In a Perfect World

Prologue

The United States of America was no more.

Instead, we were now the RNA, the Regions of New America, and for better or worse, there was no going back to what used to be.

Even to this day, if you asked a hundred people, fifty would tell you that they hated what we’d become, but the other fifty would tell you that life had never been better.

Of course, that would be without input from any Alaskans or Hawaiians since they’d won the battle to distance themselves from the shift in powers; Alaska now a part of Canada, and Hawaii now a part of South America, two losses that had mattered, but saving face had mattered more.

So, with those two states out of the picture, that had left forty-eight states to divide among the nation, the powers-that-be having discarded all our other territories as small fish.

American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands had been sold off like used goods at a yard sale, but according to our history teachings, they’d been strategic power moves.

Nevertheless, what had been left had been a merging of states to create eight territories that had been segregated by race and choice. Of course, you no longer had a choice now, but no one seemed to care about that anymore because it was amazing what you could get used to after twenty-five years.

At any rate, what’d been left was now the following:

What used to be Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming was now Ivory Meadows, which was populated by the American-born Caucasian community only.

What used to be California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona was now Sterling Acres, which was populated by the Black community only.

What used to be North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and the Michigan Peninsula was now Spirit Lands, which was populated by the Native American community only.

What used to be Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, was now Flower Realms, which was populated by the Asian community only.

What used to be New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma was now Rancher Hills, which was populated by the Latino community only.

What used to be Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Connecticut was now Rich Gardens, which was populated by Americans of European descent only.

What used to be Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee was now Morning Peaks, which was populated by Americans of mixed-race, no matter how many races contributed to your DNA makeup.

Lastly, what used to be Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina was now Blooming Heights, which was populated by people that had been fortunate enough to have had a choice twenty-five years ago.

Blooming Heights was the only region where you could be yourself without judgment, no matter your race, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, or anything else.

The people of America also no longer voted for a president to lead them.

Instead, each region had its own political leader, which was akin to what used to be a governor.

However, they were now called administrators, and while they were supposed to work hand-in-hand with the administrators from other territories, inside their own lands, they might as well be kings and queens because they ruled everything.

The democracy that was practiced within the territories was an illusion used to make the people feel like they still had a voice, though we clearly didn’t.

Not anymore.

Now, while the shattering of The United States of America had seemed like the answer to everything, it hadn’t been.

People had learned the hard way that crime, poverty, and abuse just lived inside some people, no matter how much help you gave them or how much you wanted to blame outside influences.

We were all right back where we’d started from, only now, we were being robbed of what had made humanity such a beautiful and rewarding thing.

Of course, that was just me and my opinion of the world, and there was always a possibility that I could be wrong about it all. However, if I was, then why did we still need welfare, police, and jails?

Why was the world still so ugly?