America…

“You’re American, right?” he asked.

She looked up at him, “What gave it away?”

“Seriously?” he said.

“Yes, seriously.”

“The way you’re dressed, the way you look and sit.  You’re reading a book in English and your I’ll punch you in the face if you look at me, demeanor…”

“I do not look like that,” she said, closing her book.

“Let me put it this way, you look like everything belongs to you.”

“Stereotype much?” she asked.

“True,” he said, smiling.  “Sorry.”

“People who don’t know Americans, just think they do.  They watch a lot of movies but we aren’t like that.”

“Can I sit down?” he asked, looking at the park bench she was sitting on.

“Probably,” she said, “but I don’t know for sure.  You look bendable to me.”

“Is that humor?”

“Depends.”

He sat down.  “Does everyone in your country have a gun?”

“No.  Some people have a lot of them, others don’t have any.”

“Why is your country so violent?”

“Because we can be.  It’s encouraged.  It’s a way to keep people in line, cut down on the population, and it makes people who are intentionally kept down feel powerful, which is understandable.  Plus the NRA is part of the government. ”

“You have the right to carry guns, right?”

“Not everyone, but yes.  We need guns because we kill people, children in schools, animals, dreams, freedom, human rights, each other, ourselves, and everything else.  But it’s not just Americans.  Human beings are tiny death machines moving across the planet destroying everything in their path.  Think of the wars going on right now.  In America, the people at the top worship money and power more than happiness and life, so they take what they want and the rest of us get what they allow us to have.  They allow people to have guns and kill each other.”

“Why don’t the masses rise up and do something about what’s going on?”

“A lot of us ask ourselves that question all the time.  The reality is that the people who are supposed to protect us, the police and the military, will be turned against us.  And for some reason, the police and the military  forget that they are us and instead of protecting us, they do their masters bidding.  I don’t get that, but it’s probably part of their training, to make them forget that the people they beat and kill are their friends, people they might have gone to school with and innocent bystanders.  They will protect us sometimes and not other times, so no one can trust anyone, which works well for the bad guys who are actually controlling everything behind the curtain.  Trust and truth are threatening to the status quo.  Women and African Americans are threatening to the men in charge. People working together are also a threat to the status quo.  So they do everything in their power to keep us at each other’s throats, just so we don’t come for them.  They are afraid because they know all the hateful things they do to all of us and they are terrified that we will do to them…what they have done to us.”

“It’s like that everywhere but your government is less public about what they’re doing, at least most of the time.  You all seem to still believe in the American Dream.”

“We’re cut off from other countries and we’re really big.  We’re so big that we don’t even know, or like, each other.  Some people are still fighting the Civil War.  We have been brainwashed from birth to fight each other instead of the system that’s destroying us.  It’s hard to overcome that kind of conditioning.”

“Looks like they are going after women in a big way.  Even we were horrified when they overturned Roe.”

“Yes, they are, and that’s the problem.  We have a corrupt supreme court and no matter how many laws we have to protect us, they can be overturned by hateful idiots, and  people in general pay the price.”

“I thought your country was better than that.”

She laughed.  “We thought so too.  Looks like we were all wrong.”

“What’s the answer?”

“Extinction.”

“Seriously?”

“People don’t like each other and that’s a fact that the hand holding people just can’t seem to understand.  They want us to talk and come together when that’s not even a possibility.  There is no coming together on issues as big as the ones we’re facing.   There never will be, that’s why some people think another civil war is a real possibility.  A civil war would be stupid beyond belief since predators around the world would love that.  It would leave us vulnerable, at a time when we need to be strong.  I mean, we always need to be the biggest and baddest dog on the block.  I agree with that.”

“Biggest dog?”

“Never mind,” she said, smiling.  “Look, once people found out it’s okay to not like anyone and that the beings on their phone were a lot more fun, we lost a sense of who we really are.  Pretend is more fun and feels better than reality.  A lot of people aren’t paying attention.  No one knows what to do anyway.  We all know that truth is dead and that we are lied to, and have been lied to pretty much forever.  Without truth or trust, you don’t have anything to build on.  The only thing that would temporarily bring us together would be a war.  Then we would be brothers and sisters until it was over, when we would go back to hating each other again.  That’s happened time and time again.  Crisis will join us for the moment, but when the crisis passes…people tend to revert to old patterns.”

“You’re very depressing.”

“Thanks,” she said, pulling packets of dark chocolate covered blueberries out of her pocket. “I like that they come in these little bags.  Have one.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“You know, I love Paris.  But what I think Paris is, isn’t what a person who was born and raised here, thinks it is.  I see Paris through fantasy eyes.  That’s the way people see America.  The things some of you say to me, things you believe America is like, clearly show that you know absolutely nothing about us.  The things America is supposed to stand for can only exist if people have a voice, and we don’t.  Government works for itself.  The rich pretty much hate everyone and big pharma and corporations have all the power.  All over the world people are homeless, addicted to pretty much everything, in an effort to escape from their own lives.  Apparently for some, it’s better to be unconscious in a doorway than to be awake and face what the world has become.  People are in trouble.  People are suffering and dying and all the governments do is talk and hold meetings.”

“So you don’t love your country?”

“Of course I love my country.  How could I not?  I AM my country.  And while I hate what it does sometimes, I love what my country could have been.  It was hard to let that dream of America go.  I fought for Her all my life.  I could see potential everywhere, but I came to see that the powers that be, men, would die before they would let this country live up to its potential.  They would never share their power for the good of all.  They never will.  They don’t have to live by the laws they force us to live by.  They are above that.  They can attack the capital and walk away, but a regular person can be killed or jailed, for a tiny misstep.  We don’t have a chance, not as long as things are the way they are.  If a government can own a woman’s body, there is no freedom.  None.  All we have are our bodies and if the right to control ourselves  is taken away from us, what is left?  Look,” she said, standing up.  “I have to go.  Try not to think you know any of us, or the way we are.  A lot of people just live their lives and then die.  People aren’t killing each other in the streets and it’s okay to visit without fear, as long as you know where you’re going.  America is beautiful.  She’s big and has everything to offer.  The only bad part is…well, you’ll have to decide that for yourself.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“How could you?  Even we don’t understand.  Anyway, I’m going to get a brownie and two eclairs, so have a nice day.”

“Thanks, and thanks for the blueberries.  I think my tongue is purple.”

“It is.”

He grinned at her.  “Enjoy your stay.”