Karma (One)

"Easy Answers are Scared Answers," President Seward Dance addressed us, "and it is our duty as people and a nation to not fall victim to their crippling sway." This was on January 20th, 2032. It was to be the first in a projected tradition for generations to come. "We are a civilized people. We are a community. We, the noble America, must strive higher than ordinary, complacent appeasers who refuse to accept their charges in this world. That way leads to selfish compromise, to anarchy, to corruption of the soul." He had a way with words. Or at least his speechwriters did. "And trying times light the path for trying people. That is, to persevere through the dramatic charade of this fragile, sinful existence, we extend ourselves to God, Father of all Creation, and surrender ourselves to Judgement in that mysterious hope of Salvation." He was 68-years-old. His calcified skin and matching reptilian-gray eyes and thin hair radiated every year of themselves. "If we want Salvation, we must reject Easy Answers. Otherwise..." The word hung like a memory of rain. "Otherwise, our current lease of amnesty shall expire and we will surely suffer the fate of Arizona February 17th." Many in attendance gestured the sign of The Cross tapping two fingers on their brow-chest-anterior shoulders. Mention of a geological holocaust in a superstitious crowd can have that effect on people. "And as God's favored people, as as those who would carry out His sacred ordert o fill the Earth with the Righteous, the Sacrificing, the Humble, it is our/yours & mine natural destiny to interpret His holy plan into action. It is for us, if I may be so colloquial, to say that Enough is Enough." 

The temperature was in the upper-50s. It was among the hottest days for its season on record -- if one is to trust the proclamations of historical geologists -- since roughly 374,000 B.C.E. Can I get a time-flys ? 

He continued. "Within each of you," pointing a haunted finger at the crowd, scanning/sizing them as if to remove some unseen blemish, "is a tremendous drive, you are composed of an extraordinary power beyond reproach." He ascertained that a satisfactory figure of the crowd was braced for his following words, which contained two of the most incendiary syllables in English ever produced in any fashion. By my account, at any rate. "It is for you, in that order, to reclaim America as Your Home. It is for you to exercise the drive within and rid this earthly continent of every democratic nigger upon its soil." He continued, "No one will do it for you. And it will not be easy. But in the end, you yourselves shall inherit the rewards of glory, as shall your children; and to those of you who are children, I say, ready yourselves for the coldness of the world. Gather strength and educate yourselves and pay heed to the wisdom of your parents, for in them lay the tools to domesticate yourselves. To quote a Holy Passage: They are the origins of light that illuminate all future paths." Then, "So you see." 

There was not the most minor issue of protest at any of this. Not a word. Not a cough or whisper or any sound save the breeze of a rotating Earth on that January day. And it shouldn't be assumed or inferred that the audience was exclusively caucasian or of likewise common descent a Seward Dance. Those of his generation either watched the speech on television in their offices or private homes and a low number sat in chairs on the stage to the right of the podium as one faced it. And the majority of those in attendance were white-skinned and in the range of 30-years-old to their early 50s. But a significant portion of us fell elsewhere decidedly. 

We were the young mentioned in the president's speech. We hadn't experienced so many years of obligation to the Cradivourist faith. And I'm sure at least a handful of us knew anarchy meant in no way a renunciation of personal responsibility or some nihilistic detachment from peace and tranquility as Seward's use of it intimated it did. And there were without question some black people among that tragic herd who might've expressed a level of discomfort when the president compared the attitudes of our (quite) distant neighbors with some kind of lazy rejection of everlasting holiness by way of that now ageless, useless phrase. 

Yet silence, yet an ineffable sort of quiet hovered there without contest seizing all within our reach. 

(I shamefully include myself in that lot.) 

President Dance resumed. It would be the end of his speech. 

"I would much prefer to inform you, at this juncture, that our Proud Confederacy is poised for war with our traitorous neighbors in the west. Alas, neither the time nor our popular condition is befitting such. That is, it would prove unwise as God the Father would deem us to, and I can neither institute a national draft nor call on the ready armed forces in decent conscience. 

"We must accept what we have. 

"However, as your president and supreme leader, I know it in my heart that an example must be setlest our national integrity suffers procrastination to suffer what must ultimately be done. 

"I am hereby activating a $200,000 bounty for the live-capture of the known conspirator Roberto Mancini. Ladies and gentlemen, I did say 'live': His long overdue punishment for involvement in the guerilla insurrection that cost us our former, beloved United States must be accounted and documented in a proper federal trial: not rogue vigilante justice. 

"I make myself understood." 

The consummate silence was dispelled by the low percussion of a few applauding and dozens, dozens followed as the thousands contributed to the steadily growing cacophony that soon rose up like a colossal wave and the gargantuan thunder replaced all other sound until Dance had his deploring fill and even I was clapping to sapre any consequent suspicion for not doing so while I wondered what Mr. Urstone had derived from all this or if he had better things to do on a Sunday.

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