They say that religion is the last refuge of a scoundrel and it looks like that old scoundrel Vince Anello has found himself religion.
Not the "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" or "Love thy neighbor as thyself" religion, mind you. No, for a bitter ex-convict like Anello, something darker and scarier comes first to mind.
I got an e-mail from Vince last week. At first I didn't believe it was really from him, I thought that someone just sent it and signed his name to it as a kind of joke.
I thought this because, I reasoned, for Vince to have sent it himself would mean he had finally gone so bat guano crazy I would have to feel sorry for him. Had he actually sent it, I told myself, it would mean that his deranged, depraved mind had finally deteriorated to the point where he no longer could distinguish between delusion and reality, and that our nation's prison system -- where Anello spent considerable time over the past year or so -- was failing in its mission to rehabilitate habitual criminals.
But then Vince happened to have a conversation with the Niagara Falls Reporter's own Ron Churchill in which he not only admitted writing the e-mail, but seemed happy about it. The God of the Bible doesn't like braggarts, of course.
As was the case when he was mayor, Vince likes to overdo things a bit, and so he picked Psalm 52 to quote for me.
Vince isn't much into biblical passages like "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" or "Judge not, that ye be not judged." He's a fire-and-brimstone guy all the way, and Psalm 52 pretty much lets go with both barrels.
"Why do you glory in evil, you scandalous liar?" Vince quoted. "All day long you plot destruction; your tongue is like a sharpened razor, you skillful deceiver. You love evil rather than good, lies rather than honest speech. You love any word that destroys, you deceitful tongue.
"Now God will strike you down, leave you crushed forever, pluck you from your tent, uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous will look on with awe; they will jeer and say; That one did not take God as a refuge, but trusted in great wealth, relied on devious plots. But I, like an olive tree in the house of God, trust in God's faithful love forever."
Kinda nutty, huh? I mean, here's a guy who took bribes and robbed his union brothers, then lied about it again and again to the people who trusted him enough to put him in office, now going to God's own Book to find some mud to sling at me?
It rather reminded me of another biblical passage, not quite as colorful as the one Vince chose, but plain and to the point.
"Thou shalt not steal."
It's a pretty simple directive, one that millions of people who aren't even Christian live by every day. Anello was apparently absent from catechism on the day it was taught, however, and wound up behind bars because of it.
Of course, it wasn't the outright theft he was ultimately imprisoned for that began the FBI's investigation into Anello, it was the government's contention that he'd accepted bribes.
And the Bible has plenty to say about bribes too!
"Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live."
I hate bribes almost as much as the FBI said Vince loved them. And that bit about him troubling his own household just couldn't be any truer.
Still, I've known a lot of thieves and corrupt politicians during my 35-year career in the newspaper business, and not all of them were bad guys. Now a liar, that's something else again. As much as I believe in turning the other cheek and all that, I just can't stand a liar.
Vince Anello lied when he said he didn't accept any bribes, and he lied when he said he didn't take money that wasn't his from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers pension fund. He went to prison, and when he came out he lied again and said that this newspaper -- and not his own criminal intent -- was the source of all his problems.
And the Bible has plenty to say about liars. I love this one from The Book of Revelation.
"But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
And this seems particularly appropriate.
"If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen."
An admitted thief, Vince Anello is also a liar who was once a corrupt public official. He got off easy, serving less than a year in prison, but has apparently learned nothing from his experience, and now seeks to blame others for the misfortune he brought on himself.
He needs psychiatric help, and I hope he gets some before he finds himself in trouble again.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 6 2012 |