‘Little people’ must rise to a big challenge

“THE buck stops here” ... the sign on Harry S Truman’s desk stating clearly that ultimate responsibility was his and would not be passed on.

“The euro stops here” doesn’t have the same ring to it, but then it doesn’t have the same connotation when used by our institutional leaders – our guys have the sign on their pockets, not on their desks.

We are in the proverbial up to our necks and the omens aren’t good for the foreseeable future. We have been robbed, mugged, swindled and conned, but we’re doing nothing about it.

Not only are we willingly accepting the nonsense dished out to us in recent years but now the same con artists who stuck us in the mire are being asked to get us out of it while we still allow them their exorbitant salaries, expense accounts and bonuses.

It’s a bit like going back to the doctor who amputated the wrong leg and paying him again for his second opinion.

What can we do, we the people, the little people? An invasion of Leinster House is a bit drastic and vigilante groups raiding the homes of the villains to recoup some of our losses would be against the law.

In any event this kind of white-collar robbery is not considered a crime and the sheer size of the band of thieves would clog the present system. We need to change the law and the system so that the Criminal Assets Bureau can do its work efficiently.

Unfortunately, and contrary to our constitution, the judiciary is not independent of government and our lawmakers, who are so deeply ensconced in the pockets of speculative business, have sold their independence and are left with dentures that only selectively bite the defenceless, the pensioners, the little people like you and me.

We the same little people have few options. Change the system and the personnel so that, for the first time in the history of the state, we might have a democracy and “that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom” and that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish” in sleaze, pocket-lining and brown envelopes. A difficult proposition, if not altogether impossible without major surgery which is fraught with dangers – we too might cut off the wrong leg .

Patrick Dolan

Pearse Street

Kinsale

Co Cork