Call me paranoid, but when life started to get hard I didn't go out to the internet and stockpile gold and silver. You can't eat gold and silver no matter how much you have. Instead I made sure I had a hand crank can opener, lot of canned goods, spring water, many packets of soap, health supplies like band aids, peroxide, iodine, salt. With great satisfaction I open my can of raviolis with my handheld can opener, grab a spoon and head into the living room to watch some news.
Plopping into my favorite chair, I flip the TV on and one of those annoying public service announcements is playing, Have you signed your Pledge of Allegiance form yet? What are you waiting for? Americans everywhere are rushing to get their Pledge of Allegiance Form and new Homeland Identification badge before the October 1st deadline. Go to your local Homeland Administration for Religious Services office today and deliver your form in person! As if that commercial wasn't annoying enough, it is followed with one of those "Keep it to Yourself Buddy" slogan ads put out in an attempt to keep people from conspiring against the government.
Pledge of Allegiance! Pah! My allegiance is to the good mankind can do for one another not some bloody government, hell bent on destroying mankind! The commercial reminds me of a quote by Leo Tolstoy, "The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded". Don't misunderstand me, I felt deep and profound love for the government as designed under the original Constitution. Did they get it all right? No, they were victims to their own history, particularly concerning slavery and women, but they built a good foundation and I believed fiercely in the power of the words, WE THE PEOPLE. Depending on how you view it I was either blessed or cursed with an inquisitive mind and have often been called a gadfly, paranoid, lost in fantasy, and much worse by those who know me best. It has always been my lot to question the need for support our troops ribbons, American flag lapels, Christian necklaces, tattoos with your girlfriend's name on them...
The News has come back on, but before I can concentrate on what the talking mannequin has to say I notice that an old friend has stopped in.
"Hey bud" he says, did you watch the hockey game last night? I look up at him like he's lost his mind and a smile creeps slowly across his face.
"When are you going to stop staring at the boob tube and get into the game?", he says.
"You too"? I say. My wife was just saying the same thing about me the other day".
With a searing gaze, my friend says, "Well if the shoe fits, hombre...what can I say? I don't get you. You are smart as all hell, you know what the right thing is to do and yet you are hunkered down in this old house hoping for what? Invisibility? You don't think THEY know you are here? Anyway, I just thought I'd stop by and see what you were doing. I've got a meeting in a few minutes with a secret organization. You should get to know them, they are good people."
As my friend leaves, I scoff under my breath, "Secret organizations! Pah! He wouldn't know the difference between the Illuminati and CIA Black Ops! If he doesn't start showing a little more caution he's going to get whisked away to one of those secret Homeland Deportation bases President Bush had not so secretly built in Ohio just before he invaded Canada and Mexico! Freakin moron, be careful!!