American Suicide (580 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.18 on 19 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (View user info) at 2007-10-22 11:14:07 EDT
"Did you ever do something great in your life?"
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The very sound of footsteps was like a great drum beating, louder and more frightening than anything I had ever heard before. I don't know where the footsteps began, where the march started, information doesn't spread so reliably these days. The news, or what passes for news these days, just referred to them as "ill-advised citizens" who had "failed to do their civic duty".
I'm not sure if any of that is true, all I know is that when they came to my town, their footsteps were loud, their pulse was mighty, and I joined them. I added my pulse, I added my rhythm to the group.
When they came to my town, they numbered in the low millions, but as we marched and marched as a silent unit, the numbers grew. I don't know how many we truly numbered as we began seeing signs for Washington D.C., but the figure cited most is around twenty million.
Twenty million people, converging on one city.
I know we scared a lot of people, it wasn't about fear. It wasn't about destruction. It was about presence, we were here. This is our country, our home, and we were marching for it.
Of course they couldn't understand that, they only knew destruction, which is why they reacted like they did. We were more dangerous in our silent march than if we charged in with tanks and guns.
Helicopters flew over head telling us to disperse, dropping tear gas on us, telling us that we were violating curfew, trying to single out leaders in the group and telling them their family members were being sent to prison. But there weren't any individuals, there weren't any leaders. We were all the same.
I was marching next to an older man, maybe in his eighties, wearing his old uniform, looked like an old 'Nam vet. His face was resolute and solid, and I took strength in it. He knew how it was, how it was supposed to be in this country. And because he kept going, I kept going.
It happened quickly, really quickly, I mean from a historical perspective. Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety will deserve neither, and lose both. I can't remember who said that, but I saw it written on a wall one time. It was erased the next day, but it was burned into my brain as if the red paint had been slashed across my own eyes. They wanted security, or at least we kept being told that we wanted security. It was always our neighbors who were afraid, and being good neighbors, we gave everything away. But I don't remember ever feeling truly scared until the end.
The wars were constant those days, for the last twelve years things had gotten out of hand. Maybe it was for the best, but a "rogue" battle group attacked Italy, I think it was the government trying to put them in their place. But Europe went into an uproar, and the European Union declared war as a unified super power.
The beginning was rough for the Europeans, and I cried. I cried at each lost battle, us or them, because well.... I felt like we were always losing.
Washington was fortified, bristled with a defensive perimeter that engulfed the old Beltway. It was lined with weapons of so many different varieties I couldn't name all their purposes, but they were more important to the government than education or roads, because all the money went to building more of them.
At a certain point, when military technology takes a leap forward, revolution is next to impossible. We knew that.
That's why we went unarmed.
I guess someone was afraid, whoever was in command of the Beltway Defense Grid, but they're warnings got more and more dire as we marched closer.
The millions of footsteps created an ear splitting boom as they crashed down, and then the warnings stopped.
And when we just began to see the battlements, they opened fire.
And no one stopped.
It was truly awe-inspiring; the military might of a super power opened up on an unarmed, seemingly endless collection of people.
The Vietnam vet next to me, he got struck in the pelvis by something big, some big round, it blew his left leg off. He fell to the ground, but started to drag himself along the floor. He wanted to finish the march, we all wanted to finish the march. Even if they drowned in our blood, we were going to stop them, somehow.
I saw mothers, fathers, elders, children, being destroyed in the most horrible ways. Exploding, shredding, disintegrating, but they didn't stop. They would never stop until they got to Washington. When their legs were destroyed, they would drag their torso, when their loved ones fell, they picked them up and carried the corpse till they were slaughtered too.
I should tell this now, the sounds were horrifying, and I always hear them when I sleep. I hear them when I am awake now too, but always when I'm asleep. The sounds of thousands of people being slaughtered all around me. Everywhere. I don't blame the individuals firing on us, but they hold the responsibility. Individuals are the ones who let the group commit atrocities.
I don't know when I fell, but I did. I fell over on a body, and it was then I realized that I had been walking blindly on top of corpses for a while, the ground was so littered with them. They.... Had only been firing on us for a few minutes, but their weapons were mighty, and we weren't hiding. We weren't going to hide from our duty.
When I fell, I laid there, and it was then that I became an individual again. I was afraid and crying and screaming and I stayed there. I looked around and saw the true meaning of hell. Fire poured down on the seething countryside that was turning red with blood.
And I was afraid, and I laid there crying. I laid there for a long time until slowly, the firing stopped. The echoing footsteps were gone. Everyone was gone. Except for me.
But it had been enough.
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As the years passed, and I could view everything that happened with hindsight, it was the turning point. Historians can claim it was the economic backlash from 20 million of a country's population disappearing in a day. That may be, but I know it was because we showed them what freedom meant to us.
Freedom is life, and it's worth dying for.
And when I think back to me escaping the butcher fields, I cringe with untold shame. I should have stayed. I should have died there. I should have died with them, because it was worth it. It all was, and when the EU came in and liberated us, I realized that. I lived to see my country destroyed.
But that's okay, it had been destroyed long ago, its name just hadn't been scratched away yet.
So when my grandchild asked me, "Did you ever do something great in your life?" I paused for a long time.
The suicide of America as the history books called it now, I was a part of that, but I wasn't. Because I lived.
So when he asked me....
I said no.
User Reviews
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2007-10-23 16:38:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"more better ye shall not find"
Submitted by supadupapupa (user info) at 2007-10-22 22:29:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
lovely. thanks!
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-10-22 20:28:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
And another for a superb job.
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-10-22 20:28:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WOW. I think I love you. If that makes me gay I can deal with that, but I'm calling tops bitch.
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2007-10-22 20:02:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was fantastic.
Should be rated higher.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2007-10-22 16:43:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2007-10-22 13:40:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
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This made me literally laugh with glee.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2007-10-22 15:17:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-10-22 14:57:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2007-10-22 13:40:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-10-22 12:52:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2007-10-22 12:31:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by MudWhistle (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:24:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
OOOHHH A HIGH VOLTAGE SIGHTING!!!
i'm not sure what that means but people seem to do it on your posts and I desperately want to fit in.
baa baa motherfucker.
Submitted by Quint (user info) at 2007-10-22 12:16:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There will never be a need for the US government to use force to keep their citizens down. Taco Bell and reality TV are doing a good enough job.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:50:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Aces, kid.
Looking foward to tonight.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:43:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
OOOHHH A HIGH VOLTAGE SIGHTING!!!
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:41:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Meh.
Submitted by Wompom (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:30:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I don't like that picture.
Submitted by cuberat (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:25:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DirtyHarry (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:25:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Viva La Revolucion!
One thing: The old dude should have dragged himself along the ground or the street or something, not the floor, that threw me off. Other than that great read.
Submitted by MudWhistle (user info) at 2007-10-22 11:24:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
OOOHHH A HIGH VOLTAGE SIGHTING!!!
i'm not sure what that means but people seem to do it on your posts and I desperately want to fit in.