Flint and Steel

As a child, on the cusp of adolescence, I watched in awestruck horror as this empire was revealed to be vulnerable. Cracks formed in the walls of our castle and we, in silence, felt the sudden sting. Our leaders, appearing baffled, tripped over explanations and cover-ups, calling on us peasants to gather around symbols and material goods. Buy away the burden of guilt and questions.

I remember the news those nights, back when they actually cared to show us where the money went. Explosions like fireworks shot forth across some distant desert sky, and vengeance would be ours. The next day we would get out the broom of patriotism and shoo the facts under the rug. We destroyed hospitals, homes, families. But our leaders continued to give us reasons, continued to simplify the calls for unity, even when no evidence could be found to further justify their claims for lethal force.

As I grew older, it was no longer simply the older brothers, distant relatives, or neighbors sons, but my own peers who left to fight. Vague motivations such as freedom, democracy, and duty filled the lips of those who knew they couldn't pay for college where the government might. As more and more of "our side" and "their side" died, the line between justice and commerce blurred. The war had spread in relative silence to so many fronts that it was only a matter of time before the violence came back around and hit us at home.

All this time, as the elected officials squabbled over party ties and monetary backers, leaders rising and falling only to be replaced by differently dressed clones, the true rulers, the corporate bosses, worked their tentacles into the minds of the populous. Until the intellectual and economic balancing act of the past decades finally caught a snare, and the gamble of the nation came back empty.

Now the lines have been drawn. There are those who live in quiet complacency, but daily the tension rises. Harder and harder to ignore are the cries of the oppressed and downtrodden. As the mighty rich waste and cheat and stomp all across the land, those that are enslaved in debt and empty promises must rise and say enough. The empire is going to fall. Either you are going with it, or you must realize that its ways are empty. We are in the streets. We are you. We are in the streets. Are you with us?