,” he said, “come down to pool hall two or three times a week. I’ll teach you everything I know, including the gab needed to hook ‘a pigeon’”. Greg continued, “I’ll only charge you five dollars a session. After I turn you into ‘a professional’, you’ll be one of us, part of ‘my team’. All you need to do,” he added, is to hang around the pool hall after school; I’ll give you my overflow. You, for your part, will give me a piece of your action.”

I must say that Greg’s pitch was quite enticing. But there was one problem: I was not particularly well-coordinated. Oh, I tried, but I was better at academic activities than athletic ones.

Yet, I did mention my conversation with Greg to my mother. It was then that she emphatically said, “Keep away from him!”
There’s an analogy here. About Greg, that is. Only in this case, the comparison is magnified thousands-fold. I’m referring to the Russian leader: Vladimir Putin. I should say at the outset that Greg’s neighborhoods actions are just a personal experience; they, in no way “hold a candle” to anything that Vladimir Putin has done in the past, or might do in the future.

First of all, Putin is former KGB. The KGB is responsible for the death of countless thousands, if not millions of Russian citizens. Putin is a ruthless leader who is not above petty vengeance, as in eradicating his political opponents. Putin has deprived Russia of a free press. It is believed that many assassinations have occurred at Putin’s direction. Putin has amassed so much money at the expense of the Russian people that he is now one of the richest men in the world. Putin has been involved in military aggression: Chechnya, Georgia, the Ukraine, his annexation of The Crimea, and most recently, Syria. Further, he’s threatened the Baltic States and Eastern European nations (our government just sent American soldiers to Poland). Putin has failed to address and reduce corruption.

Further, I ask: Is Putin scheming to restore the former Soviet Empire? Will an “Iron Curtain” be re-established? As Churchill stated: “From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on The Adriatic”. Will the “Cold War” return? As a footnote, I lived through that "Cold War" period: air-raid shelters, The Cuban missile crisis with ICBMs aimed at our East Coast, Civil Defense. The fear was palpable.

Well, as my mother said, “Don’t hang around with that guy!” In this case, I say, “Don’t cozy up to Putin!” I believe he wants to destroy us internally…from within. Putin would like nothing better than see the U.S.A. in a period of internal distress and polarization. If we were involved in our own troubles, I believe it would Putin a free hand to gobble up other nations.

As I conclude – thanks for reading this lengthy post – as for Greg from my old Boston Neighborhood, the last I heard, several years ago, he was arrested for insurance fraud; he served time in one of the area prisons. As for Vladimir Putin, the jury is still out. Yet, we must be vigilant. I shudder to think that we could be friendly with 'that guy'.