I just opened this Email; Thanksgiving 2022, ....LOL? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Give it some thought, maybe it is more right and forthcoming than we care to think about,,,,,, what if. Winston, come into the dining room, its time to eat, Julia yelled to her husband. In a minute, honey, its a tie score,” he answered. Actually Winston wasnt very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington. Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its unseemly violence and the bad example it sets for the rest of the world, Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasnt nearly as exciting. Losers and winners getting trophies and winners money seemed to have taken the serious competition out of the game. Yet it wasnt the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce, and mincemeat pie), it wasnt anything like real turkey. And ever since the government officially changed the name of Thanksgiving Day to A National Day of Atonement in 2020, to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster. The day of atonement, first described in one of the great President Obama apology speeches had finally become a reality- america atoning for her sins. Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats - which were monitored and controlled by the electric company - be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter. Luckily, our government servants had been exempt from these restrictions. Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of life-saving medical treatment. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt due to onerous federal mandates, and everyone was lucky enough to be admitted into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort. The RHCs resources are limited, explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled. Im sorry for your loss. It would not be fair to continue her treatment, she could have gotten better on her own. Ed couldnt make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines - for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didnt want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there. Thankfully, Winstons brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added inconvenience was an absolute necessity in order to stay one step ahead of the terrorists. Winstons own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for unequal scrutiny, even when probable cause was involved. It would not be fair to search only certain profiled populations who only seemed to do all the murder, hence- EVERYONE was subject to government safety precautions . Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine. Almost. Some of the older americans who mis-remembered freedom and who did not fit the profiled characterisitics of the habitual activists who were violent on behalf of their cause, were still protesting the invasion of their privacy and freedom. Even terrorist activists are heroes to someone, somewhere. The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact. A living Constitution is extremely flexible, said the Courts eldest member, Elena Kagan. Europe has had laws like this one for years. We should learn from their example, she added. A living Constitution is extremely flexible, and subject to OUR current interpretation, depending upon OUR situation, the constitution is not what the authors said it was, it is what we say it is. Winstons thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it. Indeed, Brittany has done well in the villages school system ever since she attended the mandated state run full day preschool starting at 18 months old. His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant education he got in the state sponsored school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism, or any of a number of other calamities were just around the corner. Perhaps it was the constant instruction he got in the state sponsored school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism, or any of a number of other calamities were americas fault, but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility. It didnt help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $5,000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13. The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to spur economic growth. This time, they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful. Luckily, the right people and the right industries received stimulus money to help the economy, level the playing field, right the injustices of the past 300 years, and, simply be fair. Yes the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. Winston did want to get his thoughts right, before he made a mistake and called Atonement Day by the prohibited Thanksgiving, implying God and the old America. At least, he had his memories. He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Old Days, long before government promises to make life fair for everyone realized their full potential. Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didnt happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them. He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2012, when all the real nonsense began. Maybe we wouldnt be where we are today if wed just said enough is enough when we had the chance, he thought . He remembered the story of the frog put into cool water on the stove; by slowly turning the heat up, the frog never realized he would be boiled to death. Some people had warned of this brave new america, but the populace was intoxicated with change and fairness. Strangely, in the old days, Winston had never thought change or fairness was needed in a society where even poor people had expensive sneakers, computers and cell phones. Now, it was all fair; everyone was poor, except our exalted government public servants. Perhaps one of Winstons children could become a public servant working for the government? He hoped so. Then they would not have to comply with all of the fairness mandates. Maybe his son could become a czar!!!, then the family would be well taken care of. Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so. Mark Twain once said: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Thanksgiving in a changed america; 2022
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 17:06:12 +0000
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