A Living, Breathing Document

Originally published 11-12-2021

The day the Dr. said: "Remission, sometimes these things happen."

Like my life didn’t start again. Like the drug haze would snap gone. Like the hundred pounds the Prednisone put on would fall off. Like a stair climb’s need for a military strategy of pills and people and problems and pets would just walk away.

Acute pain is instant. It goes away. The sharpness dulls and it settles. The sharp increases and you pass out. Either way, it goes away. There is an endpoint. You know it. You fight for it.

When your body sees itself as the cause of the pain, the snake eats itself. The enemy is not from within, it is within.

The Pentagon invades New York City. Through slow occupation. Nightlife is curbed. Broadway? No way. We gotta keep the people safe from themselves. It’s in the best interest of all. Get back to your homes. Shut the doors. Or else. You never know.

Auto-immune disease. Right now. The country. Gas Masks. ‘Self-Isolation’ (Is there another kind?) Voluntary Quarantine? I suppose if a war can be civil quarantine can be a choice. Language Matters.

It’s a slow creep. That’s how military rule happens. Our minds drip to haze. History forgets to teach, for example, a Nazi was a person. A Mom. A Dad. A Grandmother and Grandfather. Millions of them. All started with hearts and heads like our own. How did their hate get so bad? Not overnight. No. Small manipulations. Little fears planted on the street. Propaganda isn't propaganda if it's called news. Called talk. Called media. Called radio.

Maybe. Might be. You never know.

That’s how Evil sounds. Evil is not Black and White. Evil is Gray. No color. No, yes. No, Good. No, Bad. Gray. In the middle. On edge and in the middle. Terrorized. Mothers and fathers don’t wake up in the morning and say, “Let’s commit genocide, it’s the thing to do.”

You are a mother or father. And a human. What gets us to evil? How does the process look? What makes a Nazi? We are not born with the hate. We are taught, through titration, hate is not hate. We slowly replace the word hate with a new term necessary for the good of everyone, the ‘greater good.’

But history shows for the good of everyone is never good for anyone. There’s a balance. Some benefit in one aspect, others in another. Diversity is color. Not black or white, certainly not gray. Evil dresses in gray. We stand for something, or we fall for anything. Remember?

Left or Right the story is the same. Whatever the Left hand does the Right hand disagrees with. And depending on whether or not the country is Left-handed or Right-handed at the time decides what has the best possibility of happening, but never does.

Because no one will make a stand.

So, we don’t progress.

We are a living breathing document. We breathe; therefore, we grow. America is progress. America moves forward. The two-party system is a simple one to understand. They are not yes or no entities at each other’s throats. No. Both are for progress. Because America means forward. Each party stands for the speed at which we travel. Far Left pedal to the metal. Far Right and sloths shoot by.

We are heading to the same goal, the progress of the people. Not political and personal gain, not face saving, not backwards.

We don’t keep America Great. We don’t make America Great again.

Great is gone and done. Greatest is finished.

America is Greater. If we are not perpetually greater, then there's no progress. And that which does not grow Festers and Runs, the Dream implodes as Langston put it so well not so long ago.

Never whether or not we move forward, but how fast. That’s Government in this country. That’s the duty. Someone in the house pinches pennies, someone goes wild on vacation and spends some more. We should save. We should spend. There is a middle ground. Moderation. Moderate?

Remember that word.