I love science fiction!
From my earliest years, I was mesmerized by it in all its forms. I sat entranced by The Twilight Zone and Star Trek. When The Outer Limits took control of my television's vertical and horizontal, I'd stay with it even though half the episode I would watch with my hands covering my eyes. I read everything, from H.G. Wells to Issac Asimov, and I started buying science fiction magazines when I was only 8. When school ended, I would rush home to watch the old science fiction films that the local channel would run in the afternoons, even the ones where giant octopi would overrun San Francisco. And when I saw Star Wars, I wept with joy, as the type of movie I had dreamed of all my life was finally on the big screen.
One of the more common themes of science fiction is that of the alien invasion. Starting with the Martians of H. G. Well's War of the Worlds, and running through more recent epics like Independence Day, the aliens would invade, and through the inventiveness of Mother Earth and/or humankind, they would manage to defeat the invaders.
In many of these, the world would unite to challenge the alien invaders. All the nationalistic and philosophical divisions would fade away. We were mankind, and there was more that bound us together than that which divided us. But it took a common enemy for us to see that.
And that's just about where we're at right now. There is an alien in charge, an alien who does not believe in all the principles that we as Americans have struggled to achieve. An alien to our civic culture, who does not believe in democracy and the constitution, who openly pines after the worst authoritarian dictators in the world.
But do not fear. Forces are starting to reunite. This can be seen in the recent funeral that honored the passing of an American hero, John McCain. It united figures from across our political spectrum, working together to show respect for the beloved Senator, and for our American civic institutions. Men who had stood in fierce opposition, like Presidents Obama and Goerge W Bush, now stood together, sharing the eulogy, and in the case of W and Michelle Obama, even sharing candy.
Who was not there was the man who has been an alien to America's civic culture, a man who would take us down a dark and divisive path, the alien in the White House, President Donald J. Trump.
But do not despair. We are at the point in the tale where more and more are standing up to him. The opposition to him is increasing among even Republicans (well, at least those not up for re-election). Books, including the upcoming book by Watergate Reporter Bob Woodward, that paint a chaotic and dangerous picture of a White House out of control, ruled of by an amoral dictator, who operates without any knowledge or caring, without any constitutional underpinnings. We even have the chaos confirmed by insiders in the White House, in a dramatic anonymous letter to the New York Times.
So take heart, my fellow Earthlings! This invasion, aided and abetted by foreign powers, will not stand. It cannot survive if we stand together!
Reality is not like science fiction stories. The good guys don't always win. But I have faith, faith in our civic institutions and our basic human decency, that in the end, we will emerge a better and stronger nation and planet.
As Mongo sez: I like Candy!
