It was a gloomy night in the town of Chicago. This rather large city had been once a great city, it was populist and booming with the sounds of bustling feet and the sounds of children playing in the parks. The year was now 3018. The people of America had grown tired of their taxes. The last 500 years were filled with a protest about lowering the taxes. It wasn’t until the new president, George Black. He had convinced the people to repeal the 16th amendment. The people were pleased by this new decision because it meant that the people could harbor all the money that they have rightfully made. America has now turned anarchy. Without the income taxes, there are no more federal services. This consequence caused the government to shut down  Now there are no more parks, the skyscrapers that once stood mighty in the glassing skyline are now dilapidated and sit in the gray, gloomy sky which lets no sunshine. The streets are lined with garbage that leaves a lingering stench of what can only be described as death. The population has been declining very rapidly, without the hospitals, women are deciding not to have children. People have now resulted into breaking into primal gangs to survive this world.

My name is Astor. I am part of the progressive gang. We live on the south side of Chicago in an old industrial mill. I share my room with the rats that live in the walls. My mother and father are both dead. They caught the nasty case of the flu and passed away. It is quite common nowadays for children to raise themselves. In fact, the life expectancy here is 34 years old. I am 15 and I turn 16 in a few days.

The gang that I am a part of we try to hold rallies and protest to reinstate the 16th amendment Yet are tactics are useless there is no government to help us make the change. Our efforts are filled with empty promises that are run with a passion of hope. I lay asleep some night and think to myself, what can I do? How can I help? I needed a master plan that will help the people and to help me. I needed to start small. I needed to make the rallies that our people make bigger and attract more attention. But how?

The truth is that I have a hidden talent. I am a great dancer. I have a huge passion for the art form. I believe that this art form can help me with this new found revelation that I had. I would need to have a performance that can help me build a business that can help me grow. Then I can use this growth to build influence and hopefully jump-start a new form of government.

I started my quest to build in the old park that used to be a staple of the city. I had seen pictures of the park before the collapse of the government. It was lushes and with an abundance of green. There were people running and biking. There were picnics and people getting away from the busy urban lifestyle. Now that green has turned to gray. There are no trees only the hollow bodies of the tree that lay on the ground like someone has shot it. The lakes are green and the people here still linger to get away from the urban life. I am here to be a beacon of light in this gloomy city.

I had put my stereo that I had stolen from a museum that had just closed down due to the lack of funding. I pressed play and a retro song began to play. I began to dance all my troubles away The flows between my limbs began to make me hallucinate of a perfect world. I had begun to form a rather large crowd.

The old song had begun to end. I took a deep breath and began to proclaim:

“Would anyone contribute to my cause. I have seen what this world has turned into. We let greed and money take over us. Can’t we spare a few dollars to help the welfare of our community? Isn’t community more important that one individual? When the whole community comes together and thrives then that means we can begin to prosper as human beings. When people ban together we can begin to do great things. We can bring about change to make sure that we live a great life.”

“ My money is my money,” one old man yelled from the crowd

“I earned my money by working hard, isn’t mine?” another person said.

I began to become frustrated. A few people dropped some money into my hat, which is kind of Ironic because it is a form of income tax. For the most part, people clung on to their money like it was their souls.

The crowd began to disperse. The people went on their merry way as if their money blinded them from the collapsing society around them. I had become disheartened to think that people would only think of themselves than others.

My mind became gray as in the city. Without the government to reinstate the 16th amendment that means that there would be no more federal services that help provide the people with the lushes parks that now only exist in my dreams. To provide services that protect the national safety of the country. I could feel my heart start to shatter into a million little pieces that could never be put back together.

I fell to the ground and laid there as I began to think of my dying wish. I thought to myself. “My one dying wish is that people will not be so concerned about their own individual wealth and begin to think about the welfare of the community. Will change ever happen? Is change possible?”

Then sat there in the gray park played a child with broken dreams and no idea about if his ambitions and wishes would come true in the future.