The us that we are to be.

Hello Aliens, you who may or may not know English.

Hello people listening, hoping and hanging on these words, who may or may not know English.

Hello world, green and blue dot of space, perfect place for these people, perfect stop for these Aliens, who may or may not know English perfectly.

I speak boldly, if not also with respect, before you, before you all, about one thing: Independence. Aliens, I do not know how familiar you are with this word. I do not know how much meaning this simple, twelve letter word has for you, who come from far away, and know little of our simple existence. But standing before you, trembling, I hope to explain it, and in so doing, explain us, in a way.

Some say independence is a right; a right to be most cherished. The natural right of those who call themselves members of us, humankind. Some say independence is a blessing. Some say independence is the medium through which the loving, creative endeavors of us all can flourish.

But many, in the vast and tiny history of this planet, have hidden independence. They have balled it up, locked it away, thrown in down the deep well of darkness that knows nothing of tomorrow. They have taken it often from the poor, from the destitute, from the ill, from the different. And in taking independence they have become oppressors. Oppressing us from us. For if independence is the medium of love and creativity, and it is taken away, we are left with a less expressed self. A self that at first may desire that expression, that explosion of the self that makes us, us. But after it is long hidden, long made damp in the deep darkness of the well of oppression, we may even start to forget about it. To forget about the self that we could be. And we become cold, once-eager embers left to freeze in the winter wind. And all the while the oppressors smile, made rich with the oppressive exploitation of the us that we could be, but are not.

And in that vast and tiny history of us, some have arisen from the cold and ashen embers of the self to proclaim, ‘No more! We will have our independence! We will have our freedom! We will have ourselves!’ And surely this struggle was never easy. And surely many died trying to free themselves from the dust and the cold. But just as surely, many times, they rose up out of the frozen muck declaring themselves free.

And now, you Aliens, stand poised to take away our planet, our freedom, our independence, our selves. You stand poised with the power of the oppressor, ready to annihilate that which has long been fought for and not yet fully won. And surely you think, ‘Why should we spare these people, so long fighting for independence who have never found it? Why should we spare these people who bend so easily to the will of the oppressor? Why should we spare these people who like animals, but without a whimper, bow to those who lord their expression over them, turning them into objects, minions, and reflections of their very oppressors?’ And in asking that, with confusion and anger, you would be asking valid questions. But here I stand, still trembling, to tell you this. To say, with confidence, that if you spare us this world, this life, these selves that we hope to inhabit, we will keep fighting. We will keep pushing back upon those who throw the us that we could be down into the darkness of the pit. We will keep living. And we will find, all of us with time and more time, that independence I ask of you now. We will dig as deep as we must into those wells of oppression and find ourselves, dirty and damp, and be as we should be. And through that independence, through that freedom in this world, in the vast and tiny history we have left, we will be loving and we will be creative. And we will be us. The us that we are to be.