Gone
Standing on the corner waiting for the ice cream man.
Seeing the Wizard of Oz only once a year on TV.
LPs, 45s, CDs, cassette tapes, VHS, Super 8.
S&H Green Stamps.
Manual typewriters.
White-only counters.
Single-sex public restrooms.
50-cent coffee.
Stockings.
Compassion.
Charity.
Civic courage.
Responsibility.
Leadership.
Consequences.
Justice.
Reason.
Common ground.
United States.
Gone…
Vanished...
Like a thief in the night, America awoke to find its house empty.
A shell in which individuals cannot see each other because of the hate that wraps their heads like a blindfold.
Those things that were once so familiar that we could touch, see, and hold onto vanished like a mirage.
America has awakened from its dream of ideals.
A dream that reassured its people that everything would be okay.
Everyone was going to have justice.
No one was above the law of the land.
No one was above the law...
Like a dream, as the hours and days pass, that dream becomes increasingly harder to recall.
Email, texts, news, social media, entertainment, sports, school, job, and lifestyle —none of these aspects of our daily experiences speak to a healthy Community.
None of it brings two people together over a common piece of ground.
Gone are the ties that once bound each of us to each other.
Where did they go?
Who took it?
Who is responsible?
We are.
You and me together.
We did it.
We destroyed the American dream.
Dreams do not vanish on their own.
To make a dream come true, you have to work to make it real.
Otherwise, a dream, including the American Dream, is a story with no more relevance to reality than any other dream.
Understand how, when someone tries to tell you their dream, we don't really listen to what they are saying?
Dreams require individuals and society to strive every day to reach for the dream of a better tomorrow.
Dreams require you and me to march against giants.
Dreams require us, no matter how beaten down or how tired, to stand once again and say the ignorance of mankind will not rule our lives.
Like a dream, those American ideals that are gone are only out of sight, not out of mind.
The mind can bend time and space.
The mind can span the distance between you and me; we can see each other and know we want the same things.
We strive for good work that will provide us with a fulfilling life.
We want to be free of living in fear.
We want hope.
We need a new American dream.
The old dream was at its heart only for the few.
This new dream should align with the truth revealed by this President, his administration, and his believers.
This President demonstrates the truth that ignorance never goes away.
The truth is one political movement, conservatives, courted that ignorant vote and have no intention of letting that vote go.
We, the people, the majority, must recognize that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Ain't going to happen.
We ain't going to convince ignorant racist Americans they should just give up everything they know to be true and join us.
That's absurd!
We need to take that dime in our hand that we were going to give to the ice cream man and find ourselves another corner to stand on.
Those brothers and sisters are not going to follow us to a better community for everyone.
They won't get on the Freedom Train.
This means we shouldn't be waiting for them to decide if they want to join us; we need to move forward.
We have to realize that we are not going to get the racists to behave and sit cordially at our table of humanity.
They want the food fight and want to turn over the table of the Brotherhood of Man.
Our Block Party has to move location because our angry old neighbors are upset that our party attracts the wrong kind of people.
We have to be content with what we have.
We need to get along to that better world.
That doesn't mean we won't hold an open seat at our Block Party in case hell freezes over, but it also means we need to be realistic that some people hate us.
They don't like the people at our party.
We all need to do the right thing right now.
When you're saving a life, you don't worry about your appearance.
You do the right thing.
You can't dream of a better world; you've got to make it better with your own hands.
'Ideals' will only get you so far unless you are willing to stand for them.
They are meaningless if you don't put actions to your rhetoric.
It's clear that this President and this administration are willing to fight for their ideal world.
Will the good people of these United States fight for theirs?
Who will win out?
Injustice or justice?
It will depend upon you and me.
Peace
Daniel J Frey aka Toby