Olivia and the Wasteland
Sometime in the not too distant future…
I had been walking through the badlands for days when I saw it: A small village of tents and shanty huts. It was first sign of human civilization I had seen for some time. How I ended up in the desert I do not know, I only remember bits and pieces of what happened and none of it makes sense…
The village looks like it belongs in Africa or Afghanistan, not America. Everywhere there are adults and children in tattered clothing, some wearing barely anything at all. Some are clearly sick, coughing and weak. Some are missing limbs. There’s almost no clean water and food is scarce. The dwellings themselves look flimsy and hastily put together. I doubt they’d survive even a strong breeze let along a serious storm. The faces around me show sadness, desperation and hopelessness.
Beyond the village I see something that shocks me even more: A gleaming silver tower that must be at least 100 stories tall and of the most immaculate design I’ve ever seen, obviously constructed by a very wealthy individual or group with a taste for for the luxurious. The tower is the centerpiece of a larger complex. There are other buildings around it, smaller yet just as glamorous.
A high wall surrounds the entire city.
I notice a woman nearby washing some clothes, I kneel down and introduce myself to her. She tells me her name is Olivia and she lives here with her two small children.
“What happened here?” I asked, not sure I really want to know the answer.
Olivia sighed deeply and told me her story:
“We were told that less government is better, that private corporations would take over and it would be good, but it wasn’t. They cared nothing for us and robbed us blind, all the while still telling us it was in our best interests to let them continue what they were doing.
They told us their health care system would work, that we would all be looked after and cared for, but they lied. They were only interested in caring for those who didn’t need care, the minute you actually got sick they wanted nothing to do with you because they could exploit you no longer.
They told us that more environmental and anti-pollution rules would hurt us by costing us money and jobs, so we got rid of the rules and they burned down our forests and poisoned our rivers, all while telling us it was the right thing to do. In the end we lost more than money and jobs, we lost our homes.
They told us it was better to work for less money than to have no job at all and we believed them. They told us when things got better they would pay us more, but they never did.
They told us if we worked hard enough and sacrificed we could be just like them them, but they were wrong. They would use some of us for 10, 15, 20 years or more, then throw us away like an old newspaper with nothing to show for our efforts.
They told us the free market was the solution and not the problem. We listened and lost nearly everything we had. And they have absolutely no remorse or regret for what they did. Now we are stuck living like this while they stay confined in their golden city, having ruined our land and taken all our money.”
As my heart broke listening to this story I couldn’t help but ask one question:
“Why didn’t you try to stop them?”
Olivia looked look up at me with one of the saddest looks I’ve ever seen…
“because by the time we realized the truth…it was already too late.”