Further South

It started sometime before the turn of the twenty-first century…. Ironically, a time, a date disputed. Exactly when did the new millennium actually begin, did it begin in 2000 or 2001? This was a pressing question debated by talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and others, hours spent on this question of great scatological significance. It really doesn’t matter much now…it was a silly, academic question anyhow.

We were lulled and brainwashed into a mindless state of acceptance by the Y2K myth… an event which never was. I remember waiting up on New Years eve for the inevitable meltdown, consuming expensive ancient champagne while the ball dropped – and absolutely nothing happened.

Meanwhile, silent and ignored, or maybe accepted as necessary, the revolution of miniaturization moved relentlessly forward, a high tech amoeba – and catapulted us into the misty twenty first century.

A host of computer driven equipment, from car ignitions to tiny MP3 players, required more and more powerful microprocessors. Inside sterile laboratories in Silicon Valley, and Austin, more and more functions were crammed onto miniscule wafers, giving birth to a host of enhancements, designed to improve the quality of our lives. We were assaulted and indoctrinated on all sides. Dell computers, Pentiums and Ipods, digital cameras and safer brakes sang us a lullaby, and we nodded off into a state of complacency.

It began innocently enough….It wasn’t long before a microchip had been developed that could be implanted under the skin of your pet. The chip contained information the same as a neck tag would on a dog or cat – immunizations and owner history, all able to be read by a remote receiving computer.

In a few years, GPS technology was integrated into the same chip, and the government saw a great opportunity to implant them in our military troops, so that they could be identified and located in battle. Pertinent information including date of birth, social security number and blood type, along with hometown, sexual preferences, school records, family members, hobbies and just about any other type of information could now be linked into a central government operated, networked GIS data base of DHS and DOD employees.

It wasn’t long before the new improved version was being implanted in all government workers, to provide a greater degree of “homeland security”. Convicts and ex-convicts got a chip, and they were added to the GIS database. Teachers, doctors and lawyers were required to have a chip implant in order to work. So were welders, carpenters and mechanics. Just about everyone in the workforce had to submit in order to work -even resident aliens.

A special chip was required for children too, to ensure their safety, in case of abduction or abuse. If parents didn’t comply, they were charged with child neglect, fined and imprisoned until they would finally relent. In short order, each and every child was implanted at birth, for their safety – by mandate.

It became impossible to buy food or clothing, to fuel your vehicle, even to conduct business at the bank without an implanted chip. This was necessary because transactions involving coin, paper and plastic became a thing of the past - for security reasons.

That’s why we’ve been out here riding the winds and the waves, staying far offshore, where the blue water is, with the dolphins and the flying fish, sometimes putting into third world ports, working for fuel and food before setting sail again further south, searching for a land of freedom.

I keep asking the question on night watches when the stars are crowding the open ocean sky and the sea is calm and quiet;

How could this have happened to the land I loved?

The question is carried on the breeze by the Frigatebirds and the Petrels, to the distant shore, and they return silent.