Picking up the Loot in Brinks Trucks

A man was sitting at a table in Au Bon Pain, in Washington’s Union Station, and I sat down next to him. He was friendly, a black man with books and a backpack spread out before him. I knew he wanted to talk, he had that eagerness that strangers sometimes get, waiting for the right time to chime in, looking for someone to tell his story to. His name was Steven C. Hill, PhD.

He is an nutritionist, he gives talks on wellness and invents vitamin formulas, and like so many others in that business, he had his own secret remedies for how to cure what ails you. I told him that I knew of a man who was very rich and very sick. I said that I thought this man would eagerly give away all of his possessions, his yacht, his jet, his mansions, just to be as healthy as a homeless man. He asked me if I knew how to reach him, I repllied that all I know is that he has Hodgkins and it is very advanced. He wrote down his name and said he planned to call him. ;

He told me that Washington had seen a tremendous drop in crime…that it was no where near the scary place that it once was. “There’s money here, so much money, all of that ‘faith based initiative’ stuff that Bush is talking about. The pastors, he said, are raking in millions for their drug rehab and after school programs. He said that in the large congregations in Texas, there is so much money pouring in at the megachurches, the ones with up to 20,000 worshippers on Sunday, that criminals are breaking in to steal the loot. “They have to have Brinks trucks come take away the cash, or it will be stolen,” he said.

Like many of the people I’ve met on this short trip, this man was friendly and engaging. When he found out what I did for a living, he asked for my card. Maybe I will hear from him again some day.