A Dickensian View of America

American democracy was dead. Laws made certain that certain people couldn’t vote. Courts allowed corporations to use their wealth to override the wishes of people. A hostile foreign adversary was invited to interfere in our elections. A majority voted to put it out of its misery by not voting.

Uncle Scrooge, U.S. as he was known, knew it and was content with a dying democracy being replaced by a thriving plutocracy. With apologies to Charles Dickens, the rest of the story can now be told.

Scrooge was keenly aware of differences between those who invested and those who “spend every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies” or, more honestly, on food, rent, transportation, and healthcare.

Asked to help the poor and the middle class, U.S. said, “Is it right to take that which belongs to the wealthy and throw it to the dogs?”

Then came the last day of the old year, the eve of a new one. Uncle Scrooge laughed when he heard the weakening refrain, “We’ll take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne.”

“Bah humbug,” he exclaimed. Then he heard the knocker. His color changed. “I know you,” U.S. said. “You are the ghost of what we once were.”

Scrooge cried, “You were always good at business.” The ghost replied angrily, “Business? Humankind was to have been my business. The common welfare was to have been my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence.” He then explained, “You will be haunted by three spirits.”

The first was the Ghost of New Years Past. He escorted Scrooge on a journey into his own history, visiting noble struggles to be more just and decent, more caring of families, the elderly, the disabled, and others on the margins of life. They witnessed the battles for equality and watched the moral arc of history bend toward justice until it suddenly stopped and began bending backwards. 

The ghost explained, “You fear the world too much. I’ve seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one.”

At that moment, the Ghost of New Year Present appeared. Scrooge’s eyes opened to see the disparities between the haves and have nots, people without adequate healthcare, hungry children, working parents unable to make ends meet. He saw young people marching off to war, passing parents who fought that same war for the last 16 years; wounded veterans, many homeless, most holding little else but the unmet promises of the government that had sent them to fight.

They saw acts of violence committed against women, people of other faiths, and homosexuals.

Scrooge said, “Forgive me if I am wrong, spirit. But, this is done in your name.”

The spirit acknowledged, “There are some upon this earth who claim to know us and who do their deeds of ill-will, hatred, bigotry, and selfishness in our name. They are as strange to us and our kith and kin as if they had never lived. Remember and charge their doings on themselves, and not us.”

Uncle Scrooge noticed in the foldings of his robe two children. Wretched, frightful, hideous, miserable. A boy and a girl. Scrooge tried to lie, saying they were “fine children.” The words choked in his throat rather than be party to such a lie.

U.S. closed his eyes to the need before him. “Spirit, are they yours?” The spirit retorted, “These are yours. The boy is Ignorance. The girl is Want. Beware of them both. Take care of their needs or build more prisons, start more wars, build taller walls.”

As the Ghost of New Year Present vanished, the Ghost of New Year Yet to Come arrived. Disoriented by the truth, Uncle Scrooge said warily, “Ghost of the future, I fear you more than any specter I have seen. As I know your purpose is to do good, I am prepared to bear you company, and to do so with a thankful heart. Will you speak for me?”

“Yes,” replied the ghost, “Yes, if permitted.”