I had a dream

I had a dream last night.

I dreamed I went back in time to 1962 and spoke to a small group of high school seniors who had just graduated.

I told them about the future.  I told them what things were like in the 21st Century.

We have a black president.   Really – one of them asked?  – –   His name is Barrack Obama, I said.

They were pretty shocked.   Whites are a minority in the United States now, I told them.   The biggest majority are Hispanics.   What are Hispanics, they asked?   They’re people from the Southern Hemisphere – – Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, those people from Central America.

Wow – that’s interesting, they said.   Yeah – – we have a big statue in Washington DC for Martin Luther King Jr.

Really – – Yeah – – and we got telephones that you carry around in your back pocket, wrist watches that you can watch TV on, cars that park themselves and cruise ships that carry 5000 passengers.

You’ve got all that?    Yeah – – I replied, and more.  We’ve got electric cars, giant windmills and a highway system that stretches all across the country.   You can drive from coast to coast without ever having to stop for a red light.

Did we go to war in Vietnam, one of them asked?   Yeah – sure did, I replied.  Lost 50,000 young men.   What happened, they asked?

We left.

We’re at war now in Afghanistan.   Really – – Afghanistan, they said.   What ever happened to the Soviet Union?  Did we have World War Three?   No, not really I said.  Russia imploded from within, lost half of it’s territory.   It’s now a second rate country run by a bunch of thugs with nuclear weapons.   It’s a thugocracy.

Then we won the Cold War, one asked?    In a sense, I said.   Now we’re worried about China.   China – what about China, they asked?   They’re our biggest trading partner, I said.   We owe them trillions of dollars and are borrowing billions more from them everyday.

You think that’s something, I said.   Wait until I tell you that marijuana use is legal in some states and now gay couples can get married.    Queers can get married, one of them said.   We don’t use that term anymore I said.

Did we get to the moon, they asked?    Yeah – went there three or four times.   We haven’t been back in 40 years.   Wasn’t anything there to see.

But, we have universal health care in the United States now.    Really, one of them replied.    Yeah, I said.   If you don’t buy it you get fined.    Guess who collects the fine – – the IRS.

Boy, I’m not sure I want to live in the 21st Century, one of them said

It’s OK, I replied.  You get used to it.