Biblical Behavior In The City of Bloomington, Illinois

Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.

Jul 29, 2019

I want to preface the following anecdote by saying that there are many, many kind, loving people living in Bloomington, Illinois; and I enjoy interacting with them.

I telephoned the Water and Refuse Department for the City of Bloomington this week with a couple of follow-up questions about the auto deduction bill payment plan I had just setup online.

I got a surly fellow by the name of Tim. Tim refused to give me the Water and Refuse Department number so that I could call back later, and he instead transferred me to somebody's voice mail. I called Tim back asking for the direct number, we were quarreling within seconds, and I sputtered "You're so Illinois." because I have lived here eleven years and I have encountered this kind of rude, dismissive, surly behavior time and time again. Tim promptly put me into telephone hold hell. I held for a while then gave up and hung up. When I called back a few minutes later my call went through to another city employee and I was able to get my questions answered.

Later that day I was checking my bank accounts on another matter, when I discovered that Tim of Bloomington Water & Refuse had retaliated for our quarrel and my insult and he put City of Bloomington charges on my credit card for $1.00, twice. Obviously these were bogus annoyance charges, but apparently he got chickened out on his little torment, because he soon credited my account. I wonder if City of Bloomington, Water and Refuse Department employee Tim feels free to fiddle around putting bogus annoyance charges on my credit card account, then what other transgressions are they indulging in there in city government?

This was yet another petty, unpleasant interaction in Bloomington, Illinois. Living here I am frequently reminded of Matthew 13:36-43, "The Parable of the Wheat & Tares".

"Matthew, 13:36-43 36. Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." 37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear."* New International Version, Copyright 2011-2019 Biblica

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Epilogue.

To make sure that I was correct in my assessment of the mean crookedness of Tim working for the City of Bloomington, Illinois, I called back the next day and asked to speak to a supervisor about the matter. After I told the supervisor about the two bogus annoyance charges made by the City of Bloomington, Illinois, she gave me no apology, just lies. She said that my bank had done the two charges to make sure that my auto deduct account was working. That sounded preposterous to me. Although I have numerous accounts paid by auto deduct, my bank had never done a "test charge" on any of them.

I double-checked with my VISA card bank and asked if they ever made "test" charges when an auto deduct account is set up. My bank said firmly that they would not make any charges for the City of Bloomington unless City of Bloomington requested it, "We know the auto deduct will work."

So the City of Bloomington, Illinois not surprisingly lied about the bogus annoyance charges that they put on my charge card. Again, what other crookedness are they down to?