Proposed Prologue to "Titor"

The first serious thing on this blog. Enjoy.

It was the worst of times. Period. The world balanced on the edge of nuclear war, waiting for one small shove to send it plunging into a sea of mass destruction. And nobody could see it coming. The civilian majority of the world was blind to the oncoming oblivion, and the few who were wary enough to glance in that direction quickly shut their eyes or turned away.

America was the world power at that time, and only with its wide reach did it succeed in holding the planet upright on the cliff's edge. But America was growing tired. Already, seeds of civil unrest were growing in the deepest parts of the American people. If given the chance, these seeds could take root and grow into a disease, a cancer that would slowly but surely destroy America from within. In the past, in the days of segregation and the slaves, America had tasted that poison, and had barely, even miraculously, pulled through alive.

But that was in the past.

Learn from the past. That was a common phrase that drifted around in those days.
Easier said than done... that was another one.

America had never been too good at learning from its mistakes. But if they slipped up this time, the entire human race was at risk. Already, they were slipping. Already, nations fell slowly from their grasp, one by one becoming victims of their own hatred. Lies, threats, mushroom cloud: that was always how it went. America would never learn from the past. Perhaps they could learn from the future?

It was the worst of times.
It is the worst of times.