Casey and Uncle Thomas

Casey: Wow Uncle Thomas! Were you ever an athlete during your time?

Uncle Thomas: Well hello there, Casey. Athlete? Hmmm. I guess you can say that I was an athlete in some ways.

C: It sure does look like it. That could have been you running for the Bears instead of Walter Payton!

UT: Now, now, Casey. You know Walter is probably lurking around here somewhere. You bets be careful he doesn't hear that. 

C: Oh Uncle Thomas, he knows I just be playing around. I'm pretty sure he's gonna smack me with a towel real soon.

UT: (Shaking his head with a slight smirk). So, Casey, what brings you to my domicile?

C: I don't know, just bored I guess. You seem to always be to yourself unlike a lot of people around here. 

UT: Well young Casey, that is by design, (looking up) with all do respect.

C: I don't know. I think you're interesting. I know Father does not like us to talk about Earthly matters, but why were you named Uncle Tom?

UT: You're right. He doesn't. But my life was such a blur. I honestly cannot recall my full name. I've been Uncle Tom for as long as I remember. 

C: Yeah, your file does not specify either.

UT: My what?! How d-

C: Hey, I know people. That's all I can say.

UT: (Shaking his head)

C: I know so much about you. So many people don't know who you are, or the importance of your existence. 

UT: That's ok. The people that are supposed to know, know. Those that are supposed to know but haven't yet learned, they will learn. Those that will never know, will never know. Things happen because they are supposed to happen or they don't happen because they were not supposed to happen. 

C: Yeah yeah, I went through orientation just like you.

UT: Are you sure about that?

C: Well I know an Adjuster and I get to see all that goes on in our former home. She shows me her books that outlines all of His plans. 

UT: You just know everyone in this place don't ya?

C: No no. Just lots of people. What I see is astonishing. In my time, they apparently just called themselves Black, though there was a movement that called for them to be called African-Americans. 

UT: (Lightly scoffs) African-American you say?

C: Yes. And though they are all under one term, they are still very much divided. It's like there are different classes of Negros, as they put it your times. 

UT: What would you expect young man? Think about the foundation. We have to volunteer at orientation for new citizens, right? Well, depending on which station you work at, you have to stamp the new citizen's card. Well, think about that stamp. When that stamp was manufactured, it was molded into a certain desired shape. From that time on, the stamp is permanent and each stamp will be the same. After the stamp is pressed onto a surface, we can cross it out, or white it out, or whatever. However, the shape of the stamp will persist. 

C: Right! And Negros were brought to the Western world on the pretense of division.

UT: (Nods)

C: As slaves, they were divided by location, by physical stature, by gender, by skin complexion, sexual attraction, and whatever else. 

UT: Division. The stamp.

C: Yes, the stamp. I mean, what then? Are our beloved people doomed?

UT: Doomed, of course, if they make no changes. Things will remained forever unchanged unless-

C: The stamp is changed. They must make a new stamp. This is all fascinating. As you know, I was called upon so early in life. I don't even have a memory of it.

UT: In many ways you are lucky for that.

C: Gee, why don't He just make it happen. Why not just have what we have for them? Why all the patience?

UT: See, time is nothing when an eternity goes by in a few blinks.

C: Blah. Anyway. But you are mocked down there. Those Negroes that are perceived as acting as if they aren't Negroes are named after you.

UT: Quite an honor, doncha think?

C: What I don't understand is that the whole point of equality was to make everyone equal. Thus, how could someone acting in any kind of way be wrong? If they are all equal, acting anyway would be fine. How can Negroes be fighting for equality while mocking those that aren't perceived as acting like Negroes when all people are supposedly equal?

UT: What people have always failed to realize is that they are equal. But it's a different kind of equal. People as a whole want equality in a selfish way, to improve their own place. The fact is that our ancestors weren't just taken from Mother Africa. People overlook the fact that Africa is not and was not a country made up of the same countrymen. Skin color does not connect a people. Is Europe with all it's white people one country? Of course not. Germans differ from Swedes, from Swiss, from Portuguese, and so forth. Soon-to-be African slaves were often times captured and sold to European slave captors and traders. The fight all along was and is about showing that discrimination based solely on color is absurd. Once that battle was won, no longer were Blacks this group of one people, but rather more American.

C: So Blacks should have no allegiance as one people?

UT: They are connected by the shared legacies of their predecessors. So there will always be an underlying culture that Blacks will possess, at least for the time being. When Blacks attack other Blacks by calling them...well, calling them Me, it speaks to the struggle between those that have moved on towards just being Americans and those that still see Blacks as different from Americans.

C: Or it's really no longer about race, but about social standing. Those that feel like they were left behind feel betrayed.

UT: Perhaps. Our kind are in a very interesting position: brought to a land they didn't ask to be brought to, not being American while even being looked down upon by Africans. But they have fought through it.

C: But we can count on His plan for everyone. Though they can't see it now, they will get what their life meant in due time. They will see how the universe is a series of balancing acts. As you have suffered terribly, you were granted level 4 citizenship.

UT: Ha. That's still one away from the the highest possible human level.

C: Well c'mon. Those were the chosen ones, though. Essentially a cross between us and the Flyers.

UT: Yeah well. If it makes you feel any better, higher levels come with more responsibility.

C: Hmm. So let me ask. You think Blacks have already changed the stamp?

UT: I think you already know the answer to that. And you know I know the answer to that. You've seen the plans, right?

C: (Smiles)



...Dedicated to my big brother, Casey...who would have turned 30 on May 31, 2011