Saturday night is date night, a dinner with the wife
and maybe a movie, not a big deal but I do enjoy it. As usual I’m getting ready
by taking a shower and then I will pick out one of my nicer pair of jeans.
Washing my feet and thinking to myself,
A real shirt tonight instead of a T-shirt.
Then the lights dim then blink on and off. When I step out of the
shower the bathroom is different. First I notice that the mirror is clean,
indeed the entire bathroom is clean to the point of spotless, and the towel is softer and wicking water away with perfect efficiency. My mind feels
foggy as I signal my clothes to cover me and assume an early fall setting. For
a hesitant moment this seems different or new, that I had been about to do
something else. Then the memories rush back as I engage my personal
information interface, and restart my daily update of current events.
Remembering that I take my responsibilities’ as a galactic citizen serious, submitting original research and engaging in debates, with careful consideration always
voting for the best and most valid case. Our modern democracy was sparked by
President Nixon. He ended gerrymandering and made private funding of public
political causes illegal. I remember that at the time the general public little
noticed the presidential decrees or the fight between the political elites, but
these simple changes founded the next evolution of democracy. Today President
Nixon is remembered as one of the greatest political thinkers in human history.
Our current political system is a direct democracy, with no elected officials,
Nixon called it the “wisdom of crowds” theory and now our societal decisions
are much better than under the old system.
I have volunteered for another citizen group
evaluating the power generation system and proposing improvements, while the
system is solid there are always opportunities for improvement. After
retirement at age 52 I moved to the orbital platform and returned to college to
finish a PhD in mathematics, President Carter in his second term committed
America to energy self sufficiency, adopting a plan by MIT professors for
orbital solar collectors that beamed energy back to the earth’s surface, now we
have cheap unlimited pollution free energy. There is a thriving orbital community
with a population of about a half million politically independent galactic citizens.
During my first career as a manufacturing engineer in a dying oil industry, I
often dreamed of working in space, now I do work in space. With most people
expecting to live 200 or more years, it has become common practice to change
careers every 50 years or so, with free and universal education changing
careers just requires a few years of study and preparation, a deep cultural commitment to second chances. I remember President Dylan in 1984
deciding to federally fund stem cell research that created a phenomenal burst
of medical advances based on bioengineering.
I remember that the 1984 election was a real
shocker when Ronald Regan lost to Bob Dylan by a landslide. Few expected a
musician to be a successful politician and we were proven wrong. President
Dylan used technology to create universal suffrage giving all equal political
access in a level and honest playing field. Combined with President Nixon’s
reforms this effectively ended political parties and privileged special
interest power. Secrets died in the dark corners that secrets usually live in,
the openness and free flow of ideas created an explosion of new ideas and scientific
advances. On average each person created more than they used, the old arguments
about sustainability became mute.
As the week progresses I work 12 hour days and love
every minute of it. The health and energy of the population is great enough
that 12 hour days can be highly productive. My regular 6 hour day job involves predictive
statistical analysis of orbital mechanics; we still haven’t solved the n-bodies
problem. After my day job I have volunteered for several societal review
groups, like I said, I take my responsibilities as a galactic citizen serious.
When the work week ends on Thursday.
Thank God it’s
Thursday.
I am looking forward to my weekly date night with my wife. I step
into the hygiene unit, what we used to call a shower, even after years it still
amazes me. The nano thread clothing and dry shower that automatically treats
minor skin problems. I hear a distant siren, and …
I wake up. My head is dizzy and confused; I try to
remember my phone number. Then I remember that I don’t have a phone. I don’t
have anything. My leg hurts and I’m homeless. Sleeping under a highway overpass
I am often awakened by sirens. I pretend to be asleep while I absorb the
surrounding environment for any immediate danger, finding none I sit up for a
better view. The group I share this illegal shelter with is on edge, many
slipping away to the wooded area, while others prep their weapons.
Nothing really unusual happening
this morning. I think to myself.
Something feels wrong; I have a brief thought about all this
being out of place, as if things shouldn’t be like this.
What is wrong with me.
I rub my leg and the memories flood back, Just the old war wound, after 46 years
the wound is mostly just an irritation, but my bitterness about the late 1960s
still burns. I wasn’t old enough to vote or drink but I was old enough to draft
and fight. Barry Goldwater had won the presidency by the smallest margin in history;
Goldwater had campaigned against the civil rights legislation and our gutless
handling of communism.
Goldwater was
President? Why do I think otherwise? Goldwater was President!
Once in office he wiped civil rights
clean and upped the ante in Vietnam. I was drafted to a war I didn’t
understand. I still don’t understand why we got into a war or why we needed to
nuke Hanoi. Getting wounded got me out of country before the Chinese retaliated
with millions of soldiers overpowering the American army, we didn’t stand a
chance. The whole world turned on American because we had used a nuke, Russia
joined China making it clear that one more nuke and they would answer in full
against the continental USA. Europe disbanded NATO. Civil strife became civil
war and Goldwater was impeached then replaced by Vice-president Neal Reagan.
President Reagan initially seemed a good president; he united white American and
ended the civil war with military force. I spent the entire period in a
military hospital which sheltered me from the worst of it. President Reagan’s
prestige was so great that he could do anything he wished. He disbanded
congress, down sized government ending all regulatory agencies, ended Social
Security and dismantled the entire social safety net. Today there is no middle class.
America is now a few rich and many poor. I am an average old guy; I am one of the
poor.
The memory is clear but ... in my gut it
all feels false.
More memories pour into my consciousness, my home being
foreclosed, my divorce, losing track of my children, the market crash that
wiped out all but the very richest. I shake my head and refocus my vision.
I got things to
do today.
I had joined up with a small group of vets last week and today we are
taking down a bank. When you have nothing to lose, why not a bank? With enough
money we can get into Mexico, the Mexican politicians have been passing laws to
deport illegal American aliens but with enough money they look the other way.
I hobbled to our meeting place, a gas station on
the interstate highway about 3 klicks north. I don’t need to hobble; it is an
affectation that makes people under estimate my physical abilities. That half a
heart beat advantage has saved my life several times. You have to take personal
responsibility for yourself and any edge an old guy can get helps. Most of the
guys had already arrived and we start reviewing the day’s plan and checking our
weapons. Josh would be late, Josh was always late, Josh was a loose cannon and
unbalanced.
Josh will be our cannon fodder,
too stupid to see it coming.
Josh finally shows up and we start the first step
in our plan, steal a fast car. A Mercedes pulls up to the gas pumps with an
attractive well dressed woman driving. I go over and offer to clean her
windshields for a few pennies, one of the other guys sneaks around the back.
The carjacking is fast, quiet and efficient, not the first carjacking for any
of us. Josh had grabbed the women and pushed her into the back seat,
the plan was no civilians Josh!
As usual
Josh had lost his place in the playbook. I was in the back seat with Josh
and the woman was between us. She didn’t seem scared and this bothered me This was too easy, she should be shaking and
crying. I was still alive because I paid attention to the mental red flags.
I asked her where she was going.
“Right here.” She replied.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
She reached in her shirt pocket and took out a
small coupon, then handed it to me.
“We appreciate your help with our experiment Mr.
Clark.” She smiled.
I look at the coupon, two free lattes at Starbucks,
I look back up and … I’m standing outside my shower, soaking wet. The lights are
blinking, casting a soft magnolia blue.
What
just happened? Have I gone crazy?
I dry, dress and head to Starbucks for
date night with the wife.