How to get your economy back

Get on the bus and don't forget your voter registration cards.

By Joyce McGreevy

Jul 19, 2004 | A few lifetimes ago, when I was journalist in Ireland, a friend and I were walking home one night along the Galway road when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. Sometime earlier, Ciaran's bicycle had been stolen outside a pub while was inside enjoying a pint with friends. Or as he'd put it, "I stepped out of the pub and there was my bicycle -- gone!"

Now, several months later, there was the bicycle, parked outside the same pub. Since I come from a long line of people with a talent for doing things the hard way, I set to wondering whether to call the gardai (the police), make inquiries from the owner of the pub, or pursue any number of drawn-out remedies.

Meanwhile, Ciaran was wheeling his bike down the lane.

At which point another fellow emerged from the pub, saw first the bike, then Ciaran, and glowered. It was a look of knowing annoyance, not innocent outrage.

"It's my bike," Ciaran reminded him bluntly.

"Well so," the affronted thief retorted, "You're just going to TAKE it back then?"

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Here at home, the thieves of democracy are policing Americans who would have the gall to take back what's been stolen from us.

Some thieves steal pets, then "find" them in order to claim the reward. This gang in the White House ups the ante. They want a whole series of rewards and your little dog too. Or, tell you what, just send Grandpa, your kids, your spouse -- whoever might be available to trade the unemployment line for the firing line. And for those of you who haven't yet been deployed and dismissed "with our lasting gratitude," how about kicking back a little more of that $23,000 a year you enjoy just for working like dogs. Just put down the overtime pay and nobody gets hurt -- aside from 6 million people stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Surrender, Dorothy? Too passive. To qualify as good citizens, we the violated must also become cheerleaders, bolstering the spirits of our assailants. Anything less would be unseemly, and we all know how the vice president feels about incivility.

It reminds me of a scene in the 1976 Nicholas Roeg movie, "The Man Who Fell to Earth." When thugs in suits seize a man by the arms and legs to toss him to his death from a high-rise building, his body fails to crack the plate glass window on the first swing.

"Oh, sorry," the doomed man tells them earnestly, visibly embarrassed to be such a bother.

Next Page: "Irresponsible spending on a manufactured war to line the pockets of one's associates..."

• View blog reactions