RW Drabble 2.0.086: Flicker

This story was published in Fiction Shorts. A double drabble, 200 words, featuring the word flicker.

*

“We are all completely beside ourselves.

Of course, all is an exaggeration — 76 million from 1946 to 64. Never were we one. It just seemed that way when we marched against Vietnam, pollution, corporate greed, and for civil rights for blacks, women, Indians, Latinos, immigrants, gays, people with disabilities and low income, and flowers, yes, the environment. As Dylan sang, we demanded our parents get out of the way.

The proof of our sway, we thought, was the reelection of Barack Obama, America’s first millennial president — the double affirmation of a young, black man in the whitest of Houses. Decades later, this was the apotheosis of our idealism, which was built upon the American promissory note of equality.

Now, we see decay everywhere — our own, as we parade, to the tune of 2000 a day, toward the grave. Perhaps, more importantly, we were wrong about the pace of America’s tolerance for reform. Mr. Obama thinks so.

What if we were wrong? Maybe we pushed too far. Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribes. Sometimes, I wonder whether I was 10 or 12 years too early.

Again, the candle of American ideals is fickering.

The reactionaries are winning.”