I had a dream this morning that moved me to arise early and begin writing while the details were fresh. The key image and source of the title of this dream and this post was a beautiful sweater worn by a woman in a tea shop. The sweater bore the words “Community Color,” with an oval below it depicting crayons in a rainbow-like spread of colors. “Community Color” was understood to be the name of a wealthy neighborhood in the large city I was in, a community of upper-class people proud of their support for diversity, but facing disaster from their corrupt leadership.
The dream began at a crowded hotel. My wife and I were there and had just checked out. I had been attending a technical conference. We had met many people during our days in that area, especially those at our hotel. Our new friends and acquaintances were mostly left-leaning people, so we were careful not to say much on political topics. Though we did not agree with some of their views and lifestyles, we were still impressed with many of them and enjoyed their company. One man struck me as one of the most handsome men I’ve seen. I felt compelled to compliment him but just chose a minor detail, his great mustache, trying hard not to sound too much like a sycophant. As we parted, we were grateful for our ties to our new friends in spite of vast differences.
We then needed to get to the other side of downtown for a meeting. We were in a bustling city with dense traffic, light rail (streetcars or trams), and towering buildings. As we began our walk, we stopped at a bistro and chatted briefly with a woman wearing the “Community Color” sweater mentioned above. She said something about the poor choices the people had made in the village of “Community Color” that she apparently once was so proud of. Those bad choices had brought disaster to them – the nature of the disaster was not clear, but it might have been ravaging fires since the fires of L.A. had been weighing heavily on me before sleeping. But it could have been an economic crisis or other severe problem.
Sitting next to her was a somewhat elderly professor sipping tea. He said something like, “Nonsense. It’s not their fault. I know those people. I speak French.” The “I speak French” statement was somehow supposed to be an ironic or profound statement that essentially settled the argument. The people of that community were not native French speakers, but wealthy Americans by birth who were highly educated and apparently often spoke French among themselves when discussing serious topics. The professor’s point was not to blame the victims for the disaster brought on by the corrupt leaders they had voted for. They didn’t want what was happening. Rather, they had been deceived. Compassion was needed.
After leaving the bistro, we came to a very crowded region that clearly had some safety issues. There was a light rail track that we had to cross, but on the other side of the track there was a sudden drop of about 30 feet, apparently without any safety barriers. Below us was a mass of cars, buses, and pedestrian traffic. As we began to cross the tracks, I stopped and warned my wife that I could hear the high-pitched squeal of an approaching streetcar. We stepped back as it approached and made a stop with its lead railcar right in front of us. At that moment, I noticed a large white bus, a sleek and modern one, filled with people. It was backing up and getting dangerously close to the tram. I yelled out as I pounded on the vehicle to warn the driver, but it kept moving backwards and soon made contact, slowly pushing the lead railcar, full of passengers, off the rails and toward the dangerous drop off. I knew it might be futile, but I had to do something. I grabbed some handholds on the bus, planted my feet firmly on the ground, and tried to resist the movement toward the precipice, yelling for help, asking people in the bus to take action to resist the deadly regress of the bus and compel their driver to change direction, while also hoping for people outside the bus to join me in preventing disaster. The bus seemed to be slowing, but the train car was already beginning to hang over the edge. A few more inches of movement from the bus would mean disaster. Would any help come? Would tragedy be averted? Would this be another setback for Community Color, that’s where we were? My dream ended at that moment. I’ll have to wait for the sequel.
I think the dream was based on my thoughts about the fiery tragedy in Los Angeles. I’ve seen credible sources that reveal much about the problems there that should have been averted by normal, sane preparation. Instead, extremist ideologues, in my opinion, had taken actions resulting in dry water reservoirs, inadequate water for fire hydrants, uncleared brush and tinder that put communities at risk, soft-on-crime policies that allowed dangerous criminals and potential arsonists to stay on the streets, cutting the budget for firefighting, focusing on diversity rather than firefighting, and giving away firefighting equipment to Ukraine. Many people aware of such information have blamed the victims for voting for Marxists. But only a few extreme radicals really want America to burn – those that do are true dangers, but most left-leaning people clearly don’t want that. Many of those voting for the incompetent or perhaps treacherous extremists whose policies have been disastrous were not voting for the disaster that followed. They were voting based on a hope that these leaders would live up to their promises and make their community a better place. They may have been deceived. Let’s have compassion on them.
A big part of the answer to corruption and deception is freedom of speech so that lies, which will always be told, can be exposed and opposed. Giving government more power to censor “misinformation” allows dangerous lies to become entrenched as irresistible official doctrine. It allows the corrupt to reign unimpeded as they shut down any truth they don’t like by labeling it as “misinformation.” Censorship and central control of information is the key to establishing and maintaining tyranny. Resist anyone who wants government to shut down free speech or to silence their opponents.
A telling clue about the fires is the great concerns some of California’s leadership have expressed over the dangers of “misinformation” about the fires, even asking the federal government to help crack down on that danger. There seems to be much more concern about the critics of California’s disastrous leadership than there is concern about the foolishly discarded water after record rains this year that should have filled reservoirs, tanks, and hydrants. Or concerns about the waste of funds and equipment that should have been used to prepare for predictable fires. Or the concern about criminals who were allowed to commit crimes with impunity, perhaps even including arson.
When free speech is viewed as a deadly enemy by your leaders, disaster is looming. A healthy community, whether it’s “Community Color” or anyplace else, needs more than just a superficial diversity of color, but the healthy and life-saving diversity of information that freedom of speech brings.
Freedom of speech is also essential for religious freedom. If a corrupt government can shut down speech that it doesn’t like, it can easily find undesirable speech in the teachings of any religion that gets in its crosshairs. This can put an end to missionary work or limit the ability of believers to gather, as has happened many times in the past and continues to happen now in many parts of the world.
