I loved reading George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” back in the day, but I’ve always been grateful that Big Brother was safely contained there in his world called Oceania. But no, Big Brother seems to be quite alive and kicking and growing stronger by the day. And he is watching us. And because he is we must follow the rules that he has set in place. He’s watching what we say and what we do, who we love and what we do with our bodies. He’s even watching which bathroom we use because of course we must use the one he says to use. There are rules to be followed.

The rules are for our own protection to keep us safe from loving the wrong person or engaging in activities that he feels are dangerous. What you ask is he protecting us from? Well for one thing, there is a label assigned to each of us at birth that designates us as a man or a woman and we must follow all rules defined for our role. Loving a man if we have the man label or loving a woman when we have the woman label is not tolerated. Why? Well, because Big Brother says so and it’s in the rules.

And these rules are spreading across the country. There are some places in our country where it is now much safer to live because Big Brother has taken firm control there. I’m speaking of the part of Oceania called Florida where the people are very grateful to have Big Brother and his chosen arsonist … oops, I meant assistant, the governor, watching over them. He has created new rules that now control what can be taught in schools. No longer will our children be subjected to learning about this country’s history of slavery, and about the racism still directed at African Americans. No, he doesn’t want white kids to feel bad about what was done to Black Americans and other minority groups through the years. Big Brother said make up some positive history and so we did.

The new rules also now extend to the books our children are allowed to read. We don’t want them to learn about people who are different from them. Certainly not about people loving people with the wrong label or about people who wish to change their assigned label because they feel the label was affixed incorrectly. That’s not OK, a label is a label. Big Brother says so.

Big Brother has even threatened the funding of some libraries should they refuse to remove books he has determined unsafe for our kids to read. We used to call this book banning, but not anymore. On the contrary, we now call it Respect For Books.

When I say that Big Brother is working very hard to keep us all safe, that’s just what I mean. He has created a new program called Save The Children. Here’s how it works — To protect our children, Big Brother has decreed that all citizens shall possess guns. Now when a bad person with a gun begins shooting innocent children, there will always be a good person with a gun nearby to shoot them down. Of course, by that time 10 or 15 children might be dead, but that’s the cost of protecting everyone else. Such a brilliant mind.

And then there are the rules about women’s bodies and those of people who are unhappy with their assigned labels. For awhile before Big Brother took over, women were making their own choices regarding how they wanted to live, but Big Brother decided that women had no right to make those decisions. After all, their bodies are the factories for creating other humans, how could they be trusted to bring those future humans safely into the world. If women were left in control, my goodness, they might decide not to create new humans and we can’t have that, can we? Big Brother thinks that forced pregnancy is the safest path for all women.

It turns out that there are still some places in our country where people do not agree with what Big Brother has decreed and have passed their own laws. Some of those laws protect the rights of women and mislabeled people to make their own decisions regarding their health care. But Big Brother has figured out ways to control their lives even if they live outside Oceania.

He has filed lawsuits making it illegal to use certain long-approved drugs to end pregnancies even in places not under his control. And anyone who helps someone else leave Big Brother’s territory to acquire forbidden care elsewhere will have committed a crime against the state and they will be punished. That includes doctors, too.

I know you think such laws must be unconstitutional in what’s left of our country, and you may be right. But the last word on what is constitutional and what is not belongs to the very Supreme Court, and its majority has been acting strangely Big Brotherish lately in its attempt to keep us all safe. And like Big Brother, they have decreed that women do not have the right to control their own lives and health care. Men, of course, can do as they please. Funny how that works.

So, is it Oceania and Big Brother for you? Or would you rather that your personal decisions be left in your hands and your hands only? He hasn’t yet taken over the whole country, but he sure is trying. If Big Brother’s idea of keeping you safe is not your idea of democracy, then you must decide to pay attention and support good people running for office, both local and national, with your dollars, your voice, your boots on the ground, and your votes.

The future of our country, our democracy, is hanging in the balance.

Karen Gardner, of Haydenville, can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.]]>