There is a famous quote in the movie Aliens 2 when Ripley says (to the interplanetary braintrust), "Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?"
To put her quote in context here, I'm not talking about those who struggled 10 years to get any kind of legislative change made to Member Business Lending, or even those who desperately believed the bankers would ever let that happen. An IQ drop was never, never in the cards for these poor souls. And I'm certainly not talking about those who now feel helpless and hopeless over the fact that it's not happening anytime soon. Intelligence issues would be secondary to other more pressing concern.
No, I'm talking about everyone who missed the MBL gift the NCUA brazenly handed out to all of us in the form of 1,500 credit unions that have been newly designated "low income." Fifteen-hundred credit unions with no MBL caps (except for the fact that most don't yet understand what an MBL is). Fifteen-hundred credit union with no restrictions on outside capital. Fifteen-hundred credit unions whose low-income members are suddenly eligible to do something they could only dream of doing before-invest in America in a real and meaningful way. And in return, have America invest in them.
It is the next evolution in the American credit union revolution. And if IQs really haven't dropped, and if we are really going to take control of our own destiny just as we did 75-plus years ago, and if the bankers really have no business butting into our business, then a few of us, and then some more, will show how smart we really are and turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.
Michael Dillon
South Division CU, Evergreen Park, Ill.
