Boris’ Cow

Boris’ Cow

I have a candidate for the Most Memorable Character column in the Readers’ Digest. I am talking about Boris, a Russian cab driver from my local company. He is one of the funniest and most charming drivers I have ever had.

Several years ago, he asked us if we could recommend a girlfriend for his son who was having trouble meeting a nice young woman. Every time he has driven us since then, we have asked about his son.

One summer years ago, Boris picked us up at the airport and when asked he said that yes, his son had found a steady girlfriend. His son, then 28, was seriously dating a blonde Polish girl. He volunteered that at first her parents were not crazy about the idea of her getting serious with a Jew but they were growing to accept him.  

Boris went on to tell us about how he came to get married 30 years ago. He said in an accent that was a joy to the ear: One morning I wake up and say to myself–Boris you need a son! He was not married at that time but still wanted a son. So he proceeded to go through his little black book, eliminating most of the entries because they were too fat, too ugly etc.— he finally settled on one lady who still looked pretty good. So he called her on the phone and said: How about I take you to movie…then we get married. She said: Boris, I like you and we go to a movie…but I can’t marry you ‘cause I don’t know you!

So they went to the movie and after it was over he said to her: Boris a handsome man…I give you four days…then I call and ask you again. So he did and after some initial hesitation, she said: OK I marry you. Two years later their son was born.

My Russian cab driver prompted me to think of another Boris. There is an old Russian legend that seemed apropos for Soviet Russia. There were two men…Boris and Ivan. The only difference between them was that Boris had a cow and Ivan did not. One day while walking in the country, a genie appeared to Ivan and offered him just one wish.

Ivan said, I want Boris’ cow to die.

Ivan’s class or cow envy was so intense that, rather than enhance his own situation with anything the genie could give him, he drew more pleasure from having him take away his rival’s cow. It was unfair that Boris had a cow and he didn’t. This is a classic case of what the Germans call Schadenfreude. 

For three generations, the left has been conditioning the American people to think of fairness and equality as the hallmark civic virtues, more important than patriotism and religious faith. Since FDR,  all we have heard is that the rich, the so-called malefactors of wealth, were evil people for being so wealthy.

As a result, they have convinced millions of American voters it would be preferable to be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. This is a sick attitude that has been poisoning the minds and hearts of countless Americans, especially the Millennials who have bought their Marxist message. Brainwashing 101 became their elective choice at our most elite universities.

The left’s idea of human equality is far different from that of the founding generation who believed that all men were made equal in the image and likeness of God. They never meant to imply that they were equal in height, skills, intelligence and drive. The left believes that human equality has nothing to do with God and everything to do with government. They have used it effectively as a political hammer, skillfully wrapped in the rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence just as Lincoln had done during the Civil War. In practice, the left subscribes to the Orwellian notion that all are equal but some are more equal.  

A timely illustration involved ABC’s Charlie Gibson’s pointed question to Senator Barack Obama during an interview in 2008. Gibson explained to Obama that the empirical data showed that when tax rates are low, more money flows into the government coffers.

Obama did not challenge Gibson’s facts but merely said that to him it was more an issue of fairness. Like the legendary Ivan, according to our former president, there is something basically unfair about someone having something more than someone else. In Obama’s mind, he should be the sole arbiter of America’s wealth and poverty. It is not above his pay grade to take it away from those that have more…like Boris and his late cow.

So even if his tax increases on those who have more wind up increasing the deficit because he has made no effort to rein in his lavish spending on union payoffs and bailouts, as long as the rich are suffering, then it is OK. Does this false logic makes sense to anyone? Was President Obama living in the real world?

Does his attitude toward the wealthy not validate my post about liberals living in an alternate reality because they cannot live in a real world of facts and truth? Most people gave him the benefit of a doubt. Had the press done its job during those long eight years of American moral and economic decline?

And Nero just needed a few more music lessons and Boris didn’t need his cow!

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Written by
William Borst