No Umbrellas Allowed
A fitting visual for the here and now.
I admittedly did not watch the ball drop in New York last night, but I did watch some of the “festivities.” I put festivities in quotations because it didn’t look like people were having fun getting soaking wet standing in the rain without an umbrella.
“Why is everyone allowing themselves to get wet?” I asked my husband, Ryan, who was sitting next to me on the couch. “Are they trying to catch pneumonia?”
“It’s weird,” Ryan responded, “even the TV anchors aren’t under umbrellas.”
We both stared at the people on the TV, thinking they looked incredibly foolish.
“You don’t think that umbrellas were actually banned, do you?” I asked.
“By the looks of it, yes, I think they were,” Ryan replied.
A quick Google search confirmed that they were.
“Umbrellas were banned so the surveillance drones could get a better view of the people,” Ryan explained.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but did you say surveillance drones?”
“Ya,” Ryan said, “but I also just read that the machines got too wet, so they couldn’t be used.”
“So, people are just standing in the rain without umbrellas when they could have been using them,” I said, rather dumbfoundedly.
“Ya, that’s exactly what it looks like,” Ryan confirmed.
“You know what else this looks like?” I asked.
“No, what?
“Dystopia,” I said.
“That, and it looks like an elephant in the room,” Ryan said.
“How’s that?” I inquired.
“I mean, look at the screen,” Ryan said. “Why do you think they wanted to use surveillance drones in the first place?”
“Is it because America has gotten so violent that people always need to be watched?” I asked.
“Bingo,” Ryan said.
“So what’s more important then? Guns or umbrellas?” I asked.
“Guns, obviously,” Ryan said.
“Ah, yes, that seems obvious now.”
“This is what we look like when we see ourselves on TV,” Ryan mused. “Just a bunch of idiots who choose not to avoid the avoidable.”
My travel memoir Time Traveled is available as e-book or paperback! Buy it either at Amazon or at most major retailers.
