US Under the Bus
All of us
I have read and witnessed more than enough to see how fanatics have been manipulated throughout history. As a child I was very interested in magic. I wanted to know how everything worked. I went to the branch of the Monmouth County Library, just north of the Fort Monmouth Main Gate, in Shrewsbury. I read every book they had on the subject. I was not a skeptic, not by a long shot.
My siblings now tell me that I have ancestors that have lived in New Jersey for twelve generations. They took me to look at gravestones in my hometown of Rumson. As children, we were told nothing. Our parents were both children of WWI veterans. We did not even know that, nor was my father’s USMC service hardly ever mentioned. I do remember one night when he told us, in what I now understand to be an alcohol infused confession, if not for the bomb, we would not have been born.
My people came from all over Europe. They married and had children who also married immigrants. Why they left Europe was never explained to us. We were raised Episcopalian for one reason, and that was because my mother’s father was a freemason. One more thing I did not know about him.
Deception is far from a recent addition to the curriculum. A good bluff can beat a strong hand. Promised land? This land is your land: this land is our land. Tell that to the descendants of those who moved along to escape genocide. “White man speak with forked tongue.” Cultural appropriation? Thank you, sire. I’ll have another.
Ladies and gentlemen, pilgrims of all ages, I have no bridge to sell you. There is nothing, not even an ace, up my sleeve. Who, in this audience has never been deceived?
Certainly not me. I tried all of it on. From boots to spy light, strapped tight to my forehead in a Cape Cod estuary after dusk during a low tide. Whale’s breath? I have been down wind of that. I am not a skeptic.
We are under the bus. Some of us do not know this yet. A racket is part of the act. Players get played, yes, but in this game, the whole planet loses. No doubt about it. There are no winners. Just delusional fools, fanatics, and the rest of us, some still functioning, some in shock, but all of us are under the bus.
“How do I know this?” you might ask. Because I did the reading, and watched this show, not from the beginning, but from behind the gold curtains. Quite a production this one.
No, I am not running. I am also not white knuckling the chute-less trip to the asphalt. I am sitting here calmly, following the action, watching the wheels on the bus go round and round. I am right here with you, for the duration.
And yes, we did get fooled, again.
