Zero Hour

                                                      Zero Hour

         Along the shore, devastation lay everywhere.  Beaches and clear water no

longer existed at this vacation hot spot and there was no lifeguard standing on duty. 

Children and adults were not at this beach or any other beach today and it would be

awhile before anyone would feel safe at one again.  Due to the instigation of an

unreasonable demand upon the populace and thronging beachgoers, public places were

now dangerous places to occupy.  Execution of an unknown law that disallowed visible

minorities on public beaches equaled punishment against minorities of all kinds.

         Fairness or rather the lack of it was a reoccurring issue in society.  Groups,

identified as acceptable and normal, received special privileges while other interest

groups received nothing.  How a group was held higher in esteem and what criteria were

behind their selection was the topic of a select few conversations.  Individuals did not

dare speak out against even the most blatant of issues no matter how ludicrous they

seemed. 

         Justice ignored any issue that was unknown by the public and Justice

knowingly discriminated in issues such as bilingual signage, taxes, gun control, treaty

land provisions and resource usage.  Killing off cultural activities and traditions that did

not favour the trolls was increasing exponentially.  Lawyers, when challenged, were

somehow able to manipulate any legal findings in the favour of the majority, the trolls. 

Most schools taught that dragons were native to the land but the trolls had explored

and discovered this country.

         Neglect was obvious, as a minority, dragons were unable to give enough

opposition to even the simplest of issues.  Over the course of one hundred and thirty

nine years, job requirements changed and predominantly favored trolls over dragons. 

Prejudice against large cave-dwelling dragons who kept their gold where society

couldn’t touch it or use it to further discriminate against dragons was rampant to the

extent that educational requirements made all questions on job applications, housing

grants, and financial assistance and other forms relatively more like gobbledygook than

Dragonese to even the most intelligent dragon.

         Quid pro quo seemed like the solution to displaced dragons as they were

pushed further and further into the hills by the multitudes, but most forms of

compensation benefited the trolls instead.  Rapid increases in poverty; drug abuse and

alcoholism dogged the once proud dragon race.  Several minority groups banded

unsuccessfully together to fight the system.

         The irony of it all, is that the visible minority kept trying to fit in, doing the

right thing usually without appreciation from others by taking poorly paid jobs and

moving to isolated locations.  Uttering anything against the government in public would

cause a backlash that further demoralized dragons.  Vituperation often lay hidden in

news articles, jokes, and satires.  White-washing every aspect of their dragon lives to

become like everyone else went against all the moral traditions that had stood

hundreds of years before the troll settlers had conquered the land.  Xenophobes felt

safe and confident in their right-seeming ways while the dragon youths, taught the

ignobleness of their kind came to identify themselves increasingly with the popular troll

culture.  Youths did not fully realize what they had lost; they only saw that being a troll

was better than being a dragon.  Zero hour, the time for zealous patriots to stand up

and torch a beach or a house or two to ensure their flames weren’t put out and their

way of life obliterated, was upon them.