CHARLES HAYES - MY ANSWER TO AN OLD WHITE WELL-OFF REDNECK VOTER

​Charles Hayes, a multiple Pushcart Prize Nominee, is an American who lives part time in the Philippines and part time in Seattle with his wife. A product of the Appalachian Mountains, his writing has appeared in Ky Story’s Anthology Collection, Wilderness House Literary Review, The Fable Online, Unbroken Journal, CC&D Magazine, Random Sample Review, The Zodiac Review, eFiction Magazine, Saturday Night Reader, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Scarlet Leaf Publishing House, Burning Word Journal, eFiction India, and others.

 My Answer To An Old White Well-Off Redneck Voter ​

I kind of figured that you must be doing well. That's good. We are OK but we are hurt by what is happening around us. It's more incredible, in every sense of the word, than your "interesting" take on it. For the philosopher/writer or humanist, given that they are not poor, this spectacle shows just how low it can get. If they are poor or sick, most likely they are entering what is euphemistically called the end of life cycle. 
     
I was pissed off and hurt by this country after Vietnam, but comparatively that feeling now seems rather moot. At least back then one's service held a smidgen of truth. If you died in the war there were no freight charges to exit the country. I know, because I flew next to tons of those dead. It was a truth to one's U.S. service. Not one's service to another country that holds a particular loan. 

Nihilism has always, to some extent, piqued my interest when writing about the cast out or moralistic of our culture. But what I'm seeing now makes it impossible for me to draw a like-perspective. It seems that only those who will agree with me can try to bale out of this mess by calling it a "movement." However, ultimately, they will be unable to do this. Proof of this will be painful when it comes. More than the old "we had to destroy it in order to save it."

Sadly, I wait for another war of distraction that will show the damage of such a "movement." Initially the first stings will come with health care for the less than well off Trump voter. Later, beyond the nihilistic anarchist, Russian Oligarch, or them that ironically protest the elite, the sting will be felt by virtue of the old "what goes around, comes around.”

Gird thyself. And if you have loved ones in the military, or close thereby, buy them protection. There will be none coming from their government. And take your blessings more vigilantly than ever. And please be careful of what you wish for. 

​