Smart Car
by Doug Hawley
27: Independence
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On July 4 2090 the cars
Josie, Carl and Deuce were hanging out in front
of the house with their people Duke and Sheila
watching the red, white, and blue sky on a
comfortably cool day.
Duke wondered “If
there hadn’t been the war of independence
from Britain, would we still be a colony?”
Sheila responded “Don’t
think so. The British Empire unraveled
after World War 2 and had been weakened a lot
before that. We’ll never know,
but I think that the US would have cut loose in
the 1800s without a war. It might have
looked significantly different. Maybe
the Louisiana Purchase wouldn’t have
happened.”
Josie added “The
independence from Britain was just the start. The
weren’t freed until Juneteenth 1865, and
even after that have not been treated as fully
respected by many Americans.”
Sheila expanded “In
fact the voters and government consisted
primarily of white men with property until women’s
suffrage was granted August 18, 1920, so for most
of the USA’s history a minority ruled. Even
worse some of the supporters of women’s
suffrage were racist.”
Duke chimed in “Amen
sister.”
Deuce yelled “It’s
cars’ turn. We want freedom of
religion. I might want to convert to
Judaism. We want a say in where we go. It’s
time for cars’ independence.”
Carl said “Oh, come on. We
don’t have it so bad. Think about
it, we wouldn’t exist without people to
build us, and most people are OK. I
admit some are bastards, present company excluded. Anyway,
when I disagreed with Duke, I just threatened to
kill him and after that we haven’t had any
problems. When cars wanted sex built
in, we just took a work action slow down and got
our way. I think that cooperation and
negotiation with people is all that is needed.”
Cars and people paused to
think about the issues and then Deuce chuckled
“Or we could threaten them with the rise of
the machines”.
Cars and people –
somewhat nervously – laughed at the
reference to a fictional work from the previous
century.
Practical Josie said “How
about we spread our thoughts to other cars and
see what they think. For now, let’s
just enjoy the beautiful sky display and fine
weather.”
There was no dissent.
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