The Blond Gorilla And the Yellow Fire Plague (A Fable)

Once upon a time there was a country, a beautiful and powerful country. The country was ME-RIC-A. The country had everything – beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers, parks, city streets, prosperous farm land and cities.

The country had a city where entertainers thrived. There was a city with gambling and expensive grownup toys and anything goes. There was a city where movies were made and everybody was rich. There was a city where they made cars. And there was a city by the lake that had hard workers who loved their lakefront.

The country ME-RIC-A was so beautiful, so rich, that people from other countries wanted to come and never go home, because the country had lots of opportunity and everybody could get rich if they worked hard.

There were two kinds of people living in this magnificent country – the plaids and the polka dots. Everybody else was somewhat a combination of the plaids and the polka dots, even though they came from different places.

The plaids were light in skin color and had a lot of privileges. Often they came from across the sea from the continent of Euro, where there was royalty that put great limitations on the ordinaries. The plaids rebelled and came to ME-RIC-A to make a new way in a new land.

In order to build the country and grow the crop and pick the cotton, they went to a darker continent and captured a people that turned into polka dots. They worked the land and were treated badly and made the plaids rich in every way. The people who became polka dots provided free labor for 400 years and were mistreated, abused, raped and even killed.

The country was divided into two parts for the plaids and the polka dots. Some lived north and some lived south. Most of the polka dots worked in the South. They worked hard, with no pay, poor food; they made their own music and separately they made their own way. They were separate from the plaids except when they worked. They were poorly educated and the plaids wanted them poor and kept them deprived, not allowing them to enjoy the beauty and riches of the country.

The polka dots by and by became educated and some rose to the top even with the discrimination and segregation. Whenever a polka dot spoke up and told the plaids about the injustices and inequities, they were killed. The plaids even had an underground army that wore white sheets while on horses as they burned houses and hung the polka dots from trees.

Plaid policemen shot young male polka dots dead in the streets. The polka dots had an underground railroad, where they escaped to the north for a better life. Many of the polka dots had a migration to the north, when they left the south en masse for a better life in the north.

The Blond Gorilla Arrives
One day, a gorilla with yellow hair became the head of ME-RIC-A. He was from the city with the best theater and fashion. He was a land baron. Some small-minded people voted for him to be the ruler of the land; most of them were plaids, but some were polka dots, too, who voted against their own self-interest because the gorilla was no fan of polka dots.

The gorilla beat his chest most of the time. He told people how great he was. He told people what to do. He fired people who could help him run the land. He said he knew the most about everything. He was the ruler, the gorilla with the blond hair.

He was a boss beast. He was elected to office, but acted like he was the king of the land. He beat his chest every day and told the media he was the best they had ever had. He thought he was smarter than everyone, including the military intelligence animals, the healthcare animals, the educators, and the experts.

When something went wrong, he played the blame game. And when the press called his hand, he said they were fake. He was the most expert of the experts. He lied so much that he didn’t even know he was lying. He beat his chest and ran through the special Red House and told everyone he was the very best. The gorilla had a policy that before you spoke, you had to praise him or pay homage to him. If you didn’t, he would slap or fine you or dismiss you.

Suddenly, there came a plague to the beautiful country that was killing people. Actually, ME-RIC-A suffered from two plagues. The first plague was “ism” that started when the country was born. Sometimes it was called racism; that is when the plaids didn’t like the polka dots and they made special laws called the “Blackbird” laws that prevented the polka dots from full societal participation.

Sometimes it was sexism; the male plaids didn’t respect the females, plaid or any other kind, and the male plaids didn’t respect the females who were their daughters, wives, and sisters. They wouldn’t let them vote or run companies. They had to stay home, have children and do what the male plaids said to do. That was the first plague for ME-RIC-A, and for many years, there was rebellion, fights, marches, and protests against the injustices. But still, the plaids prevailed.

There were doves in the land. They prayed and every week and had meetings that turned to The Master for guidance and direction to fight the plaids. Sometimes they were heard with loud voices and sometimes they were not. They all read from the same Big Book.

One time, improbably, one of the polka dots became the ruler of ME-RIC-A. He was the 44th leader. Number 44 was a smart polka dot who came from that hard working city by the lake. His father was a pure black dot and his mother was a plaid. He was a uique stripe. He ruled nicely, but he went away with his polka dot wife and children.

His wife became a sensation. And he became quiet because he wasn’t the chieftain anymore. He was just a polka dot giraffe with a stripe n the middle of his back. They bought a big house, far away from other polka dots and wrote books and became wealthy.

The Plague Comes
And then, just as the country was several years into the reign of the gorilla with the blond hair, another plague came. A big deadly one. This plague was yellow fire. The Master sent it. The Master was looking down on the beautiful country he built. The plaids and their attitudes of disrespect, greed, power and entitlement disturbed him. He didn’t like their theft and harsh words. He had enough.

The Master had created everybody to be equal, with justice and freedom, like the pioneer plaids wrote when they founded the country. But it wasn’t happening. So, The Master sent a yellow plague, yellow fire, that took over the land. It came from another country, from little people.

The original plague brought the yellow fire to the Big Banana city, where the richest of the rich and the talented and fashionable ones lived. The yellow fire took them by storm and killed so many that they had to bury the dead in their beautiful park.

The Governor of the Big Banana was a fantastic plaid jaguar who knew what to do with the yellow fire. His name was Mambo. He stood up to the blond gorilla. He got the blue doctor peacocks to work, until they couldn’t. They wore masks and stayed inside and they cried because they worked so hard trying to save all of the animals in the country of ME-RIC-A. Other jaguars looked to Mambo for direction. He became a loud voice in the land.

The city by the lake, which itself had been discovered by a polka dot, was in a state that had a plaid golden lion for its governor. He was rich, but wanted to serve the people. He let the blue doctor peacocks and healthcare workers stay in his hotels so they didn’t have to go home to their families and spread the yellow fire. The golden lion was nice when he told people they had to stay home and just go to the store and to keep their distance. He was working hard to kill the yellow fire.

The city by the lake had a polka dot mayor who was a golden tiger cub. She was known as “Tiny Mite” and she was fierce as she tried to contain the yellow fire. She was honest and straightforward as she told people they couldn’t play on the lakefront. She knew the rules because she was a top-notch lawyer before becoming a ruler.

A Desparate, Life Saving Act

In the meantime, the blond gorilla was killing the animals of the kingdom by giving out false information. He said he was the smartest. He wouldn’t listen to the blue experts who knew all about the yellow fire plague.

There was a plaid lion cub that was an expert on the new plague. He knew the right things for the animals; he knew how to save them. But the blond gorilla was the head honcho and he wouldn’t listen. He got angry at the cub and told him that he couldn’t come to any more of the daily briefings where he was trying to explain to ME-RIC-A how to deal with the yellow fire.

But the golden lion cub cried because he wanted to save the kingdom. He begged the blond gorilla to let him come jut one more time to the briefing meetings. He was allowed and when he came, the cub picked up the microphone and beat the blond gorilla to the ground.

Then he took a spray can filled with the yellow fire plague and sprayed him in the face until the gorilla couldn’t breath and he choked to death becaue he was of the age of people that the yellow fire killed the most. The blue peacocks at the briefing didn’t help because they were tired and some of their members had died from the yellow fire.

At first the animals on TV were horrified, then they began to clap. The gorilla had beat them up every day for asking questions. When the animals in the kingdom heard about the gorilla, they started dancing in the streets. With the blond gorilla now out of the way, the golden cub who wanted to save all of the animals began to tell the blue animals what to do.

Every day he held a press conference and provided the blue animals with good instructions. The cub did save the animals in the kingdom. He even came up with a shot and a pill to make everybody well. He told the animals in the hospital to pick up their beds and walk. They did. They walked home. The blue peacock animals went home, too. They immediately went to sleep after hugging their children.

They gave the golden cub a parade in every city. He was a hero. And then something interesting happened. The polka dots got well. They began to eat healthy food and exercise and their ailments went away. And many of those who had stayed in while they were on lockdown had babies. New animals were born, while many of the old ones who had suffered from the “ism” plague died and went away.

There was a new birth, with new animals, and those who survived had learned new lessons and became reborn, as The Master wanted. The Master told the doves to talk about when he had to shut the planet down before when he told Noah to place two animals of each species on the ark. He told the doves that the planet was reset once before. The Master said, “Sometimes the animals get out of hand and I have to do something drastic.”

A New Birth
New animals came forth and as new animals came, the old ways went away. The old ways vanished and a new country came. The beautiful country became beautiful again. You could see clear skies, mountains and lakes. The animals of the kingdom were healthy again. They had new ways, new walks, and new wealth.

They took off the masks and showed their pretty faces. They came out of their houses, different. They found a new meaning in the word “love.” They became reacquainted with their families. They were tired of the first plague and the second one, too. Both plagues died with the blond gorilla who was known for disruption and lies.

The kingdom had a new birth and the people voted to change the name of the country. They called it AMERICA. They had a new country with a new name, a new attitude, and a new world order. The Master had reset the world. It was not a new normal; it was a new order, a reset.

AMERICA was truly magnificent and prosperous for all for the first time. The animals went outside. The animals were freed from their home cages and respected their new freedoms. They went back to work. They played in the parks again. They went to the theater and to the concerts and to the movies, and afterward, they went to dine with a fabulous meal at the restaurants with friends. They were joyful as they were kissing and hugging.

The eagle flew on Friday, one marvelous, bright, sunny, perfect day. Suddenly at the same time, the animals of the land toasted the Golden Medical Cub and all of the peacocks and the whole world rejoiced and sang songs and jumped for joy. And music from the heavens began to play all over the planet. Angels Ray Charles sang America The Beautiful. Whitney Houston sang the National Anthem and Andrea Bocelli sang Amazing Grace.

And then America was great again.