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THE CHEETAH A Dream About the Occupation of a City [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-09-05

I had a dream the other night I’d like to share.

In the dream I see a cheetah or a tiger prowling around the front yard and porch of the home I grew up in. This is significant because I am now a Marylander, suggesting that the danger being presented in the dream by the symbol of the cheetah has something to do with the city of Washington, where my family home is located. For some reason I throw a slice of bread at the cheetah, who either catches it with its teeth or picks it up after it bounces off his head. Subsequent to this event, the cheetah begins to make a circle that takes it around the yard and porch. It repeats the circle several times and with each iteration the circle gets smaller, bringing it closer to where I am in the yard. I'm afraid that when the cheetah finally reaches me it will claw me to death or eat me. I recall in the dream that this is what predators do - circle their prey over and over until finally they pounce. Eventually the cheetah grabs hold of my leg, and it is at that point in the narrative that I awaken.

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This is a dream about what is taking place in the hometown of the dreamer, the nation's capital, Washington DC. It is in a word, a dream about fascism. About the predatory nature of the authoritarian instinct. About how under a fascist regime, the compass of control, of those who are included in the sphere of danger and dominion, of those who are included on the "menu of the beast" grows ever smaller, ever more granular, ever more fixed on the individual, ever more local. It is a dream about the ever-narrowing focus of who the beast decides to hunt - a term that should be understood both literally and figuratively. It is a dream about how if you dare to throw a slice of bread (or a subway sandwich) at the cheetah, it may hunt you down and eat you.

The dream depicts the unexpected and mostly unwelcome arrival of a non-native species (the National Guard et al), a creature that belongs to and is normally found in the jungle rather than the city. It is a dream about the invasion on a large scale (not talking about the spotted lantern fly) of a foreign entity, an entity which, instead of “deploying” in their own equally if not MORE crime-ridden neighborhoods (1), have been sent here for reasons that have nothing to do with those which have been stated. Otherwise, the "cheetah" would be prowling about in communities where the most violent and ugly crimes are being committed, instead of picturesque monuments and government buildings.

I don’t know if the circle of the beast will narrow to the point where those who speak out against or criticize the government on their nextdoor site, their Facebook page, at a local poetry jam or concert (all of which I participate in) will attract the attention of those in power. But I suspect that given the opportunity, there are people if not in this community, somewhere close at hand who would feel compelled to report their neighbors, if those neighbors are the voices in some small way of resistance, should that happen.

We do not have to go down this dark road. We don't have to give in to the fear and hate, we don't have to let it turn us into accomplices. The United States is adrift in a stormy sea and it is a storm largely of our own making. The captain we elected is unfit for duty, the crew he selected is as ill-equipped as a crew can be, and the vessel we inhabit is in danger of sinking. The American dream, which is a dream of equality under the law, a dream of democracy and freedom is under siege. In its place a "cheetah" prowls the streets of the capital city looking for its next meal. Choose the dream however narrowly and imperfectly fulfilled of democracy, and send the cheetah home.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

B. Franklin.

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(1) For example according to the FBI, Memphis Tennessee has a murder rate twice as high as the nation's capital and violent crime in Nashville is also higher. The states of Texas, Ohio and Missouri which along with West Virginia and North Carolina have sent troops to Washington, also have higher rates.

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