Black helicopters & orange bicycles from your local authoritarians.....

Rex Curry

Does your city have a “community bicycle program”? Some cities turn abandoned bicycles into “community bicycles” available to anyone for temporary use in downtown areas.

Community bicycles are all painted one loud color to help users distinguish them from private bikes. Safety-orange was the color sprayed on by bureaucrats in Tampa, Florida.

It was a short-lived program. The orange bicycles went unused until they were stolen and, it is hoped, repainted.

Local officials are inspired by programs like “community bicycles,” even though they never ride the bikes, nor use government buses, nor government schools.

The same officials will be inspired by these programs:

Community Umbrella Program: Everyone gets caught in the rain without an umbrella. This program attempts to solve that problem. Unfortunately, “Honor system” umbrellas have been tried with results similar to that of “community bikes,” in that the umbrellas are given permanent homes elsewhere. The theft problem might be reduced a tad by painting the umbrellas safety orange.

Community car and RV program: Rain, heat and other bad weather hurt community bikes. Confiscated and abandoned cars and recreational vehicles (RVs) can be painted orange and left with on/off starter switches (to prevent lost keys or stolen keys). The RV's would also allow citizens to catch a nap or even stay overnight if necessary. Instead of a new government rail mass transit boondoggle, it would be cheaper to leave enough orange cars about for all predicted rail-riders.

Community food, clothing and shelter programs: Food, clothing and shelter are the three basic necessities and these programs address them.

Community Refrigerators: community bicycles make riders hot, thirsty and hungry. Old refrigerators can be painted orange, filled and placed near street corners and bike stands so that riders, pedestrians and anyone can avail themselves of food and drink, which could be eaten en route to another destination, leaving uneaten portions in another orange refrigerator for others, or for later. This program has the added advantage of allowing people to add their own food and drink to the refrigerators, thus contributing to the program and ensuring its success and longevity.

Community clothing program: Orange jumpsuits can be borrowed from nearby county jails where the orange clothing program is already being enjoyed by many residents, some of whom have already enjoyed the orange bike program. When the clothing is not being worn, it can be left in orange boxes attached to the top of the orange refrigerators, available to any other clothing-challenged persons.

Community Houses program: For the temporarily displaced. Instead of tearing down crack houses and condemned structures, paint them orange and add them to the other community programs. These free and open houses would work on the honor system, only to be used overnight or so long as it takes the user to find "normal" housing.

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Rex Curry is published worldwide as a libertarian and a lawyer with a degree in journalism. http://RexCurry.net is the only site on the internet that collects and displays historic photographs of the original Pledge of Allegiance. Rex collects historic photos that show how socialism has harmed the U.S., and his hobby is also photography and graphic art, displayed on the website. His predecessors helped settle Key West back when Florida's government was virtually non-existent. The Curry Mansion (historic home of Florida's first capitalist millionaire) is still on the local tour.

Rexy@ij.net