I raised my hand one day. It was a little hand. I was young and I had a memory of my family. It use to haunt me this memory….it still haunts me this memory. It was the only one I had. In this memory we where at the beach. And I was building a sand castle. And my parents they looked at me and they said “There you go Shane…..you got it….” I asked my teacher Ms. Kennard, I asked her why did this happen. I said “Ms. Kennard why would we as people kill ourselves?”

“Ms. Kennard?”

“Yes Shane?”

“This….this is the place for all our stuff right?”

“Yes.”

“Then why, why would people kill their stuff?”

She looked at me. It was a strange question for a 7 year old to ask now that I think back on it. But she answered the best way she knew how. By lying to me. Only I didn’t know it was a lie back then. I only knew that I missed something that I couldn’t have. And I only knew that it made no sense to me that human beings would do that to themselves on purpose. So she answered the standard line. The company line.

“Shane honey….humans where diseased back then. And it wasn’t until The Cleansing that we all learned to talk, and to be civilized. The world we live in now is a better place. There is food and shelter and everyone has a place. Equality, peace, understanding. This is the world we live in now. You are all too young to know what it was like. But you only have to look to the History of the Earth film disc’s to learn of humanity’s violent past. The violence was everywhere. It infected everything……..now children there is the evening bell. Please read your volumes tonight and there will be a test in the morning. Good day class……”

That was life back then. That is life now. On the surface New San Diego was the place to be. We lived near the ocean though we are not allowed to step foot in it as it lies beyond the City Gates. Fruit grows on the trees though we are not allowed to eat it. We can go anywhere we like but not past the City Gates. There is a level of a class system that I didn’t know about till I got older. It was when I made the choice not to continue my studies that I  learned of the Great Divide as we have been calling it.