On reflection, he was more than happy that he had lived to experience such an event, however unreal it may have appeared at the time. He could see it all clearly now. Gazing up at the stars that seemed suddenly close and friendly he could not help but replay the scene over and over in his mind.
To a stunned and packed Senate gathering President Barack Obama got slowly to his feet to announce the following...
"Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you good news. I have seen the Light. I have awakened from my dreams of self importance, my delusions of power and have come, at last, into reality. Truly, I have been baptised in the Holy Spirit; I too have seen the Promised Land; and now I must tell you, as your president, what you all must do.
You must put a cap on personal wealth. No man, and I mean no man should have wealth beyond ten times what he and his family need to live a comfortable life in this world. You decide what that figure is to be. It will be a reasonable figure, a sane figure, a figure all can agree with and understand. It will be a figure that will not deter ambition in the slightest but one that will safeguard our dignity and rescue our spirit from the rampant greed of the pigsty where it now shamefully dwells. All other surplus wealth will belong to the people, all of the people, and to the government they have created to protect their interests and those of their children. I propose that all industry and public services be nationalized immediately and the banking system, by which we are all held captive from birth to death, be hereby eradicated once and for all from our midst. The pestilence shall be no more. The American government shall, alone, have power to print the nation's currency and to manage it. And in this office it will be guided by the spirit of God and no other... a loving God, a joyful God, a wise God, a compassionate God.
Yea, Brothers and Sisters, the poor shall henceforth be fed, the dumb be educated, the captives set free, those who were blinded shall now see. At last, the reins of human evolution shall be wrested back from those who never had any right to hold them in the first place. I am thankful I have lived to see the day when the dead of many battles and two world wars shall at last be vindicated. America will lead Mankind once more towards physical, economic and spiritual freedom, may God help us.
There will be peace among the nations, no more pillaging of the resources of others, no more meddling in the affairs of others, no more holding countries as hostages to artificial debt on behalf of the insanely, greedy few who call themselves bankers; no more bloodshed or war, no more deluging the world with our lies by propagating our morally, redundant culture spawned by the servants of these self-same few. We will henceforth dedicate ourselves and our nation to the betterment of life on planet earth... for all beings on the earth, to the glory of God and the assured happiness, growth and welfare of all of His children."
Paddy O'Shea, of course, knew it had all been a dream the instant he woke up under a piece of cardboard in a shop doorway in Boston. And yet, it all seemed to make perfect sense to him. Indeed, it was the best dream he had ever had. For a fleeting second he understood that things could be made better for all... and in the coldness and emptiness of that desolate night, it made him feel good.