Jim Wilson’s life explains 1 Kings 14:10 better than any commentary. Here’s a more appropriate question: Does Moscow need Jim Wilson and his rodent offspring?

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Does Moscow need rat finks?

I heard that the Moscow City Council has suggested to Moscow residents that they turn in to the police anyone whom they catch violating the mask order. This might be successful. As far as I can remember, there are always kids who are eager to run and tell. Some of them may have grown up — but they still run and tell.

In other times, these people who run and tell were called rat finks. It didn’t seem like a popular synonym, but nevertheless it was a word I used to hear.

The request is more likely to succeed if the city council asks for volunteers to turn themselves in — largely because volunteering has always been a better word than obedience. This is not true in the Bible, of course. The Bible doesn’t speak of the twelve volunteers and the ten options. It speaks of the Ten Commandments. But as far as I know, they haven’t been very successful as far as people obeying them.

Here we have a situation, because you are not asking people to turn themselves in. You are asking other people to tell on them. It will be hard to enforce because the order is so amorphous. Sure enough, the person you turned in would not have been within 6 feet of anyone else or would have a medical condition such that he should not wear a mask. It will be a great waste of police time.

The only solution for this order is to abolish it. If you simply put out information on wearing masks (pro and con), you might get a lot more people wearing masks. My advice to the city council is to let it go.

Jim Wilson
Moscow

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