A Borg Alert

Something weird may be happening in our country. I'm worried we're all being absorbed by the Borg. In fact, I thought about checking out that great telescope in space to see if I might be able to spot that cube-shaped ship of theirs.

For those of you who are not "Star Trek" fans, the Borg is a life form which moves in on an unsuspecting planet, infiltrates it, and snatches up life forms. They then weave in mechanical and electronic equipment into the human, allowing them to maintain their human abilities while controlling their minds and actions. Everyone absorbed by the Borg then becomes part of a collective consciousness.

I can see you shaking your heads now and saying, "Boy, old girl's finally flipped out big time." But I'm here to tell you, if you check out some "Star Trek" episodes, you'll see those people didn't see it coming, either.

Why am I worried, you ask? Think about it. I can't remember a time when we as individuals have been under more pressure to think alike, look alike and act alike. Why, even our government insists we need to be a little more generic.

Take political correctness, for example. I agree that many words or phrases from the past needed to be erased from common usage. Not only were they insulting, but most promoted ill feeling among the masses. But it's getting to the point where anyone using anything in a derogatory manner is suddenly criticized for not just muttering the word, but condemned for even having such a thought. I'll give you an example. Recently, I saw a neighbor walking his dog. Trying to reduce the stigma of being the crazy old lady down the street, I stopped to talk for a minute. I made the comment to the man, "Hey, I'll bet that mutt of yours was really excited to find a home. Lucky for him you came along." He quickly turned red in the face and informed me that this was a very sensitive animal, and that I was obviously no animal lover. In addition, he claimed I didn't deserve to even walk down the street in the presence of such a creature. Wow, I hope he never hears what I said about his kid.

I wondering how many of our citizens have already been absorbed by the Borg. I mean, not only are our thoughts becoming part of the Collective, suddenly our elected officials are steering us toward their idea of perfection. Soon there will be penalties imposed on anyone participating in unhealthy activities, such as ingesting fat content, sodas, and anything else they deem as bad for us. The Borg Collective will be so crafty, they'll actually make us think these dictates are a good idea. And to insure that we follow their directives, for those who may contain just an iota of spontaneous thought, there will tracking signals to notify them of a misguided attempt to not get our daily exercise or eat a Big Mac.

So I don't know about you, but I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to be ready when I see the Borg. I'll recognize this malicious creature, even it does resemble my brother-in-law, by the blank stare in his eye and the metal sticking out of his body. But if he opens his mouth and says something intelligent, I'll know for sure they've got him, and I'll take off running.