{"id":6050,"date":"2013-10-04T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T04:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=6050"},"modified":"2013-10-04T09:20:10","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:20:10","slug":"the-death-of-the-state-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/the-death-of-the-state-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death of the State Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DeathState\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I used to have nightmares of a dead city.\u00a0 Its beauty would lie broken across harsh streets.\u00a0 No lights could promise hope or dreams.\u00a0 There was only despair.\u00a0 There was only one need, to survive.<\/p>\n

Libraries and public schools had become gigantic eyesores.\u00a0 Their vacant lots echoed like a dead past, and the doors were bolted shut.\u00a0 Yellow police tape threatened, \u201cDo not cross here.\u201d\u00a0 We had no use for these relics.\u00a0 Technology was now king.<\/p>\n

I remembered Manhattan.\u00a0 I remembered the bustle of city streets.\u00a0 I remembered being a sardine in a tin can that shuttled across the boroughs.\u00a0 Life pulsed and pounded, but now death lingered over pieces of trash that whispered in the air, the remains of what life was once lived.\u00a0 And where were its people?<\/p>\n

A rat scurried across the rails.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t care that I watched.\u00a0 It only had one need, and it would attack anyone that threatened it.\u00a0 It was a survivor at all costs, and then it was gone.\u00a0 And I was the ghost that remained.<\/p>\n

Posters bled across the cement walls.\u00a0 Faces blurred.\u00a0 Politicians used to be our best, best friends, but then they became our friendenemies.\u00a0 Instead of smiles now, there were angry glares and malicious grins.\u00a0 They were never our friends.<\/p>\n

I returned to the streets, the darkness, looking for life.\u00a0 There had to be life.\u00a0 There had to be someone left.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t be the only one here, and then I found them.\u00a0 They were lined up, waiting for bread, hungered and broken, and my heart broke with them.\u00a0 No, there was no life left here.<\/p>\n

This city was dead.\u00a0 Its past was buried in glass museums that nobody would visit.\u00a0 Stores that once thrived were now showered in broken glass and debris.\u00a0 Offices were vacated, privatized, and destroyed like the lives that once clung to it for security, for purpose.\u00a0 There was only one need left, the need to survive, to hope to survive, and dependency was king.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I used to have nightmares of a dead city. Its beauty would lie broken across harsh streets. No lights could promise hope or dreams. There was only despair. There was only one need, to survive.<\/p>\n

Libraries and public schools had become gigantic eyesores. Their vacant lots echoed like a dead past, and the doors were bolted shut. Yellow police tape threatened, \u201cDo not cross here.\u201d We had no use for these relics. Technology was now king.<\/p>\n

I remembered Manhattan. I remembered the bustle of city streets. I remembered being a sardine in a tin can that shuttled across the boroughs. Life pulsed and pounded, but now death lingered over pieces of trash that whispered in the air, the remains of what life was once lived. And where were its people? READ MORE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":6142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,218,200,219],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6050"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6144,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050\/revisions\/6144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}