November 11, 1960, sitting with all of the lights on in the house, hidden under my grandmother’s hand crocheted winter blanket, (a shelter of safety from anything that might have creeped into the house when the theme from the Twilight Zone) there I was watching the Twilight Zone, began its warning, then listening to Rod Serling staring at just me from the television as he said:
“Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness. A universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of the swath of bandages that cover her face. In a moment we will go back into this room, and also in a moment we will look under those bandages. Keeping in mind of course that we are not to be surprised by what we see, for this isn't just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a woman. This happens to be the Twilight Zone, and Miss Janet Tyler, with you, is about to enter it. This was Episode 6 of Season 2 titled “Eye of the Beholder.’ All Miss Tyler desired , was to look normal. The television viewer saw a woman draped in bandages, and in the background just shadows of doctor and nurses. Miss Tyler was begging and pleading that this time, this last chance, she too could become just a normal looking person. Suspense builds as only the Twilight Zone writers can create, and finally the bandages are removed, and peeking though my fingers tightly covering my eyes, I see a beautiful woman, no monster, nothing from which nightmares might be created. And then for a final Twilight Zone punch to the gut, we finally see the doctors and nurses, all with distorted face, shaped like elongated face of pigs. Miss Janet Tyler is UGLY, she is not the norm, and must go away.
The Republicans in this nation are trying their hardest to distort the norm of a once proud nation. Their support for a narcissistic, psychotic, empty man sitting in the White House, who is used to creating havoc and paying no consequences for his actions is frightening. Running around all of us are monsters who pretend that they are Americans, just your regular red white and blue kind of person, waving Confederate Flags, calling on Mother Russia draped in White Hoods, and Swaztika’s on their arms. Caring little for their constituents, but more for their Donor Masters, supporting a Commander-In Chief beholden and blackmailed by Putin, the GOP are trying their damndest to change the face of America. And just like the character of Miss Janet Tyler, who we used to view as normal, the character of this nation is changing, quickly, and awfully into a place no one will recognize. I can hear Rod Serling standing in the shadows reminding us that we are in the Twilight Zone.
