Blackout

Five thirty am.

My iPad says I have internet and yet I can’t connect to anything except for Facebook. No Twitter. No Google. No Blogger. Yes, I have tried resetting the home internet connection. As I sit here as the darkness turns into light I am the only person awake at my house. 

I am alone with my fears. I ponder the possibility that I might still be asleep and this is a bad dream.

I wonder if my inability to connect to the Internet is some kind of sabotage. Yes, that may seem paranoid or wacky to you, but, what would be the quickest way to keep citizens from mobilizing? Cut off their ability to get information and to connect.

The current political situation fills me with dread.

Everything that I believe in about this country is being destroyed. I am heartsick. I am soul sick. Each new day brings another betrayal of our democracy and our basic human values. And so it is not too far-fetched to believe that malevolent forces have taken down most, if not all, of the Internet. 

Perhaps when my husband wakes up he will flip some switch, as yet unknown to me, and everything will work again. And then I will feel foolish. 

What would we do if we woke up and discovered that our access to the Internet was gone? Perhaps our telephone service as well? How would we find each other and where would we meet up? As crazy as it sounds, perhaps we should have a plan. I don’t think we can rely on the world to work the way it ought to anymore. I don’t think our basic freedoms are protected. And that scares me. 

Right now I feel alone. And disconnected. And powerless. 

*****

Some time shortly after six-thirty, my internet connection came back. Right now I have no idea what happened. I still wonder if we need to have an emergency plan.