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The Day I Lost Faith In America
2008-02-11 - 12:49 a.m.
before/after
strangely
non-functional guestbook
no faith in america
The Day I lost Faith In
America
They sat behind me at the IHOP
talking very seriously,
A man and a woman
on their first date
arranged by internet
or maybe by a friend,
and they discussed earnestly
the state of affairs of their lives.
She had been beaten,
repeatedly,
as if she had been a man,
by her boyfriend.
"That's bad....behavior,"
her lunch companion commented,
and she defended her boyfriend,
because he was the greatest guy,
he just 'became a different person,
when he drank',
Besides, it led her to Jesus,
so it must be all right.
"And what if you met a nice guy,
a real gentleman,
with dreams." he said, "What
would you do then?"
"How many dreams?" she asked.
"2 to 3." he replied. A very exact number,
as I recall.
And she demurred. She wasn't leaving her boyfriend,
and Jesus wouldn't want her to leave him, anyway.
Then the man talked about George Bush,
and how horrible it was that he was President,
because he had gone into Iraq after
Pat Robertson had a dream,
and told him not to.
I remember thinking that was odd,
to base your opinion of a man,
and how you would vote,
based on a night time dream another man had.
The woman defended Bush,
saying, "I don't know what I would do,
if I were President, " she hemmed and hawed,
"All that pressure, I cant imagine...",
As if being under pressure excuses all the lying,
the spying, and invasion of another country.
And I realized each one of their votes,
counted as much as mine,
more even, provided the one
socially awkward man,
could convince his submissve
lunch date companion
to vote his way.
Then i realized
that right then,
right there
I'd lost faith in America,
knowing there was no hope for us all.
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