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It's sad how often saying something that is ignorant, or at best, provocative, is passed off as actually saying something meaningful or insightful. We are all subjected to statements that even a half-moment's thought would reveal they are specious. We hear "observations" that make one wonder if any observing occurred at all.
You don't need to look far in credit unions for an example, beginning with the words "credit union." This may be the mother of all merry-go-round topics in the CU community. If you missed it the first eleventeen-dozen times and even if the ride stopped and added all new riders, don't worry; that horse will come around again. And again.
Recently, I've (again) received a number of e-mails, seen some Tweets and read a few other views on whether credit unions should drop "Credit Union" from their names. Let me see if I can come up with a few words in response. Absurd. Advantage-surrendering. Counterproductive. Suicide. Need I go on?
Around And Around We Go
It is by no means the first to do so, but giving the latest spin to the merry-go-round on this issue is Tampa-based GTE FCU's decision to rebrand itself as GTE Financial.
Look, I may have to someday get on that merry-go-round and eat crow until I'm as sick as a couple of kids who just polished off cotton candy and a gallon of soda, as GTE Financial may post some robust growth numbers in the years ahead. But the name sounds to me like the indirect financing arm of a defunct phone company (GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to form Verizon).
GTE Financial noted that...