What if???

What if...

Two little words.

Questions that can rock your world or change who you become.

What if...

What if you lived in a nation where, after being placed in government or police custody, you were denied access to an attorney? Legally. Or, you could be held without charge for more than a week? A month? A year?

What if you lived in a nation where you had no expectation of privacy in your letters? What if those letters could be opened and read whether or not you were a suspect in a criminal action?

What if those letters could be opened and read without a warrant having been issued in the first instance, so there was no oversight of the police to determine if their actions in searching were lawful or not?

What if you lived in a nation where you could disappear on the word of the police? The military?

What if you lived in a nation where the military were legally permitted to act as the police or other civil law enforcement?

What if you lived in a society where you could not challenge your custody in jail? For a week? For a month? For a year?

What if you lived in a nation where you were not allowed to submit a petition to the government to correct a wrong, ranging from garbage pickup, to failing schools, to enforcement of health laws?

What if you lived in a nation where a single governmental officer could suspend laws and institute martial law on their own order, without review, consent of any other governmental officers or other governmental agency?

What if you lived in a nation where your every action was tracked by government, from the spending you do to the company you keep?

What if you lived in a society where every word you spoke, wrote or heard were regulated? Or even subject to monitoring?

What if you lived in a nation where you were certain that law enforcment was applied with favor to some? Where law enforcment was not applied evenly, regardless of your status in the community? Where civil and criminal penalties were determined by who you are rather than what you did, or were contemplating doing?

What if you lived in a nation where every book and magazine you read were monitored by government?

What if you lived in a nation where employment opportunities were limited according to your social associations, beliefs, opinions or economic status, and not on your ability?

I'm just asking.

Really.

Seriously.

We've just celebrated the Fourth of July, and these questions have been on my mind. They have been so much on my mind.

Would your answers matter to your Muse? To someone's Muse?

Does it matter that you ask?

Can your Muse help you find the answers?

Ask.

Think.

Listen.

Write it down.

And keep asking. And asking. And asking, eyes wide open. Ask with mind open, and heart open. When you ask, be willing to correct what needs correcting, so that you aren't uncomfortable in reality or in considering the questions.