In a galaxy far, far away…

The instructor signaled for attention and began to speak, “We shall continue our discussion of Earth history.

“In particular, the Twentieth Century in America. We will use this class period to cover questions about the reading.”

A group of students glanced at each other. One member of the group spoke up. “A few a us were going over the reading last evening, and we concluded that you had erroneously given us artistic, rather than historical, literature.

“Perhaps this was a tragic comedy from the period, for this certainly cannot be intended to be taken seriously. There is no logic apparent in any of these activities, and this material contains simply too many unanswerable questions.”

The instructor regarded the pupil for a moment before responding, “Why don’t you explain to the class the reasoning behind your claim?”

The student straightened and boldly began.

“Easily done. To begin, how could a civilization exist as an economic system with no balance in that structure?

“And, why would the governed of such a financially desperate nation allow hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent on electing a government?

“Why would the governed allow the huge corporations and the wealthy to buy a government?

“Also, we cannot honestly be expected to believe that these people, who had come so close to understanding the importance of education, would elect into their government those who would reduce spending on education.

“In addition, the women of this century had fought great battles toward betterment of their situation. Did they believe that the ending of coat-hanger abortions was permanent?

“Why wouldn’t they protect their daughters and granddaughters? Their own mothers and grandmothers worked incredibly hard to get the vote; how is it that so many of their progeny would not take advantage of it?

“Why would women allow all they had achieved to be placed at risk? Why didn’t more of them vote?

“Surely they must have known that they would not only have made safe the gains they had made but that any future progress was dependent on this maintenance?

Similar to the women’s movements, there were great strides in civil rights for all minorities. Why would these minorities place this position in jeopardy? Their future was dependent on involvement.

“They surely could not have, or would not have, forgotten those who were beaten, terrorized, or killed to get them where they were.

“Another area of inconsistency is this: We know that this species as a whole was entirely dependent on the earth’s natural environment.

“We have evidence of America’s awareness of this in the establishment of organizations focused on protection and maintenance of the resources needed for healthy continuation of the species.

“No intelligent species with this awareness would have allowed for these groups to be undermined.

“Overall, we found the most perplexing absurdity to be the vast numbers of the population who did not exercise their power within this government.

“Why did they not vote? Since they did not vote it is impossible to know their position on any issues of the time.

“We have studied these people enough to know that they were capable of great logic, determination and strength.

“It is, therefore, incomprehensible that they would abandon self-preservation to this extent.

“They endured bitter struggles to gain the power to choose and influence their system of government and maintain growth and advancement for its people.

“It is simply not logical that the people would not have taken advantage of the last presidential election of this century. Especially since it was free.

“No, we most emphatically agree that whatever led to the ultimate demise of these people must have occurred from something beyond their control.

“We would like to look at the true historical literature now, rather than what must have been artistic parody, meant for entertainment only…”

Back at home in the here and now…

Does this seem too far-fetched? Are you sure? I’m not. At the very least, I am not sure I want to take that risk.

You may think I’m full of it on this one — great, go vote and prove me wrong. If you are concerned that there may be something to all this — that’s even better, because you have to vote now, or you’ll have nightmares. Agree or not — it doesn’t matter.

Just as long as you vote.

Thought for the day: Statesmen rise and fall on the smallest of actions. —Mark Helprin in The Wall Street Journal.

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Audrae Jones is a senior in English from Clear Lake.