I dreamed of a future that is not as distant as some would hope. There are those who will say I am a lunatic, but history will vindicate me! My dream has told me that we, modern man is spiraling into yet another world war, World War Three.
I stand, poised, feet shoulder width apart. There's blood dripping from my right hand, I'm not sure why. Is it mine? Is it his? I settle in my mind not to know. Nothing can be done about it now. There's a job to finish. I'm a soldier, this is what I'm made for. My pistol is pointed toward the ground, not the ground, the man lying on the ground. Kyhl, the man I once called brother. Now fate has made us enemies. I pull back the hammer, the bullet slides into place. Kyhl stairs down the barrel, his eyes nearly cross. He breaths out a last desperate plea, "Tyler... brother." I respond in a all too guttural, awesome sounding tough guy voice: "Once." A single tear falls lose from the corner of his eye, the man who never cries! The salt water creates a stream of white, washing away days of dirt and blood that were covering his face. "All of this... death... and for what? Its liked I don't even know you anymore! Its like we speak... but we don't make a sound." My finger moves on its own, the trigger pulls, the hammer falls, and the bullet explodes from the chamber. Kyhl falls limp, I turn my head, unable to watch as a man I once called brother finds his end."Can you hear me now?" I retort with a dry cool wit reserves for action heroes of the highest caliber (a'la Bruce Willis in Die Hard). Smokes rises from the chamber. I remain still, tall and proud. The full moon's glow reveals me in full uniform, black with red camouflage, certainly its not practical but it looks freakin' sweet. A "V" on the left side of my chest, its my emblem, the symbol of my devotion: Verizon Wireless. She is my mother, and I am her son, her administrator of justice. I am a soldier in the greatest war known to man, World War Three: Battle of the Cell Phone Providers. I awake in a cold sweat, both impressed with how cool I looked as a soldier of the
VMF (Verizon Military Force) and distraught to have seen myself kill a man who has been such a close friend to me. Worse still is the sinking feeling that I have looked at an image that was not intended for me, as though I were given access to secret information. I saw what will be: the terrible, Terminator-
esque destruction of
WWIII:
BotCPP. Our only hope is that this blog would shed light on the danger we march towards, in hopes of creating a more tolerant world before its too late.
I used to hate cell phones. I hated the idea that someone should be able to get a hold of me at all times, there was no more privacy. Among all of my friends I was the last to get one, which seemed like a cool social stand for me to take but a pain for all of my friends from whom I was constantly borrowing phones. Then one day I gave in and got a cell phone and plummeted into the dark world of total
dependency on that stupid little box. It has become a part of my life to where sometimes I feel completely disconnected if I don't have it; "who is calling me?" I wonder. Generally no one. Life goes on...
Along with having a cell phone is being aware of plans and limitations,
I can text this often to a person with this other provider, and text all I want to anyone with Verizon, I can talk all I want to anyone on Verizon but can only talk for free on nights and weekends to So and So or Such and Such because they are on T-Mobile... etc. etc. Forget even trying to figure out different time zones or holidays. I don't know about you but I'm generally too lazy to keep track of how many texts I've sent, much less trying to keep track of my minutes used during the day. Its all too much. Laziness led to me deciding that my closest friends (if they wanted to talk to me) must be Verizon subscribers, otherwise they were just too much trouble. And there began my
intolerance of other cell phone companies.
I know I'm not alone. We have all gone through the bigotry of disliking someone because of their cell phone provider
I hate calling Ryan, he never has service here! I always joked that my number one standard for a girl was not her smile or any other thing guys often say, first and foremost she has to have Verizon. Otherwise its just too much trouble.
There was a girl I was interested in and we would text often. But she was from some other provider. She was not my people. I lived in panic with every text, conflicted by a desire to respond and fear of the tole it would take on my bank account. I was happy she wanted to text me and terrified of what my next statement would look like. I considered cutting her off, abandoning
texting or calling her and turning instead to my own kind. I was troubled.
I realized this is exactly what the companies want, they want us divided and hating each other. They want to pull us apart and segregate us. It begins with dismissing a person now because of their cell phone provider. But the lines we draw in the sand may never be erased and before we know it our world is divided and war is commonplace: mother against daughter, brother against sister, friend against friend! We must practice tolerance before this dream becomes a reality. We must accept one another, no matter the service we choose, otherwise the big corporations win. And
that's not what anyone wants... well... maybe the big corporations, but
that's not the point.
