by Jaylaan Bell Colley
Critical Essay Winner, VSU Student Writing Contest 2019
Ahhh… “Martin had a dream. Martin had a dream!” (Lamar) … Jaylaan what’s your dream?
All my life I’ve wanted money and power divided equally among everyone (Lamar). This is because all my life I’ve been taught about unworthy leaders, who put forth policies to benefit a few at the expense of many. Many of these leaders claiming to have some form of a divine right to rule. As I learned and studied about many of these leaders, I noticed a common character trait, a drastic lack of empathy for their fellow man. Unfortunately, this is an integral trait for leaders. For example, one of the biggest factors that got former President Barack Obama elected were his views on the wars in the middle east. He saw many Americans mourning loved ones lost overseas and emphasized with them. In addition to him emphasizing with us, we all emphasized with him, as he’s the son of a poor foreign black man and a poor Mid-western white woman, both of whom sharing the American Dream for their child.
However, I have a dream that one day we will emphasize with those on the other side, the Middle Eastern natives that are witnessing their loved one’s parish first hand. I have a dream… it is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream. I have a dream that the people of the cosmos will one day be led by philosopher kings. I have a dream that these philosopher kings will be so unified that they share everything, drastically lowering murder rates everywhere. I have a dream that one day they will have us utilize all our resources to their full potential, creating completely green renewable energy. I have a dream that one day everyone will have access to clean water, and that no child will ever die hungry or thirsty because of their insufficient funds. I have a dream that one day everyone will be able to travel the world freely (King Jr.).
In the future I envision that we will not elect reality tv stars to lead and guide us. I believe that currently we are driving ourselves to extinction chasing the worthless and manmade dollar. Established to make trading easier, it was never meant for us to brainwash masses of people to ignore the sciences and progressing humanity, for easy ways to accumulate wealth. I believe that in the future, lead by philosophical kings, we will significantly reduce the work that man has to do. For millennia man has operated using some form of mercantilism. Often times dividing into classes, where few benefit from the work of large masses. Some elected by the masses, but often times this privilege is passed down through birthrights. Now I know life isn’t fair, but I’ve always found this to be asinine. How was the first king established? Did he approach a group of guys and say, “Hey guys, this land is mine, and in order for you to stay here you have to defend it from intruders, and you have to provide us all with food somehow.” If someone approached me and said something like this, I’d completely ignore them and go back to what it was that I was doing. However, since we’re so grandfathered into the need for a governmental structure, I must analyze what would be the best structure for everyone. I imagine our forefathers had Plato’s philosopher kings in mind when they created the U.S. constitution; however, I can’t imagine Plato having the way that our government stalls and shuts down in mind. I envision, like Plato a government that argues and learns from each other’s point of view (Miller). I dream of one day having legitimate discussions about climate change, opposed to I have ties to the fossil fuels that create climate change, so I don’t want to hear anything about your ideas about abandoning them as a resource.
I believe that with guidance from our philosopher kings we will finally put an end to world hunger and world thirst. Most of the world is aware that millions suffer from starvation, so I won’t touch on that; however, what many people in the world don’t know is that millions also suffer from thirst due to a lack of water. According to several sources, thousands die daily due to a lack of water, which considering that the world is 71 percent water, is extremely sad. The reason so many suffer is because they lack access to clean water and more importantly, they lack the resources to filter their water. According to Kroger, even us here in the United States lack the resources to completely filter our water. The water sold inside Kroger’s contains the maximum levels of chemicals that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows to be in sold water (Kroger). The key word here being sold, as the water coming through our faucets and the water coming from our water fountains aren’t sold, so one can only imagine the levels of contamination from these sources. I don’t live in Flint, Michigan, so it’s not obvious to me that these sources are contaminated, as the water still appears to be clear and drinkable, opposed to yellow and brown and clearly not water.
In addition to having sophisticated discussions and arguments amongst our leaders, I dream of a world where we will have green energy resources. I believe that former president Jimmy Carter was on to something when he advocated for those solar panels to be built on the white house. With him in mind, I hope that one day our philosopher kings will guide us in the direction of using green resources that don’t kill our environment. One way a government can guide people to transition from things that harm ourselves or our environment is through taxation. For example, in Australia in order to get people to stop utilizing cigarettes they implemented high taxes (Macreadie). Or even right here in the United States, where in order to persuade consumers to buy domestic products as opposed to foreign products, we implement tariffs on imported goods. Furthermore, in the future, our philosopher kings will not be invested in fossil fuels, so there will be no bias in promoting a transition from them to green energy resources. In order to promote this change, I envision that they will utilize the same philosophy that we’ve been using for centuries, taxes. I believe that they will heavily tax those who elect to use fossil fuels through a carbon tax. What a carbon tax entails as Peter Macreadie states in the Australian Quarterly is taxing people for the convenience of fossil fuels. I know modern conservatives would hear the word taxes and think that their cost of living will skyrocket; however, I believe that the taxes collected will be used to offset cost by making the transition to green energy more affordable and expanding access to it. I believe this to be the case because the big pollutants aren’t everyday households, but instead big companies and mass production of goods, in other words the people that can afford to pay heavy taxes. It’s only fair to me, large companies would be paying larger amounts to produce their product, or they will have to figure out a way to produce the same amount of goods using green resources.
One of the products harming the environment most is our everyday use of the gas car. We are witnessing the demise of the gas car, however, electric cars aren’t necessarily much better for our environment, as they would raise our electricity consumption a substantial amount. Instead, I believe that the flying cars of the future will run on solar energy or even peanut and vegetable oil (Hedrick). Engineers have already developed engines that can run on vegetable and peanut oils, although they have a few kinks that in the future will be worked out. In addition to this engine, cars have already been made that utilize solar energy; unfortunately, though they were lost in the flooding of Hurricane Harvey. The goods news about this though, is that the technology has already been discovered and found to operate, it’s only a matter of rediscovering it.
Not only will the cars of the future be green in the energy that they run on and the emissions that they produce, but man will have finally mastered the technology to make these vehicles fly. I know that the common human being flying themselves around is very dangerous, however, I also believe that through innovation we will have also developed the technology to make these cars safe to fly.
“My intuition is telling me there’ll be better days” (J.). Lead by philosopher kings, I believe that we will finally put an end to world hunger, producing more than enough food for everyone. I also believe that we will stop harming our environment and will be guided to transition to green energy, whether at our own will, or through taxation. Not only do I believe that our technology would have evolved in terms of being better for our environment, but I also believe we will have evolved in how they operate as well, discovering flying cars and more.
Works Cited
Bernd, Karen and Alexis Valerie-Orton. ““STOP: Can You Drink That Water?” Microbiology, Chemistry, & Advocacy in an Inquiry Based Water Quality Curriculum for 8th Graders.” The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 77, No. 5, May 2015, pp. 369-375.
Hedrick, Edward. “Engines of the Future.” The Science News-Letter Vol. 72, No. 19, 9th November 1957, pp. 298-299.
J. Cole. “Change.” 4 Your Eyez Only, Dreamville Records, 2016. https://genius.com/Jcolechange-lyrics.
Kroger. https://www.kroger.com/asset/bottled-water-info-sheet. 2019. 22nd February 2019.
King Jr., Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream.” March on Washington Protest, Civil Rights Activist, 28th August 1963, Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. Speech.
Lamar, Kendrick. “Backseat Freestyle.” good kid, m.A.A.d city, Top Dawg Entertainment, 2012. https://genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-backseat-freestyle-lyrics.
Macreadie, Peter. “Australia’s Blue Carbon Future: Oceans fight back against climate change.” Australian Quarterly Vol. 88, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2017, pp. 14-20.
Miller, Judith. “What to Do Until the Philosopher Kings Come: Bioethics and Public Policy in Canada.” Politics and the Life Sciences Vol. 13 No. 11, February 1994, pp. 93-95.