ONCE UPON A TIME IN CALIFORNIA
(and other things to come...)

In 2068, after nearly half century of demographic shifts in its population, and burdened by the steady exiting of most manufacturing and technical industries to its easterly neighbor states, the state of California seceded from the Union and declared itself the Republic of California Norte. The results of this action were apocalyptic in its effects. Mexico, having annexed Guatemala to the south, instantly declared bi-lateral talks with the new Government and a free-immigration zone was quickly declared along the Mexican-California border. Most major cities in the state, -now shadows of their former selves due to urban decay and rampant corruption-, became bastions of anarchy like the wild-west times of bygonne eras. The agricultural middle valleys were quickly nationalized, as were Federal lands and Antiquities, natural oil and gas reserves and whatever was left of Government fixed asset surpluses. The falling of the former 6th largest economy in the world started a domino effect of a magnitude never imagined by the founding Fathers of a once-great Country........
And then we all awoke,... happy to have been dreaming, happy that it was but a nightmare.
The destruction of the American dream will not come through attrition, through invasion, or even by political shifts. It will only come via the minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day effects of us forgetting how good we have it, how much blood and capital was paid to get here, and ultimately by the failure to remind our children that this idea of Lady America is as fragile as it is unique. May God never turn its back on her.