Why it Matters,  They Voted to Eat their Young.  By Randy

   Jakuniku-kyoushoku.  “It’s the year 2022, and the population has risen to a third of a billion for the United States.  Pollution, catastrophic climate change and blind greed-based taxation has caused severe shortages of food, water and housing nationwide while the military budget grows beyond the ability of the nation.  Only the wealthy can afford health care.  The environment is oppressively hot and humid thanks to the out-of-control greenhouse effect.  Corporate America has taken on the role of feeding most of the nation’s population with tasteless processed foods, over-preserved and under scrutinized, while nutritional and safety factors are the new cost of repeatedly underfunded government overwatch programs and an overworked populace repeatedly asked to sacrifice more and more so the wealthiest may receive favorable tax breaks.  The Soylent Corporation produces their wonder food called Soylent Green…” (edited quote of Soylent Green film summary, 1973).

   I am quite fascinated by movies, books and articles detailing the expected world of my current life, like the above movie synopsis.  I read 1984 and thought it was Oracular. My father kept Popular Mechanics magazines from the 1950’s and 1960’s that tell me I should be flying my car by now.  Shortly after I was born American men were walking on the moon, stepping out of the nation’s boundaries as explorers and architects of a new future.  During that time, a generation fought against itself – one side imagining the heights we could go if we only dreamed, if we only loved one-another, if we only gave more than lip service to the idea of freedom, while others suffered a nightmare of bullets in jungles they didn’t know existed but a short time before.  Men of Peace, men of hope, men like John Lennon died to bullets, and it seemed like the generation had made its choice.  The fall of Jimmy Carter, the rise of Trickle-Down politics and Glory of Greed, Iran/Contra-gate, a new war in the land of sand and oil, and a new rising NRA became the Siren’s Song spelling the end to the hope of Lennon and King. 

  In ‘Men in Black’, Tommy Lee Jones asked Will Smith ‘They are beautiful, aren’t they…the stars…I never look at them anymore’.  Have we lost the hope that seemed to infect America when I was young, when cars were shaped after rocket ships and kids would look to the stars and dream of following in Buzz Aldren’s steps?  It is no wonder to me why people long for the world to be like it was in the ‘60’s.  Life was simpler back then, provided you weren’t drafted, a woman, a minority or poor.  Marjory Taylor Greene has called for a new America, a new Civil War, a new Hitlerian dystopia where we must declare our votes.  She wants to void criminal charges for a national secrets leak because it was originated by someone who was white, Christian and anti-war.  Lauren Bobert says that babies are being murdered after birth for the convenience of a late abortionist.  Our most recent president is in court for Rape, Tax Fraud, and his followers are going to Jail for Sedition and Violence in efforts to Overthrow the Government, but that’s all “fake news”.  Fox News pays $787,500,000 to avoid justice, Governor DeSantis kidnaps destitute families and declares gay people to no longer exist in Florida, and “Good Guys with Guns” stood by and watched babies be shot.  Across The Land of the Free, men are being accused of horrible crimes for telling stories to children and their parents in public libraries.  The religious right has declared the liar, the glutton, adulterer, the jealous, the proud, the lazy and the wrath filled to be saintly.

   I don’t think anyone really cares what Marjory Taylor Greene really believes since the idea that she would be called upon to seriously debate a moral standard in any capacity beyond a cautionary one is surely pure comedy.  She is surely not the cause of our troubles, only the parasite that feeds on our weakened flesh.  She is a result of a country that gains their beliefs from news anchors and pundits, like rags flapping in a breeze that the ill-considered salute unquestioningly.  I understand; I’m a Chicago Cubs fan, and I could respond to any challenge with “We’ll get them next year”.  Then one year they somehow kept winning and the joke became real. 

  The ’Trump in Politics’ era, which coincided quite conveniently with the ”No” era of the republicans brought about a fracture in what was respectable public speech. I was raised that it is the obligation of every man to those who follow behind to make a world better than he found it so that his children may live their life without war, famine, disease, poverty.  But suddenly there was a black man in the White House and the era of fear and denial was upon us.  Now we are strangled by guns, anger, lies and false reality.  The preeminent focus is not what is best for our youth, our country, but what will regain the lost power of the ’50’s for those longing for a world gone by.

  What happened to love? What happened to my neighbor?  What happened to those Sunday School lessons?  Have we lost already the promise of our fathers, the charge of those who came before?  We are meant to be a country of builders.   I feel anger and despair in those around me as they are denied their reality, denied their choice, denied their identity. 

  I would propose a new law, a new rule:  When finally that long line in the cold of November on that blustery Tuesday, alongside the ballot of new candidates and propositions, tax law and millages, sets a screen.  On that screen flip pictures of the voter’s family, his friends, his loved ones.  And, then, maybe his vote isn’t one designed to enact vengeance and fear but hope for those who come after.  Maybe then the vote is for the ones who truly matter in all that we do:  Those who will inherit the decision about to be made.