MISSOURI WATCH: ALICE IN AMERICALAND

"Now for the evidence," said the King, "and then the sentence."

"No!" said the Queen, "first the sentence, and then the evidence!"

---From "Alice in Wonderland"

Shortly following this dialogue in Lewis Carroll's allegorical "Alice in Wonderland," the young heroine awakened and realized that her brief encounter with the British monarchy and its arbitrary tyranny was only a part of a brief, but highly disturbing, dream.

One hundred and thirty-three years later, the descendants of the Alices of the last century must wonder on occasion if they are living in a dream as puzzling, and frightening, as the one in 1862. Surely, we tell ourselves in 1995, society has changed since the days of Alice in Wonderland.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

Is it a dream that those who reside in purportedly the wealthiest, most technologically advanced, most socially enlightened nation in the history of man could be grappling with such insurmountable problems, arguing among themselves about the verities of basic rights and freedoms? Those among us prone to pessimism may argue that dreams can become realities, while the optimists among us conclude that from uncertainty will come confidence, from doubt will come strength.

Perhaps it is natural if the rest of us question if the pessimists are right or the optimists are wrong. The rest of us often have reason to doubt both.

More than a century after Alice, we Americans find ourselves in a myriad of bad dreams. After having faced, for more than half a century, life-threatening totalitarian forces all over the world, we face a future almost as uncertain as any encountered since the threatening days of Germany's Third Reich and Japan's Imperialism. Following that we faced an even better-armed Russian-Chinese communism that was just as insidious, and just as soulless.

Freed of these threats to the very existence of common decency and rule by common consent, Americaland paused for only a brief second in history before traveling, willy-nilly, all over the landscape. Instead of shepherding our resources, we seemed intent on dissipating them among various pursuits which ranged from the search for more treasure to the glorification of special interests that assumed greater importance than the common good.

There is no shortage of frightening dreams in Alice's Americaland: religious alienation, moral neglect, individual intolerance, lawlessness, indifference to suffering, crumbling faith in the future, grasping greed. Whether one characterizes these dreams by disunity in federal and state capitals or the loss of learning skills among the youngest generation or growing doubts about the future by those just now facing their personal realities, the dreams are very real, very pervasive.

Even while attempting to avoid the anguish of Jeremiah, today's observers of Americaland are hard pressed not to be overcome by the dissolute. Pillorying of public officials is widely encouraged, even if the libel is committed by others equally guilty. Extending a hand to the needy among us is no longer seen as grace but as weakness. Vilification of the poor is the acceptable choice over extending a helping hand. A former president who urged Americans to commit small, individual acts of charity to the less fortunate was mocked. The need to assist the disabled is labeled only a foolish expenditure of time and money.

Fifty years ago, with the threat of tyranny knocking at the door, England slept.

Fifty years later, facing a different kind of tyranny, America appears to be sleeping.

We will learn soon enough whether this is reality or only a dream. If America is able to substitute good works for greed, concern for indifference, morality for immorality, learning for ignorance, strength for indolence, tolerance for hate, then we will survive as a nation and the people envisioned in our forefathers' dreams.

If not, we are destined to become the harborers of nightmares a thousand-fold worse than Alice's, where sentences are read before the evidence is heard.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.