After being on television every day until the problem in Israel broke full force, President Bush's sinlence was defeaning. And when he finally did come out with some statement, I keep remembering one of those grub and gallop episodes.

It was when we were on the way home from an out-of-town high school basketball game in Freeport, a city about twenty miles from my hometown. Those were the days when Deacon Davis and Orin Williams played for Freeport, prior to their being turned down by Harry Combs, our bigoted coach at the University of Illinois, and before they played for Iowa, pro ball, and the Harlem Globetrotters. In other words, it was a game worth watching.

Anyway, there was this roadhouse restaurant about half way between the two cities. Built in an old farmhouse by the side of the highway, it was a popular spot for cheeseburgers, fries, and thick milk shakes.

We parked our old '37 Ford hotrod quite a way down the highway, pointed towards home, smeared snow on the license plate, and went into the restaurant to load up. When we were done, we took the check to the cash register and someone yelled "there goes Charlie" and we all bolted out the door and ran for the car.

I was a chubby kid, so I was at the back of the pack stomping goulashes through the snow as we ran towards the car. But I ended up in a heap, unable to move because I was laughing so hard. What struck me as funny at the time was the silhouette of the woman who had been at the cash register, framed in the doorway atop the porch, arms in the air, with the lights of the restaurant at her back, yelling "Stop—come back, stop—come back."

After all that planning and our daring-do, that lady actually believed we would stop in our tracks, turn around, and go back. It struck me as one of the most ridiculous things I had ever experienced and just envisioning all six of us stopping and going back made me think of the faith that lady must have in the spoken word. The guys had to back up the car and scoop me inside.

Now, after listening to George Bush, I'm recalling the silhouette of that woman framed in the doorway. It just keeps reappearing.

How successful do you think policemen would be if they merely yelled "stop—come back" without following it by "or I'll shoot" maybe even throwing a warning round in the air?

On the other hand, there was another experience that bothers me immensely. I was in my forties, running some millionaire's yacht, and docked on the Isle of Venice in Ft. Lauderdale during spring break.

The animated movie of Lord of the Rings was playing at a theater on Las Olas and the beach and I wasn't going to miss it no matter how crowded and uproarious things were by the beach.

When I had walked within a half-block of my destination, I saw a young man burst from a hotel entrance, run across Las Olas Boulevard, and get about a half block further before he stopped and went back.

The reason he stopped was because a cop came out the same door, yelled "come back here, now" and the kid did it. I couldn't believe it. He was already gone and could have ducked into any of the bars holding wet t-shirt contests or simply mingled with the crowds of other kids everywhere. The cop would have never found him.

But for some reason he went back. Maybe he was innocent of whatever upset the cop and thought he could explain things. Maybe it was because he was alone. I don't know.

But as soon as he reached the top of the hotel steps the cop grabbed him, took him inside where he was joined by two other policemen, and they dragged him into a broom closet and beat the crap out of him. By that time, I was standing right there listening through the closed door.

I ended up calling the station, making a formal citizen's complaint about police brutality, and explaining things I saw in detail to other cops that showed up within the hour. Nothing ever happened from that complaint and I don't know what happened to the kid. Maybe they just let him go. Within a few weeks, I was back in the islands, without ever seeing the Lord of the Rings movie.

Is this what we've come to? Are we a nation so powerful that we can just utter a few words and other nations will bend to our will? Have people become a bunch of wimps that can't make up their own minds about anything, just giving in to stronger wills? What are we doing with our fingers in everybody else's business anyway?

I'm sorry, but I just don't see our nation as the model of justice and fairness when we can't take care of our own unfairness and crime here at home, and especially when I know of tremendous injustices committed by our own caretaker body politic.

For instance, every citizen in this country should be demanding an explanation of how our Social Security Trust Fund ever became more than 20 percent of the national debt. Isn't it obvious that the Beltway Bandits have simply "grubbed and galloped" with a good chunk of our retirement money?