by Jerry Firman

I started to make the title read, "The End and What Comes After". I shortened it because I am more confident about my views on the End than I am the Aftermath. The End was probably forecast in the Beginning. The Aftermath may still be up for grabs. The End I will define as the time when Americans realize their dream has ended and a nightmare has begun. The Aftermath will depend on how we enter that nightmare and the tools we have to soften its ramifications.  We have to prepare for this eventuality and soon.

When did the dream start fading? I say it started from the Beginning when our Founding Fathers inked their approval of the Constitution.We come to our current state because we cannot agree on almost everything to do with government. They couldn't either. So they compromised and wrote and adopted a document that was imperfect but accepted by all as the Law of the Land for a whole new country. The Founding Fathers each had personal special interests involved. Some were concerned with security, some with money, some with religion, some with power and a few with a need to see human society become a sort of Utopia. None of them got all their desires but some got more than others. How can I say the Constitution was imperfect? I can say it because it was immediately amended ten times to include the Bill of Rights. Seems the Founding Fathers had forgotten there might be feed back by the People. We can thank George Mason for even having the People included in the Constitution. He vehemently refused to sign unless the Bill of rights were included. It has been amended 27 times in total and another 6 amendments have been left blowing in the wind. Until 1865 slavery was still recognized by the Constitution. That changed and the time may be past for additional needed changes because we are either at or near the End.

If the Beginning foreshadowed the End why haven't we recognized that? We haven't seen the forest for the trees. Our government and our entire beings have been geared toward building what we have now. Through the years the vested interests have kept us working, building, expanding toward what we thought was our dream for America. It turns out we were really providing a powerful and highly beneficial atmosphere where the few could amass fortunes and lives that allowed just that few to control our world. They are rapidly gaining full control. They dictate we cover their losses while helping to protect their gains. They only provide this country with their assets and influence to the extent it makes them wealthier. I fear we are at the End. We can recognize it in outsourcing, commodity and stock manipulation, lack of enforcement of common law and a blase attitude by government toward the People's needs while jumping through hoops for the moneyed.

If this is the End, what do we do now? First we can try to reverse what has happened. We can try to bring back the American Dream as we knew it. We can try to correct the trangressions of a runaway government. I give our chances of doing that very little hope. It is difficult to repair something that is deadheading toward destruction. Too much has already come to pass for us to return. What else can we do? Manage to survive.

I don't want to start a flurry of Survivalist Theories and the military thinking that goes along with that sort of thing but surviving may be all we can expect in the next years. If more than a few are to survive we must educate ourselves in the skills needed. We must become individuals who can provide for themselves and those closest with security, shelter, food and clothing. Without such basic knowledge many will wither and go by the wayside. With enough people willing to learn and sacrifice there may just be a slight chance of creating what we dreamed or even something better. The alternatives are gloomy, scary, unacceptable to all men/women of conscience. We are at the End together, we had better start attacking the Aftermath together.

Call me a doomsayer if you must but I was born in the Great Depression and I have lived to see what I think will be the Greatest Depression for our country. I lived through a cycle of growth, wonder and improvements that would boggle our Founding Father's minds. They had no idea what they were creating. We had no idea how to conserve it once we got it. We now need ideas as to how to reverse our current trend or to survive it if all fails. I am open to suggestions. In the meantime I would urge all of you to prepare. We are at the End.