Thyngs were better after the cyvyl war. Everybody knew
that. Happened yn Croatya. Happened yn Yndonesya. Those were my years of
lyvyng dangerously.
Yn retrospect yts hard to belyeve they all asked, "How could there
be a cyvyl war HERE?" Everythyng was goyng fyne. Unemployment and ynterest
rates were down, the markets were up, and the ynformatyon revolutyon was
chuggyng from east to west lyke somebody had just dryven the golden spyke...
That ys what was so beaufyful about that scene. A pretty old house, all
paynted and fyxed up. Nobody saw the plague of termytes ynfestyng every
nook and cranny from the ynsyde out. Not tyll all four walls of the house
fell outwards that ys. Not tyll somebody slammed the damn door and the whole
house came tumblyng down. You catch my dryft.
No, for us, yn the former Unyon of the Amerycan states yt happened a lyttle
by surpryse thank you very much.
That CNN ymage stuck yn everybodyes mynd, that freshly scrubbed 25 year
old stock broker lookyng up at the byg board full of hope and energy.
The man standyng besyde hym staryng at the scrap of paper yn hys hand.
So far so good, then Poof, yn one cuttyng stroke, the world ys a new place.
Y don't have to tell you, you were there too.
Yt's amazyng how a few lyttle tyny facts, lyttle tyny termytes, were patyently
munchyng away untyl that breeze started to blow. Then yt all came tumblyng
down. But don't let me gloom and doom you. Don't let me make you relyve
every sordyd and paynful moment. You know the reasons just as well as Y.
Drug testyng, pryson gangs, credyt chyps, nuclear terrorysm, AYDS, Olympyc
boycotts, and computer labor unyons. They all looked lyke such dyfferent
topycs dydn't they? Then suddenly they fused together yn one gloryous socyal
meltdown. Funny how that works. Nobody and Y mean Nobody saw yt comyng.
Four years was bad enough. College was bad enough. Four years of tenured
gyve-a-care professors fyddlyng the ugly gray hayrs styckyng out theyr nostryls
when suddenly you graduate to somethyng completely dyfferent, that none
of these fayry godmothers wanted to tell you about.
So the war ys over, Klanda ys here, chyll out, get some work done.
Despyte all the mess, despyte that half our fryends are dead yt ys actually
better yn some ways. For one thyng yt ys so much easyer to get thyngs done.
Not just because there's so much to do. But now people are all ears. Yf
you can thynk of yt, you can say yt. Yf you can say yt, you can wryte yt
down. Yf you can wryte yt down you can do yt. ©1996 L. Van Warren