" A Once United Nation Now Divided" by Sereya A.

 

Once upon a time, a man that would forever be remembered named December 7, 1941 “ a day which will live in infamy.” And you would think that the attack on Pearl Harbor or the atrocities of September 11, 2001 would be the worst that our country has ever seen. We would never expect the horrors that would take place in our beloved country after the 2020 election. Everyone expected more hatred and more anger than that of any war so far, but the divide between brother and sisters, the destruction, and the bloodshed would be that of nightmares. In a society where the people that claim to love all and yet hate most challenge those that claim the patriotic values that our nation was built on and fight tirelessly to uphold the morals of the USA, we would expect a war like many others. The date is November 10, 2020, the first day of the rest of the modern day civil war and yet another “day which will live in infamy.”

As of today I am 18 years old and feel like I have seen enough horrors to create enough nightmares to last someone a lifetime. My name is Serena and before this destruction, I was a normal high school girl doing my best to juggle the boy drama, college application process, and the normal senior year workload. On November 14, approximately 12 days after the election, I received a letter in the mail that would haunt me for many days to come. It read, “Dear Serena, we would like to congratulate you on your current draft into the Republicans of the United States Militia. We can expect that this may be unexpected due to the fact that in the previous draft we only recruited males of age. Due to the recent efforts of the feminist organizations across the nation and need for bodies with the physical capabilities, we have opened the draft to both sexes. Again, we would like to congratulate you on your recruitment. You will have one week to say your goodbyes and we will be expecting you at the first Recruitment Physical on November 21 at 07:00 at Etiwanda High School. Please do not forget your face mask and please be prepared to be tested for CoronaVirus. Sincerely, the Republicans of the United States Militia.” I was in complete disbelief at what I had just read. Drafted? Say my goodbyes? What was I walking into? Would I ever walk out of it? My face flushed and I felt a burning hole grow in my stomach. Small salty drops began to cool my hot cheeks and blur my vision as I looked at the family I would have to say goodbye to. I shook with fear and knew that today was the first day of the rest of my life. My mom picked up the phone and called my dad, demanding he come home from work. I sat on the couch, letter in hand and waited for him to come home. This morning when I woke up I was a normal 18 year old high school senior and I would go to sleep tonight as a soldier in the modern day civil war.

Over the next few days, I would call every family member in my contacts and say hopeless goodbyes to each of them. I barely slept the night before 21st and would wake up numb with fear of what I would be walking into. I got up and showered and dressed in workout clothes that I had once worn to cross country practice. I got in the car silently and my mom drove to the school where I had begun a much happier journey. There were generals dressed in military green uniforms with half of their faces covered by face masks. I reluctantly put mine on with shaking hands and kissed my mom’s cheek once more before I opened the car door slowly. Immediately, a small woman dressed in a hazmat suit walked towards me and held up a thermometer to my forehead. She asked me a series of questions that I could barely hear over the sound of my racing heartbeat in my ears. I walked to the football field and checked in. I was instructed to line up with the other girls and that I would need to undress to a bra and underwear

for my physical. As I walked towards the line of girls, I saw the goosebumps on their semi naked bodies and I recognized the fear in their eyes. It was the same fear that I had seen in my own eyes this morning in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. I got to my assigned place and began taking my clothes off. Soon after, a doctor came by and did my physical and then handed me a uniform. I dressed myself and was then instructed to board a bus that would take me to what they called the ruins.

The drive was allegedly 15 minutes but it felt as if every passing mile had aged me by years. We could smell the smoke from our destination before we could see it. The bus stopped in front of a pile of ash that was once a building that some of us had shopped at regularly. We got off in a single file line. We were then assigned to groups and our groups were assigned a task. I was assigned to a group of 4 boys and 3 other girls besides myself and we were in charge of controlling the mobs. We were warned that our enemies would stop at nothing to “convey their message.” We were handed rifles and given quick instructions on how to operate our weapons. We walked to the front lines and on our walk we would see things that I would not soon forget. Women, children, and men of all races sobbed over the remains of both their loved ones and the ashes of their businesses. I looked at the faces of my new comrades and they all looked numb. Would that be how we survived this? Would we have to shut off all emotions? After, would we remember how it felt to love? To be happy? We arrived at what was best known as the “front lines” or better known to the recruits as the “beginning of the end.” All I saw before me was hate and anger motivated destruction. How was I going to be expected to defend something that was going to be attacked by a group that had disregarded all empathy, all love, and all sense to convey a message that they so strongly believed to be right? One of the girls next to me grabbed my hand and prayed. I bowed my head and joined her. My group and I stood arm in arm, a united front defending a now divided nation. Would our nation ever return to the “one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” or from today on would we be known as the fallen nation, divisible, with destruction and hate raining supreme?