Down in the south where the bullfrogs croak and the butterflies flit, there sits a small town in the middle of a valley. The valley is green and fruitful, but not many people ever find the little town because it is so secluded. There aren’t usually any visitors so the citizens have adapted their own way of life as they have seen fit. The little town of Ameriville is ignorant of the world; the citizens hold no grudges toward one another and everything is finalized in a neat, orderly, and fair way.

Every month the leaders of the community of Ameriville hold a meeting to discuss the wellbeing of the town in a peaceful and respectful setting. The meeting is an open forum so the whole town usually attends. These meetings are the only times private and public conflictions can ever be debated. Ameriville has never needed a sheriff or prison, for there are never any seriously conflictions that occur; all the citizens are fairly good-natured and soft spoken. No family has more land or more wealth than the next, and every man, woman, and child knows every other man, woman, and child.

The only month in which the meeting is not held in is December. No one works or attends school at any time in December because of Christmas. Everyone spends their time preparing for the huge picnic in which the whole town participates. Snow is never seen in Ameriville so the picnic is never cancelled; in fact, most of the citizens in the town don’t even know what snow is.

It was April and the citizens were beginning there walk to the town hall where the meeting was about to be held. A man who no one had ever seen before stepped into the crowd and walked the rest of the way with them. Whispers were soon spread throughout the crowd that an “outsider” had appeared. And as the town hall filled up the outsider took a spot by the wall and in the far back corner. People glanced at him in fear and bewilderment, no outsider had ever attended a meeting so nonchalantly.

“Good day everyone,” began Mr. McKenzie, the leader of the meetings, “As you all know, this is the sixty-sixth annual town meeting that has occurred in the month of April.” The crowd clapped and cheered in excitement, and with a wave of his hand Mr. McKenzie silenced them.

“Some interesting conflictions have been brought to my attention over the past few weeks, therefore I will begin naming them.” As he rattled off the conflictions the outsider sat silently in the corner listening intently to what was being said. After all the conflictions had been listed he stood up quickly and sauntered to the front of the big, open hall.

“Mr…um….Sir is there a problem?” asked Mr. McKenzie in a quizzical tone. No outsider had ever behaved this way before and no one knew what to do or how to handle it. The man was now standing beside Mr. McKenzie, who was seated in an elevated seat behind a desk. The crowd was astonished by the audacity of this man.

“People of Ameriville, the world is changing, and you are not,” the outsider stated. “I have come to make sure that you change with world; it is spinning faster, and anyone who can’t keep up will be forgotten. Many things are not as you think they are.” Murmurs spread through the crowd of people; again Mr. McKenzie waved his hand and the room went silent. He stood up and towered over the man below.

“What do think you are doing? You have no right to come in here and speak against the auth-.” The outsider cut in.

“Why are you all silenced by the wave of this mans hand?” He said, pointing to Mr. McKenzie, “Are not all men created equal? Who gave this man the right to be leader over you? Surely you did not appoint him as leader.” This time the crowd burst out in an uproar. Mr. McKenzie glared at the man and then turned to the mass of people standing and yelling. Once again, with a wave his hand, all the citizens sat down and shut up. Mr. McKenzie turned back to the man, “My family has always led these meetings; it isn’t questioned!”

“And why not?” The Outsider replied. “I have seen that you all own the same amount of land, and that all your houses are the same size; none of you have more wealth than the other. So what gives the McKenzie family the right to rule over you in here?” Mr. McKenzie was furious, and for lack of anything better to say he shot some questions at the outsider.

“Who are you and how do you know so much about us?” The outsider took a more formidable pose and spoke again, “My name is Mr. Addius Smith and I am here to tell you that equality is not a choice, it is a commandment. And Mr. McKenzie is violating this commandment. If you all truly want equality in this lovely, little town of yours, then I suggest a new era begins; and era of equality and happiness! Mr. McKenzie cannot bring this to you apparently, but I can.” Mr. Smith takes another deep breath. “Listen to me and I promise you I will bring such things.”

The entire hall was quiet, and Mr. McKenzie had not waved his hand. The whole town was absorbing what they all thought was already true. A woman stood up from the crowd defiantly and pointed a clean finger at Mr. Smith, “You are nothing but a deceiver! You can’t expect to come in to this town and change everything that this town has embraced!” Mr. Smith looked at the woman then to the crowd.

“Mrs. McKenzie, I presume?”

That afternoon the entire McKenzie family was hanged, even their four year old son. The citizens cheered as their bodies hung in the air. Mr. Smith stood forward and waved his hand; everything went silent.

“Now equality shall reign in this town; now you have caught up with the world!” The crowd cheered once again for Mr. Addius Smith and his truth. All of the town went home content and fulfilled. Mr. Smith slept in the McKenzie’s home which had always been a little bit bigger than the rest.

The next few months past and many things changed. Mr. Smith made sure that everyone got the amount of food, that no one was smarter than any other, that everyone had the same size houses with the same furniture, that everyone wore the same clothes, and that everyone had the same garden with the same flowers. Soon the subject of Christmas came up in the meetings that occurred only bi-monthly anymore. Mr. Smith said to forget Christmas, there was no way to make sure that everyone was treated equally. At first many people argued with him because they loved Christmas and didn’t want to see it go. The official ruling made by Mr. Smith was that there would be no Christmas, and once he waved his hand there was no more arguing. So in the month of December, every boy and girl went to school, and every man and woman went to work. Mr. Smith made it law that if anyone even mentioned Christmas they were to be hanged for treason; and anything but equality was treason. Mr. Smith also had a prison constructed at the edge of town as a “precautionary measure.” Person after person was sent to the prison for doing things that would never be thought of as unequal. And if there was ever a question about equality Mr. Smith would always state, “I said I would bring you equality, and I know more about it than any of you, so listen to me.”