The Reds

It's 4:45 in the afternoon and ominous clouds develop over my city. A storm is on it's way. It is inevitable.

In the distance another storm is brewing. Though this one is 8 weeks away. This storm is gathering, the clouds are darkening and in it's formation, the nation it stands under, is ripping apart at the seams. Under its formidable coagulation the citizens have been told to pick a side. Either Red or Blue.

I find myself a Blue and a true Blue at that. For the last 8 years the Reds have been in control with the power of two towers falling and the threat that others will fall, the resistance of accepting a moral code, a war in some far-off land and a man on a cross, twisted to unbelievable proportions standing as a symbol to all of what is right and what is wrong.

For this Blue who believes in true equal rights, a forfeit of personal wealth to support those who are in need, for one who sees love as love and not a moral code, for one who wants to end an aimless war and one who believes health care is the right of every citizen has heard terrible and hideous things. Things the like chant of "Drill! Drill! Drill!" as if the chorus were singing "We're right! We're right! We're right!" This Blue has heard the talking down of community leadership and a woman who refuses to look at her own daughter as an example of a flawed and old way of thinking. The hypocrisy already shows itself thick. But it doesn't matter, this Blue thinks to himself, resigned and tired. They have The Cross, he whispers to himself, and that Cross makes them think, rather whole-heatedly, that the mere believing in it, or the mere saying they believe in it, or the mere attendance of an every Sunday, makes them righter. More right than this Blue can ever be.

"Who are these people?" This Blue thinks to himself at the edge of hopelessness. "These people whose jobs are at the poverty level yet whose children are kept in Iraq, who are being hit hardest by a recession, who cannot afford health care - who are these people that keep voting the same powers to office?"

"They are people who carry an absence of introspection," a wise man muttered to The Blue. "They find no fault in themselves, yet only fault in others," he continued. "And you be careful, young Blue, for when they find their leader in power and the economy the same, if not worse, they will be unable to admit their own personal mistakes and they will come looking for villains. If history is any evidence to our future they will come for the immigrants, those who do not belong here, first. Then, after ridding those who are illegally here, they'll see that their situation has not become better and they will come for those who challenge their moral code. Those who live alternative lifestyles, who don't live by the literature of the unseen higher power, those who have educated themselves opposed to having been educated, will be next. Spit and fire and finger pointing and terrible accusations will become their daily bread and water. And, after those people have been rounded up, and the situation the same, if not worse, the other religions and thought processes will follow. For there is no room in this nation for anyone to think other than what The Reds are already thinking. They will be next. You mark my word."

"Then what must happen," the Blue asks the Wise Man, "must I delete myself from this nation?"

"No," the Wise Man responds, "for that would be abandonment and those who are like you, need you."

"But," The Blue tries to interject!

"But!" The Wise Man holds out his finger, not to the Blue's face but up toward the sky, "but, if and when you see these atrocities happen, and when you see this absence of introspection, you must do what you can, to raise your voice, and fight for the nation that is rightfully yours."