How did we get in this mess?

If you are going to believe in change, be careful which messiah you allow to choose you. 

FULL CIRCLE

As we get closer to the Holiday Season, the anti-God people are once again going activist against the Christians, the Jews, and, I suppose, the Muslims, the Hindus and all the other great faiths on the planet.  Maybe it's me, but it feels like the atheists have become more bilious over the past few years, demanding equal space for anti-nativity scenes and bible-scoffing scrolls and suing that the well-lit trees be removed from public view.  Interesting, that people who don't believe in any sort of a god-thing can be so strident about getting space to inform everybody else how foolish it is to hope for some sort of cosmic destiny, and all because they themselves are sure there's nothing out there.  They haven't any proof, but it's not a crime to be stubborn about these important matters.  They have a right to their opinion, and yes, they have it thought out in a way that makes perfect sense to them.  In short, they have a religion of their own.

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT

Early on, I wrote a science fiction novel, titled Mission 998, in which, in the not-too-distant future, overpopulation on Earth drove mankind to build giant craft to cross the vast emptiness of outer space to reach other star systems.  When such a craft approached a planetary system that its sensors calculated could support human life, frozen embryos were inseminated and babies were artificially nurtured, born and raised until they could be dispatched to the lucky new planet.  Well, in my story, the new-born babies, coming down the line were analyzed and either approved or dispatched due to weaknesses, genetic imperfections and the like.  And, as there was an ingrained bias against Jewish people, the computer driven ship attempts to do away with the hero of the mission, who has a fraction of Jewish DNA in his genetics.   

Well, my agent howled at me that this would never do for the future of mankind, for, to his way of thinking, I had created a “Nazi state”.  I had created a state where necessity forced robotic decision-making, and in this case there was a well-documented anti-Hebrew bias, but I didn’t see it as the main thrust of the piece.  A ship launched by the Chinese would probably have a higher percentage of Chinese DNA on board, and since the Chinese are not consumed with brotherly love for the Japanese, one can see how a son of the Land of the Rising Sun might have the odds stacked against him.  I couldn’t believe the odd turn the discussion of this project had taken, and ultimately the agent and I parted ways. 

Today, being much older and a little wiser, I think I would have tried to explain the do-or-die necessity of the process of selection a little better.  How could my novel be anti-Jewish when my hero wins out over all odds?  Explain it, you see.  Explain without being boring or pedantic.  It’s not easy with your agent running like an ant from boiling water. 

Which brings me to a recent novel I wrote, The Rogue Pirates Bible Heretical, this one published by Double Dragon.  I sold it as science fiction - the tales from the bible once again handed down from generation to generation as oral history, this time by descendants of survivors of a space ship crashed on a distant planet ‘far out of the ordinary shipping lanes.’  You see, I took great care to disguise the underlying idea of the novel, that oral histories shift over time.  Still, it wasn’t enough.  I get emails from outraged readers who dislike the work for a variety of reasons.  But they never touch on what is really bothering them, the notion that I am messing with the word of God.  Interesting, when emotion and belief systems get involved, a writer can be mistaken as anti-Bible as easily as pro-Nazi.  So, my advice to fellow authors: if you want to please all of the people all of the time, stay away from subjects that trigger instant emotive response.  As to characters, use power-gays, strong women, sensitive male heroes and good dogs. Perhaps the giant spaceship in Mission 993 could have a side-pod where they raise all the imperfect children and allow them to live out their lives, and maybe my hero should be British and of royal ancestry, accomplished at knitting, cooking and gardening as well as aikedo.  And, considering the widely held rock-bound belief in the testaments old and new, I probably shouldn't have written my Rogue's Bible in the first place.  I doubt explaining it a little better would make any difference. 

 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Sometimes they are not actual railroads.  It could be a border guard on the rim of Europe, catching a few coins and looking the other way while a truck chugs in from Bulgaria or some other odd place with a load of people hungry for a better life.  Here in California and nearby Arizona, the long, desert Southern border is a sieve and there are guides and paths and even water bottle sites to prevent unpleasantness along the way.  So naturally we get a big percentage of Mexicans in the mix of illegal aliens that includes everybody from every continent in the world.  Still, let’s take a closer look at one of the little known underground railroads. 

I had my bi-annual hair cut at the local shop a few weeks ago.  The owner doesn’t like me much, because he doesn’t approve of such long durations between clippings.  So he gives me to one of his apprentice clippers.  This time I got a lady from Nicaragua.  They know I am a writer, and one of the other cutters started pestering me to write up the story of his ‘best friend’, who was serving a life sentence for participation in a murder he didn’t commit. 

“That is a nothing story,” my lady from Nicaragua said.  “You should tell my story.”

“Which is?” I politely asked.  You don’t turn surly when the sharp blade is inches from your throat.

“I was raped over and over by Mexican soldiers.”  The clippers zoomed and dove in a menacing pattern over my head.

“Oh,” I said, hoping we’d come to the high point in her agitation. 

“Then I get here, I cross the border and am robbed of my last money by guides and dumped on the street in San Diego.  I get picked up by an old lady.  I work like a slave for six months, no pay, no time off, doing everything, and then when I show I am with baby, I am dumped on the street in front of a hospital.  I end up with no baby, naked, selling my body for dinero.”

Lurid as that sounds, I was the ultimate captive audience.  “How did you get to the States in the first place?”  I was thinking about the tough Mexican border to their south.  If you were caught trying to get into our Southern neighbor, you were beaten, jailed and if you were lucky, booted back to your own country.  And it is thousands of miles from there to San Diego. 

“I pay the Mexican soldier.  They rape me, but they take my money for transport.”

I promised I would look into it, but once I was free I scooted for the door.  It was only later that I paused to think the waitress at the nearby Pollo Amigo  was from Panama.  And my own gardener was from San Salvador.  Since he was coming to clip the hedges the next day, I asked him if there was a way to get across Mexico. 

“Sure,” he said.  “Mexican underground railroad.  More expensive than it used to be, but they still do it.”

So there you have it.  Our neighboring country to the south shows outrage that we not treat our Hispanic illegals with more courtesy, dignity and free health care and education, and they have a hidden railway to transport unwelcome immigrants across Mexico and into our country.  So the next time you are considering nations from the Mideast, Africa or Asia as your friends, look a little closer to see what that really involves. 

This Is The Way It's Supposed To Work

Forget the adolescent, howling rage from the White House for a moment.  Forget the news reports of eminent doom.  This is the way democracy works.  We, the voters-collective, elected a socialist President, and we have to live with that.  The President is pushing for a more liberal Supreme Court, and we have to live with that.  We elected a liberal senate, and we have to live with that, as well. We also elected a House of Representatives to follow the will of the people, and they do not like high taxes, big government, Obamacare, or spending money we do not have.  Sure, Obama and Harry Reid are raging like caged lions; nobody likes to have their personal aspirations and notions of what is right for the country placed in check by the will of the people.  Accusations are flung, and things seem out of control.  Things actually are somewhat out of control, and will be for a time, until common sense prevails.  If you and I don't like it, next time around we can vote for Representatives, Senators and a President more aligned with our vision of these United States of America.