Monthly Archives: May 2010

please read The Slippery Slope (part 1) before proceeding

Her name was Isabella, but everyone that knew her just called her Izzie. She had a girlfriend up until late last year, it didn’t end well. Izzie had other things to worry about now and had put her love life on the back-burner. She was graduating from high school in three days, the class of 2078. Being a teenager in the 70s had brought her many memories, she would hold them close as she walked the stage to collect her diploma. Growing up as an IP in America Izzie’s life was just beginning and she had vowed to make her life something special, to be somebody.

Her graduation gift from her parents was more than Izzie could have ever expected. She sat on her bed and sobbed. What a bittersweet gift to give your child, the gift of living a life of freedom. A gift her parents understood would mean saying goodbye to their daughter forever. Izzie’s parents, Rico and Babs, had been wading through a myriad of paperwork for six months to enable their IP daughter safe passage to live in New California. They had been saving money for the associated fees and bribes for Izzie’s passage since she turned 13 and was processed as an IP. They knew they did not want their daughter living in America as an Inferior Person for the rest of her life. It was a tremendous sacrifice on their part. Could a heart be full and broken at the same time?

Izzie had read about New California in school, a country established in 2035 after a great cultural war in the former United States of America. Former U.S. states California, Oregon, and Washington had seceded from the Union and had melded into a new country, a safe haven for all people deemed as Inferior People or IPs by the Americans. Most IPs born in America all had dreams of one day living in either New California or the other country of freedom on America’s eastern border, New Liberia. Some though, could not gather the money together to do it, or bare to part with friends and relatives. It was a trade-off at the highest level of human existence. The American government really didn’t care if the IP numbers went down, it made for a more homogenic society. They did though make the process very costly and time-consuming. Approximately 75 percent of IPs left America at some point in their lives. The remaining IPs that chose to stay accepted their fate and made the best of a life as a second-class citizen.

New Liberia, was named by its people and came from their belief that they were seeking a new kind of liberty, bearing no false prophets or leaders. The land mass that was now the new country extended from the tip of Maine, down to the northern border of North Carolina. New Liberia’s western border stopped at Lake Michigan. The line between New Liberia and America extended down from the lake to the northern border of Tennessee.

America now had its western border at Nevada and consisted of the remaining mid-west states and the deep south of the old republic, save for Texas. Texas had seceded and was now its own country. The rules and leadership of America had become too liberal for the Lone Star state. Taking a cue from its own history and realizing that they had the resources to truly stand-alone, the country of Texas was established in 2032. Texas was a “white only” country. The President of Texas was Prescott Herbert Bush III.

Izzie lived with her parents in Phoenix, Arizona. She chose New California over New Liberia for one reason, the Pacific Ocean. Izzie longed to live with a view of the ocean…and to be a first-class citizen. Both New California and New Liberia only opened up it’s borders to people that had been classified as an Inferior Person by the American Citizen Council. Allowing family members that standing alone, did not classify as an IP would result in an overwhelming population problem and shortages of food products. For four years Izzie’s parents had endured IP status too, but once Izzie was removed from the census as their child, they could re-claim their first-class citizenship once again. The fact that they had a gay child would be removed from their history, it would be as if she had never existed.

Izzie’s parents had set her down at the kitchen table yesterday and her mother nervously slid an information cell across the table towards her. They told her of a dream they had long ago of having a successful child…..a happy, free child. Rico told his daughter that her dreams and her life waited for her elsewhere, he started to weep. Izzie scanned the information cell which consisted of her exit papers from America and all the codes necessary to enter into her IP-pod to ensure herself a safe journey. The cell also contained all the American credits that her parents had managed to save, 100,000. Izzie could convert the credits to New California credits as soon as she crossed the border, the number would balloon to 250,000.
Izzie and her parents stood and embraced. She never wanted to let them go, but knew that she had to do it. Izzie felt she was destined to somehow make a difference and she could not do it in America.

Izzie stood there at the IP school auditorium, waiting for her name to be called. She had given all of her possessions to friends except for essentials that now filled her back-pack that was waiting hidden in the bushes at the front entrance to the school. She felt as if she may vomit. The speaker called out “Isabella Ann Parker” and her legs relunctantly started to carry her towards him in the starched blue robe with a pink triangle sewn on the left shoulder. She reached out and took the information cell containing her entire academic record and diploma from the IP Principal. Izzie turned to her left and glanced one last time at her beloved parents, the pain she felt was almost unbearable.

She retrieved her back-pack and tossed her robe into the nearest trash can. Soon, very soon she would rip all the pink triangles from her clothing. Izzie loaded her graduation cell into her IP-pod and walked toward the setting sun, not once turning around to look back at the school where she had spent the last 12 years. Vowing to make her parents proud, Izzie forged on…hoping to one day see their faces again.

The young girl with the loaf of bread and carton of milk stands patiently waiting for help. She watches the other patrons being checked out in the first aisle with expedient courtesy. She harbors no envy or anger as she waits in aisle two, for she is only 17 and knows no different world. She is standing under a sign with symbols in various colors and shapes. Since she was 13 and “processed” she has understood her place in society. You couldn’t tell by her outward appearance or by the clothes she wore…but the pink triangle sewn onto the left shoulder of her sweater did the trick. It told the world she was queer and a second-class citizen….she wore it proudly.

She couldn’t even imagine herself being an American, as the chosen ones were called. Even before she was processed her status had been in limbo as the local American Citizen council refused to give anyone their American papers until after they went through puberty. Unless of course your parents had been in prison, then you were made to wear a black letter “P” which signified a deviant gene-pool. Hispanics that had parents that were born in country were branded with a green patch that looked like a Poblano pepper. Hispanics that had parents that were born out of the country, but they themselves were born in country, wore a yellow patch that looked like the setting sun. They were usually sad people because they had been placed into orphanages as children after their parents were deported back to Mexico. The cashier still had not stepped over to aisle two, even though there were eight people now waiting in line behind her. They remained patient as the cashier finished chatting to an American and wished her a good day. She and the others were standing under a sign with 25 different symbols, they were standing on American soil.

She paid the cashier for the milk and bread and exited the store. Walking home she kept her head down and walked with determination….and did not dare make eye contact with an American. Queers always walked because they were not allowed a driver’s license. The Americans had passed a law that stated, in part, that if you had been identified as an “inferior person” or IP, you had very few rights. The IPs were composed of 25 distinguished groups. Not allowing them to drive had totally alleviated the congested traffic problems of years gone by and reduced pollution in a drastic fashion. The greater good of the Americans was reason enough to put any handicap on the IPs.

The SS officer was walking toward her and she instantly reached for the small device resembling a Blackberry in her pocket. The Security Service officers were stationed on every block and it was their job to make sure order was constantly maintained. They also had the duty to service the cameras that were positioned every 50 feet throughout the town. She did not look up but was now staring down at the shiny black leather boots of the officer. She handed him the device called an IP-pod (Inferior Person Papers on Demand) and remained silent. The officer entered his security code and posted that he had checked the papers of an IP Queer at 300 Main Street at 3pm. The officer thrust the IP-pod back in her face, she put it quickly into her pocket and continued on her walk back to her home.

She was a senior at the IP high school on 5th street and she had just two months until graduation. Her parents were so proud of her because she had received the top grade in her class for her senior thesis. She had taken over six weeks to write about a specific time in American history. Teachers and administrators at all the IP schools were also IPs so she had no fear of the subject matter of her paper. The paper was about April 23, 2010, a single day. People around the world marked that date as the day that lady liberty died, the day that the 21st century, Arizona governor signed the infamous immigration bill into law.

Once looked upon as the leader of the free world, America and that date was now looked upon as the flash-point for the hate-filled atrocities that had happened since. Like dominoes in a line, countries had fell in behind the new order rules of society that the Americans had layed down as law. The girl had written of how hatred and discrimination flowed much faster than anyone could imagine, faster than the fire of an atomic bomb. The world looked on as diversity and individual rights were snuffed out, they complied….the slippery slope.

The infamous date was not even a part of the history books of the Americans. Events and people who did not progress the greater good were simply omitted from existence. The local American school board had even omitted a past president of the United States, Obama. The American children could not fathom an IP of ever being their leader…that was illegal.

The girl arrived back at her home and was warmly greeted by her parents. The trip for bread and milk had only taken 2 hours, it was truly a good day.