THE DREAM THAT WAS

     Once there was a dream. It was called the American Dream and in that dream there was room for all- for "the tired, the poor, the hungry masses yearning to be free". There was concern for the sick and the needy members of society. There was a dream of education for all, even into the college and university level. There was a care and respect for the elderly, making sure they had the wherewithal to live in their elder days, that they had medical care. There was a dream of equal rights for all, be it voting rights, civil rights, rights in the working world and rights for people to control their own bodies. Abortion was a choice, not a crime - until it is once again.
     So what has happened to this dream? It has soured and turned into pieces of a nightmare, as rights and benefits of a positive thinking, of a dream always in progress, was turned aside, denigrated and taken away.
     I wonder what miners who are worried about their jobs will think when there is no longer any funding for black lung disease, for mesothelioma? What will they think when the very mountain tops in their home states will be ripped off and strip mining ruin the forests, the very fabric of the ground. I wonder what they will think when the mudslides come pouring down as there are no longer any trees to hold the ground steady.
     I wonder what the people who have been flooded out several times think of climate change now? Do they realize it is real or do we need more five hundred years storms coming every year? Do we need more Hurricane Sandys to hit and drown NY. Or do we need Miami to fully flood every high tide? And will we all mourn when the last glacier melts away or will we be all swimming for our lives. You know, the new streaming show Incorporated has "climate refugees" with sandy beaches at Anchorage and deserts in Spain and the French Riviera. Fantasy? Fiction? Or truth in advance if we refuse to recognize a tattered dream and how we have caused it. A new study shows that NOAA was correct in its statements and predictions  so what do we do now?
     Slowly but surely the American society of generations insured the rights of all. Voting rights, equal rights to an education, equal pay for equal work and still working on that, equal rights for those whose orientation differed from the mainstream, fair immigration laws with no more blocked and quotas on certain people and groups. And yes, we needed to be careful, especially in these times of extremists, but it is doable and we are capable. We are indeed, if we so wish it and realize that we must or else our dream that was will be the dream that is no longer here.
     Safety rules and regulations for food, for restaurants, for construction sites, against child labor, fair wages, safety in the workplace, safety for our national  parks and monuments, a plan to make the future even better, especially when it showed signs of wear and tear.
     But we have forgotten this dream or rather allowed it to be suborned by others who wish it gone and replace it with their own dream, one of callousness to the elderly, to the people of color, to people of other religions, to women and children, to people who would speak up for all segments of society. We have people who still believe that slavery was not so bad because after all, who would damage their property so no Simon Legree character existed. There is no need for ethics in the world of politics, no need to worry about conflicts of interest, for the business of America is business if I quote correctly. Let the chips fall where they may, the best will survive and rise to the top, correct? Is that the dream we wish to have now? Is that the dream we are leaving to our children?
     And yes, the dream was not perfect and always required updating and tweaks, but always it was there, in sight and the base of our country. It filled our minds and hearts and we strove to make it reality. We backslid at times but then caught ourselves and tried again, climbed back on the horses and passed the right laws and thus we have social security and Medicare and Medicaid. Thus we have a safety net for those who find themselves in need and yes, it is imperfect and there are huge holes in the net at times, but always there are people who care, who try, for that is our dream, a good country, a people who care.
     But now we have a report of four teens who beat up another, cursing and chanting anti white statements, we have people who call up two Jewish day schools in the Orlando area and threaten to bomb them and this email came from the ADL Florida Security Alert. The times they are a changing, as the song went but this is not a good change is it?
     Well, we all need to dream again, good dreams, positive dreams, friendly dreams. We need to remember that we were or are immigrants. We all came from somewhere else at some time in our family lines. But we have forgotten that, have we not? No one wishes to sacrifice safety but we also cannot sacrifice right and we must find a way to mesh it all together. As for those politicians in Washington and around the country who now wish to return to worse times, who wish to take it all back, well an article this morning stated - if you break it you own it - Pottery Barn philosophy. If you ruin the lives of all but a few, you will need to face the consequences and I must say, yesterday's full page ad urging all to prevent the inauguration of the Trump/Pence team, with its stated but not stated urge to wreak civil havoc,  well, it shocked me but then again what else can we expect. We will have a government of people whose first wish was to protect themselves, make it so they could commit crimes yet be exempt, no investigations. We have a soon to be administration that I am still unsure if it is legal, if the election was valid. We have a purported leader who lies and lies again, who boasts like an adolescent who really knows nothing and tries to hide that, who wishes to be the bully of the world. We have foxes appointed to the henhouses and we are the hens, my friends. We have people who wish to save money  -which it will not - on the backs of the elderly and the poor and indeed on anyone who does not resemble what they feel is the picture of a worthy American.
     These are scary times, truly so, and we must return to our dream. Yes, we can have disagreement but never can we wander so far off the track. That is a never! Dream again, America, dream on and fight to keep that dream, no matter who tries to take it away. Express your anger, your hopes, your wishes. Use the ballot box, email and yes, tweet away!! But if we do not remain alert and active then we all will be in a nightmare, and when will that end?