This Era

Imagine this. The year is 2014.  What people who wore suits and ties and hoopskirts imagined as the future, we are living in. Wow. You should feel special. I mean think about it. The slaves are free. The Jews are alive. There are females actually going to school and working rather than staying at home sweeping or cleaning or washing or pampering the baby. There are little machine thingies with screens that you can touch with your fingers and a whole bunch of cool stuff happens. It really doesn’t get better than that.

But, that’s not all. We’ve also got suicide rates cruising vertically past the horizon where the sun and moon abide. We’ve got people running straight towards the mousetraps. The worldwide known symbol of trickery. Debt, divorce, death, all common in families. Isn’t it great? We’ve got French fries, burgers, milkshakes; don’t get me started on ice cream! Calories don’t play any part in our lives. Or the ones we care about at least. But we lose our phones and we get the president himself on the line to shut down the entire government and get the FBI on the case to find an iPhone with a pink case and blue jewels. Our priorities are a bit messed up in ‘This Era.’

This era. This beloved era. What shall we call this era? The technically savvy era?

The ‘it’s cool to cut’ era? I mean really… who told the world it was not only cool, but encouraged to break the sharp parts out of razors and apply them to your wrists, thighs, stomach, and eyes. EVERYWHERE! “Everywhere there is a scar, there is a sign of beauty and passion and strength.” No cut the bull and tell the truth. Everywhere there is a scar, there is a sign of breaking down and choosing the wrong route. A cry for help, maybe, but the last time I checked we cried with our eyes, not our wrists. It’s not cute. It’s not funny. It’s not tragically beautiful. It’s…well I guess it’s ‘This era.’

‘This era’ where taking selfies, and hash tagging, and having 30 social media sites is way cooler than graduating.  Pfft…graduating. What are that? Where owning a calculator is way more seldom and rare than owning a cell phone, or a gun, or a condom. Speaking of which…we should call this era “The teen mom era.” It would fit, right? There has never been another time in history where this many woman, scratch that YOUNG LADIES have been impregnated and forced into being a mother. No and I mean NO 15 year old girl should have to skip soccer practice because her 2 month old daughter has a doctor’s appointment. But then again, her 28 year old mother had to do the same thing, and her 42 year old grandmother had to do that as well, and she is lucky enough for her 56 year old GREAT GRANDMOTHER to see another day.

In ‘This Era’ where we continue to kick and punch and scream to let people love whoever the hell they want to love. Jim likes Chris and Chris likes Jim and we have to have a whole goddamn riot about something that has absolutely NOTHING to do with us. ‘This Era’, the ‘burn the gays era’ wait no that was in the 1700’s this is 2014, the “we don’t burn the gays we force them into the closet where they aren’t accepted into actual society because it’s not normal to like a girl and be a girl at the same time era’. ‘This Era’ where we can care so much about what people are doing but so little about how they are doing. Where the colors red, blue, green, yellow and purple are not to be shown together unless you want constant calls of “QUEERS, GAYS, DYKES, DIE” shouted at you by tormenters trained by Satan himself.  Where the words “I’m gay” are harder to say than “I got an F.”

I’ve got an idea about a title for this god forsaken era! The “racism is over but I don’t like him because he’s black era.’ Yeah, yeah, slavery is over, which technically is not true. Publicized slavery is mostly over, but there are still OVER 27 million people having their chances of good health, wealth, and a fair shot at life stolen from them and being forced into slavery. Yes, it is 2014. Yes, slavery still does exist. Anyways, this is the very interesting era where WHITES ONLY doesn’t adorn the streets, but a black person is still getting extra interrogation by the cops. Where African Americans can get shot by a white man and the white man is emotionally unstable. Where a white man gets shot by an African American and death is the automatic sentence. Period. No trial. Racism…at its lowest or highest? One thing’s for sure it has NOT been eliminated. The tension between races only increases with every scholarship offered to minorities 25% because of what they harbor in their minds and the other 75% because of the color of their skin. The tension continuously increases when the teacher gives extra credit to the Latino because she knows that there are ‘too many warm bodies in their environment to concentrate.’ If no racism equals equality then why are we unbalancing the forces?

SOCIETY. Well gosh darn it, it’s been there all this time. The name of ‘This Era’. ‘This era’ that has the family troubles in a nutshell. ‘This Era’ where obesity is counted as expected and not an unfortunate shock. ‘This Era’ where the cuts that line the wrists of millions of children, teenagers, and adults are known as beauty and expected to attract attention and words of sorrow. ‘This Era’ when #Hashtagselfiesandtwerkingandcakefordaysandyolo is what the teenage stereotype is. In ‘This Era’ where the show Teen Mom is more relatable to a girl in high school than the Disney Channel. Where this same girl has to worry about how to break the news as to why she’s been eating and vomiting a bit more than usual. ‘This Era’ where a high school diploma is equivalent to a freaking PhD in most high schooler’s minds. ‘This Era’ where little Tommy can’t wear pink because he is afraid daddy might yell at him again and call him a little girl. ‘This Era’ which is SOOOOO different than the 1800’s  by the way, where a black man and a white man can be competing for a job and the black man will get the job because it makes the companies diversity rate look better. You hear that, government? The BLACK man got the job! Shower us in your thanks, why don’t you? ‘This Era.’

The societal challenged era.