What will America look like in 2020?
Imagine; the year is 2020, in the month of November. The location is Anytown, USA. The players in this scene include your typical family. Mother, Father, Son and Daughter.
The sun rises on a cold winter day. This future family begins their day with the search for fuel to heat their home. In the preceding months they were faced with difficult choices. The parents chose to purchase rice, beans and water, as their budget could no longer sustain the high cost of Russian natural gas being sold across America. Food became the priority.
This was a special week it was Thanksgiving. The men planned to walk back into the Wilderness Zone in an attempt to find a bird that could serve as the traditional turkey. This might prove to be difficult. All animal and bird species were greatly reduced after intense forest fires spread across the USA during the preceding ten years destroying habitats. The women were gathering their resources to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. It would not include the luxuries like Pumpkin Pie and Cranberries. Farmers had long since stopped producing extravagant crops with the limited resources they had available.
Conspirators, foreign governments and enemies of America manipulated federal laws, including the endangered species act. They had diligently worked to lock up the resource base, forcing America to import all coal, oil, natural gas, lumber, water, minerals and agricultural commodities. As all natural resource based industries shut down, unemployment skyrocketed and the economy plummeted.
Radical environmental groups were successful in their campaign to end ranching on public lands. The consequence of this action placed the cost of beef out of the average Americans reach. In 2020 only the elite Ruling Class could afford a steak. Vegetables were expensive when they were available.
Americans faced dark days. The electric companies had closed one by one as the cost of compliance with regulations overtook the income necessary to operate. Coal and water had become inaccessible under environmental gridlock and prohibited the production of electricity.
Automobile ownership was not for the average American. Gas imported from the Mid-east was far too costly for these struggling citizens of this new America.
Families watched their loved ones health decline and frustrations mounted. Overzealous attorneys litigated the majority of doctors to bankruptcy. Inadequate income to buy the basic necessities was a common problem for Anytown residents; the luxury of a doctor’s visit was only practical for the very rich. Malnourished children and adults were seen panhandling on corners.
A quiet rebellion was beginning. Underground newspapers were being secretly shared among the disadvantaged. The people of Anytown and communities across the country chose to take up arms in the second civil war to darken America’s history. The citizens chose to pool their scant resources and fight back against the corruption and powers that destroyed their previous lifestyle.
They could no longer survive without their publicly owned resource base. Private Property rights had been severely limited and restrictive regulations gradually destroyed the Free Market of the Capitalistic Society. Starvation was staring at American Citizens. Freedom had become more of a distant memory than part of the life they were living. America had gradually changed from the free nation once respected around the World. The citizens of the world had witnessed the loss of freedom, one erosion at a time.
A situation reminiscent of many troubled domestic relationships had risen in America. Victims of domestic abuse are not usually punched in the nose during the first month of their troubled relationship. Americans were as naïve as the newlyweds and were virtually unaware of the crisis unfolding before their eyes. Slowly but surely, their free market and liberty had been stripped away. They had been desensitized through propaganda not realizing what was happening until it was almost too late. In order to continue to exist they chose to fight for their basic human liberties.
The Question is, do we choose to fight back now, or in 2020?
Kathy Gibson Boatman
