I wonder if in a few hundred years when people look back on these times anyone will believe there ever was such a place as ‘the United States of America?’ If you think about us we sound too impossible to be true. Freedom. Liberty. Democracy. A society where there are no limits, no bounds to what a person can achieve except those we put on ourselves. Imagine how that must sound… ‘America’ sounds like a fairy tale about a place made up of lore.
How will storytellers of future generations tell the story of ‘America,’ what we did, how we got there and the trials we went through against all odds that made us the leaders of the world for a short while after WWII?
I can see the weathered fifty-year-old storyteller – an elder in the community who has survived the grueling coalmines where he worked eighteen hour days for the ‘Masters’ who repossessed what was the United States to repay debts. They use the coal to fuel their dirty-coal generators in China and India to drive their juggernaut industrial complexes. He speaks to a circle of kids keeping warm in front of a pot of flaming animal dung. They’re spread in front of him as he spins the tale of how it ‘used to be.’
“America was a magical place,” he’ll tell them. “It was a country of dreams… peoples around the world could only imagine getting to a place so wondrous... Millions fled no opportunity and the tyranny of their homelands to get to this place that was so... magical. They came in boats, they came on planes, they swam if they had to… they risked their lives escaping murderous dictators or the lives they had that they wanted to make better for their kids. It was THAT good… It was SO great that people were willing to risk dying to get there. Immigrants were able to start with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and a dream in their hearts and build a life like nowhere else in the world.”
You can almost hear the kids oo-ing and ah-ing as if they’re listening to a story of Neverland. After all, who ever heard of such a magnificent place on Earth? Well… maybe Camelot, but that was a place of fable… maybe the United States of America was, too…
“They had a rich history by throwing off the bonds of a powerful king and establishing a government like none other – ever,” his rasping voice says between hacking cough spasms from the black lung. At least The Leaders gave him pain pills, many others were not so lucky – they were not going to waste money on the underlings. “The people chose their leaders and ruled themselves through those leader. Those fortunate enough to be born there lived in a society that was open and free,” Others around the globe who were oppressed by their leaders were liberated by these Americans. Americans were a people of great generosity and virtue. And that made them hated.”
Yet that Golden Land disappeared…
And that is where the elder will tell the children the ‘cautions’ they had to learn should there ever be another land of that caliber again.
“The system broke down because those charged with listening to the people and acting in their best interest grew too full of themselves and took matters into their own hands.” You can hear the children gasp again. Little hands shot up all around the group asking how they could let that happen. It seems so obvious to the little ones that mistakes should not have been made… steps should have been taken to protect the way of life… to prevent them from lives in the coal mines as slaves for The True Leaders.
The elder tried to explain… “Those who were supposed to question the leaders for the people… the media they were called… fell in love with the leaders and failed to do their job. The judiciary… those who were supposed to protect their Constitution… thought they knew better than the people and their representatives and rewrote the Founding Document to fit THEIR views rather than the views of The People.”
More gasps.
“The structure of the country was sound, but through a couple hundred years there were those who thought they could make it better by changing it piecemeal.”
“Where can we go to find a place like that today…” one of the children asked. “How can we escape the mines mommy and daddy are dying in?” the little one asked with tears in her eyes.
“There is no place like that anymore,” the elder admitted, the tears in his eyes, too. “America was the last, best hope for mankind… They were the shining country on the hill…” Gasps and more tears…
How will storytellers of future generations tell the story of ‘America,’ what we did, how we got there and the trials we went through against all odds that made us the leaders of the world for a short while after WWII?
I can see the weathered fifty-year-old storyteller – an elder in the community who has survived the grueling coalmines where he worked eighteen hour days for the ‘Masters’ who repossessed what was the United States to repay debts. They use the coal to fuel their dirty-coal generators in China and India to drive their juggernaut industrial complexes. He speaks to a circle of kids keeping warm in front of a pot of flaming animal dung. They’re spread in front of him as he spins the tale of how it ‘used to be.’
“America was a magical place,” he’ll tell them. “It was a country of dreams… peoples around the world could only imagine getting to a place so wondrous... Millions fled no opportunity and the tyranny of their homelands to get to this place that was so... magical. They came in boats, they came on planes, they swam if they had to… they risked their lives escaping murderous dictators or the lives they had that they wanted to make better for their kids. It was THAT good… It was SO great that people were willing to risk dying to get there. Immigrants were able to start with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and a dream in their hearts and build a life like nowhere else in the world.”
You can almost hear the kids oo-ing and ah-ing as if they’re listening to a story of Neverland. After all, who ever heard of such a magnificent place on Earth? Well… maybe Camelot, but that was a place of fable… maybe the United States of America was, too…
“They had a rich history by throwing off the bonds of a powerful king and establishing a government like none other – ever,” his rasping voice says between hacking cough spasms from the black lung. At least The Leaders gave him pain pills, many others were not so lucky – they were not going to waste money on the underlings. “The people chose their leaders and ruled themselves through those leader. Those fortunate enough to be born there lived in a society that was open and free,” Others around the globe who were oppressed by their leaders were liberated by these Americans. Americans were a people of great generosity and virtue. And that made them hated.”
Yet that Golden Land disappeared…
And that is where the elder will tell the children the ‘cautions’ they had to learn should there ever be another land of that caliber again.
“The system broke down because those charged with listening to the people and acting in their best interest grew too full of themselves and took matters into their own hands.” You can hear the children gasp again. Little hands shot up all around the group asking how they could let that happen. It seems so obvious to the little ones that mistakes should not have been made… steps should have been taken to protect the way of life… to prevent them from lives in the coal mines as slaves for The True Leaders.
The elder tried to explain… “Those who were supposed to question the leaders for the people… the media they were called… fell in love with the leaders and failed to do their job. The judiciary… those who were supposed to protect their Constitution… thought they knew better than the people and their representatives and rewrote the Founding Document to fit THEIR views rather than the views of The People.”
More gasps.
“The structure of the country was sound, but through a couple hundred years there were those who thought they could make it better by changing it piecemeal.”
“Where can we go to find a place like that today…” one of the children asked. “How can we escape the mines mommy and daddy are dying in?” the little one asked with tears in her eyes.
“There is no place like that anymore,” the elder admitted, the tears in his eyes, too. “America was the last, best hope for mankind… They were the shining country on the hill…” Gasps and more tears…
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