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Many years ago, during the time of The Golden Millennium, the citizens of The United Stases of America lived free in a rich economy that hasn’t been seen for years. Great strides had been made in medicine. The elderly, once called the Baby Boomers, were the children of the men and women returning from WW2, and the Korean War.
They were given the most idyllic childhood in the history of the country, every need…food, clothing, education, and inoculations to prevent disease…was taken care of.
These were “gifts” their parents never knew.
With all of these “gifts” came a responsibility. Not all of the children could live up to their responsibility and they became “friend” parents that coddled their children turning them into selfish, ungrateful souls.
During the 1960s renegade bands of people derogatorily called Hippies tried to say “wake up and don’t believe everything the government says, they lie, and capitalism is a trap. It is soulless.” Not too many people listened. Many hippies became capitalists themselves. One noticeable change was that by the 90s…almost everyone, men and women, wore blue jeans, the symbol of common man, workers. Although the capitalist’s usurped even this symbol…a logo was slapped on everything. And those “common man” jeans would be worn with $300 sneakers, expensive gold jewelry, and tattoos.
People had easy jobs sitting behind desks or in cubicles. They paid to go to gyms to work their bodies. They snubbed food, since it was so abundant, they could. They lived in very nice homes, luxury apartments.
Opulence could be seen in the beautifully polished marble and granite houses and businesses, and the marvelously appointed private bathes. Many enjoyed a spa on the deck, a cabin cruiser in the water, and an ever-available plane ticket to the far reaches of the world.
They had everything.
But they also had credit cards heavy with debt. They were easily bored and overly stimulated.
Many walked around in a state of depression. These children, the ones sired by Baby Boomers had been given too much. They only had to ask, to receive. They never earned. The jobs…lawn mowing, childcare, sidewalk shoveling, and menial starter jobs at stores and restaurants were given to immigrants. The children did not know of suffering from devastating childhood diseases. They didn’t know about gratitude, politeness, and caring about one’s fellow American. They were very selfish, insulated, and unknowing of the world in which they lived. Mostly they were good at shopping. Yes, their had been wars in their lifetime, but they were tidy wars, brief, and little televised (which is where most Americans got their news.) You never saw any blood. Mostly it was night-vision imagery in a soft green showing missiles being shot through the air. They didn’t even know what the word freedom meant. Freedom in the BIG PICTURE, not merely freedom as an escape from parental rule.
Then during the election of 2000, there came along a man who was an ex-president’s son. His win was suspect. He might have won the Electoral College. It was never sorted out. Basically the Supreme Court decided the matter. The popular vote, the vote of the people went to the Democratic candidate.
The first war, one called “Enduring Freedom” began after the first attack on American soil, that of the Twin Towers of New York.
The citizens rallied and flags were flown from sea to shining sea. We bombed the hell out of Afghanistan, ironically, a country in the basin of civilization. We did not get Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Quida. It was a failure.
Meanwhile a corporate scandal loomed at home. So our President, G.W.Bush, talked about starting another war, one with Saddam Hussein, the Master of Deception. That is when the true destruction took over. That is when our country went dark. That is when the citizens gave up their shallow Hollywood-style lives and began caring. That is when our friends and family members…brothers, sisters, cousins, fathers, mothers, and friends started to come home in a box. That is when we started to realize that life is not a movie.
The dark, slim life we now lead, my fellow citizens, one of strength and direction, one where we know the cost of freedom, is far more rich than the abandoned lives of The Golden Millennium. We choose love. They chose oblivion.
So come over here. Lay your head on my lap. Let me stroke you. Let me hold you until the fear in you subsides.
My mistakes were always much worst than yours.
