Our Last Independence Day?

I was born in 1942 into what was called the Silent Generation.  I think they only called us that as they had to label everyone when the Baby Boomers came around.  I can’t even follow all the “Generations” now. Who knows what they’re talking about and if they’ll ever run out of alphabets to describe each decade.

I can’t remember ever being particularly silent.  I can remember having a job ever since I was thirteen and working for civil rights when I was in college. I suppose I also lived up to the middle class expectations of the time, receiving a college education along with a teacher’s certificate so I could always support myself, as my mother put it, getting married, having children.  Those were imprisoning expectations that, had I been born a few years later, said expectations might not have been so faithfully fulfilled.

What I can remember about my youth was unabashed patriotism.  It was a simple ideal then, marching in parades, listening to band concerts, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in school every day, even after they added “under God.”

Oh, there was trouble in River City.  Joseph McCarthy.  How many countless lives did he ruin?  But there were good men and women in the country and in the Congress who stopped him.  Finally.  One demagogue down.

Now we have another one, poised to become president again.  Do we lack the moral stamina to stop him?   Could it be that we’re so long from our quest for freedom that we’re no longer patriotic?  We forget how we fought against tyranny to establish a union dedicated to liberty and justice for all.

Or not.

Take the stooges in the Supreme Court.  They have somehow mangled our beloved Constitution so that we’ll now have an Augustus Caesar instead of a president.  Oh, you enemies of our new demagogue, take a cup of poison now before the Praetorian Guard comes for you.

Our Congress is full of men and women who lack the moral courage to stand up against a bully, to say there is right and wrong and what this orange, unhinged demagogue is trying to pull is wrong.  What are these Congress people afraid of?  Don’t they have lives outside of politics?  Would they do anything to stay on their perch of power?Well, hell yes, they would.

In my old age, I’m seeing the destruction of the country I love.  Will elections now be held at the barrel of a gun or will that gun be used only if the results are not as expected?  Well, we’ve seen that, haven’t we.  But not in this country.  Yet.  Still, we’re hearing threats that the election can only go one way or else.

The Civil War was fought over slavery, no matter what revisionists are now claiming.  We fought to keep the nation together.  But barring a national consensus, except that we’re in a shit load of trouble, why bother?

I no longer want to keep the United State a united states.  I don’t want to live with people who think that the power of the people comes from the barrel of a gun or that women are inferior creatures who have to know their place.  I want to be with like-minded people who are tolerant of other people’s choices, as long as they do no harm.  I don’t want to demonize people coming to this country for a better life because my grandparents and my husband came for the same reason. They didn’t detract from the country but added to its wealth, culturally and economically.

So I propose we divide our country once again. Not a civil war, but a civil separation.  We can’t do the India/Pakistan thing or the Greek/Turkish Cypriot thing.  Way too many dead and destroyed.  I suppose we could do Insane States and Rational States, but even that would be difficult, as now there are civilized areas in all of our states.

I’m thinking a series of enclaves.  With borders and passports.  We’ll each have our own set of laws, one can be a God-fearing Christian nation, where the Ten Commandments are plastered on every wall, even though their favored Augustus has broken most of them, and the rest of us can abide by the Constitution of the United States of America, along with the Bill of Rights.

True, there are problems with this solution. Like, take shopping.  What if someone from the God-fearing Christian nation wants to go to Costco instead of Walmart?  Would he/she really have to show a passport to get there?  But these things can be worked out over time.  Perhaps drone drops, as our society “advances.”

I don’t want to argue with people anymore.  I’m tired of dealing with those who have never delved into their own history, who live in ignorance and are proud of it.  Enough.  I’m ready for a revolution of like-minded people.  Get thee from me, Satan Augustus.  Your people await you in your own enclaves.  By the way, New York City is now off limits.  Although you could still build your tower on Staten Island.

Let us vote for decency.  One last time.  Because if we don’t—

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