“REWRITING HISTORY”
by OPOVV, ©2017
(Aug. 16, 2017) — ACT I
The curtain rises to the music of ‘Paganini-Liszt La Campanella’ 5:00, revealing a scene of a great battle just ended. The ground is littered with the wounded and dead, dressed in white. As the music progresses the wounded and dead get up, by ones and twos, and walk off stage left until the battlefield is sanitized with no trace of anything untoward having happened. As the music ends two elderly gentlemen enter stage right.
“According to local lore, this was once the sight of a great conflict where there were many casualties.”
“No kidding? And how do you know that?”
“Because the farmers who’ve plowed these fields for generations continually unearth spent bullets and other artifacts attesting to many dead: I’m talking human remains; shattered leg bones, for instance.”
“But it looks so peaceful. Any idea what the gripe was about?”
“Well, of course there’s rumors galore, but the most entertaining one is they fought over how to conjugate the word ‘be.’”
“Unbelievable.”
“Not in the least. Think about it: you have your ‘I be’ followed by ‘He be’ and ‘be had been’ and so on.”
“That seems a little lame to go around killing each other; at least it does to me.”
“Maybe to us, but then again, that may not be the reason. It could’ve had something to do with human rights, states’ rights and federal rights. It could’ve had something to do with women’s rights, for all I know.”
“So many died for a cause and we know not why. Didn’t someone say that if the past isn’t remembered it’s bound to be repeated*?”
“What do you say we get ourselves a cup of coffee?”
As the men walk off-stage, the left curtain lowers.
ACT II
The curtain rises to the music of ‘Chopin Berceuse Op 57 D Flat Major’ 3:46, revealing the stage set just as in ACT I, with many dead bodies strewn about dressed in white and, just as in the first act, they get up by one and twos and walk off stage left. As the music ends the same two gentlemen accompanied by their wives enter stage right.
“Is this another one of your great fields of battle, Henry?”
“Yes, my dear, it is. The town near here once had a statue of one of the Generals who fought the campaign.”
“Did he win or was he vanquished?”
“I’m not sure if that’s germane to the whole point; I mean to say that he must have had a counterpoint, a competing General, so to speak.”
“Yes, I believe Henry is right. We know that many young men were involved in the conflict**, which we now refer to as America’s Civil War. We’ve discovered many military uniform buttons that were issued to the Michigan Volunteers and none other.”
“Which means that many a Northern boy died right where we’re standing. Seems a shame that they, too, aren’t recognized and honored in some way. I mean, if we were to bow our heads and say a prayer for the young men who died to save the Union would we be at the right place? Be nice if we could pay tribute, somehow.”
“We can’t and they won’t let us. First they lowered the flag; then they removed the statues; then they destroyed the statues; and then they erased all the battlefield markers; and then they went after the movies and the textbooks and who knows what will be next. They say World War II will be next, at least that’s what I’m hearing.”
“Why would that be?”
“Because Roosevelt ordered ‘Unconditional Surrender’ which ended any chance of peace talks, that’s why.”
“But Hitler and the Japs were too crazy to try and talk to, just like the Muslims and this Kim Jong-un are today.”
“You’re missing the point. It’s not only about rewriting history; it’s about leading us to a forgone conclusion: accept the inevitable because we’re a nation of CAN’T DO THAT, as in we must accept Islam as a religion and that we can’t deport any Muslims.”
“Will Trump ever get on the bandwagon and actually save the USA or is it all hot air? Abraham Lincoln conducted Total War on the Southern States, leaving absolutely no wiggle-room for compromise, discussion or diplomacy; Roosevelt did the same with the Germans and the Japanese with his Unconditional Surrender; and here we are in a world war to the death with Islam and not one leader from anywhere has said anything about a total victory. Oh, maybe Trump will defeat ISIS, but what about Hezbollah; C.A.I.R.; the PLO; al-Qaeda; Boko Haram; Hamas; the Muslim Brotherhood and the thousand-and-one other factions of people who believe that killing unbelievers is their sacred duty to perform in the time they have among the living? What do they say: a moderate Muslim is reloading? Or something along those lines.”
“So destroying the memory of the Civil War is about mind control, is that what this is all about?”
“That’s it.”
“But why? What do they hope to gain?”
“Well, for starters, it’s that we can’t do anything about it and they want us to know it, in spades. We’re too weak and it’s their way of forcing the issue.”
“It’s really a shame; the dead used to talk to us and now look: nothing. We can’t even honor those who died for us. Such a waste. Let me ask you this: is there a correlation between the Taliban destroying the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, ISIS destroying Palmyra and the mayor of Baltimore threatening to destroy their Civil War statues? And how long before the statues honoring the North are removed? What about the paintings of the Generals and the battle scenes in the art museums? It’s madness, is what it is.”
“A colossal waste. And it’s all going to be repeated because the memory banks are being wiped clean. You see, in this instance there really are two types of people: the people who understand that removing these Confederate statues is a very dangerous harbinger of the future, and those who bask in the limelight of this ephemeral illusion of victory and aren’t cognizant enough to know that they’re being played as pawns.”
“All I’ve got to say is that good endings don’t conclude from bad starts, and destroying these statues is one bad start.”
“Let’s leave this invisible monument of political correctness to The Deniers; then they can bring the curtain down.”
Actors exit stage left as curtain is lowered.
FINI
[*repeat the past: It’s quite amusing to me that George Santayana is so widely known for just one short aphorism, one sentence at the 2/3 mark of his book, whereas the rest of the book, and others that he wrote, deal with the intricacies of the different aspects which bring about chaos and the destruction of a group of people (country resulting in civil war). The most important, the number one reason why countries disintegrate (according to Santayana) is if there is more than one language spoken. This is widely evident in the refugees from Southeast Asia where they not only learn English but excel at spelling bees.
These people are industrious to a fault and do not eschew Welfare or any other government handouts, drugs and sloth as a way of life. Cubans are also in the hard-work-pays-off category. I’m sure there are others. The point is if a group does not assimilate, for whatever reason, there will be trouble down the road at some point, and THAT is what is to be remembered by history repeats itself. This conclusion of the facts presented is neither racist or bigoted: it’s a fact; a foregone conclusion. Allowing Muslims into our country is a colossal error in judgement that can only end in one way. This we know and this is what our politicians are ignoring. There are no Muslim “refugees,” but there is a worldwide expansion of Islam going on: just look at Sweden if you don’t believe me.]
[**number of dead in the Civil War: easily over a million.]
“Are You Lonesome Tonight” 3:09