Freedom vs.Tyranny

by Ira J. Tabankin

  Some of the morning news programs are gleeful the two right wing tea baggers are gone. Some of the morning sound bites are;

  “They got what they deserved; they should have never spoken out against the President.”

  “Our President is doing more than anyone else to save our children’s lives. Anyone, who speaks out against him, deserves to die.”

  Martin Bradshere returns to his program on CNN saying, “Rash and Glenn were two hell spawn demons who have gone back to serve their master Satan.”

  The web is alive with comments both for and against the two famous radio personalities. Many praised the two; many said the Federal Government killed them, and it’s the duty of every citizen not to support the government. One person posted Thomas Jefferson’s famous sentence on every social network, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Many people shared and reposted it, many others, even more tweeted it, some went so far as to spray paint it on government building walls while others painted it on blank billboards. The Department of Homeland Security issued a regulation stating that the message is considered ‘hate speech’ and those caught using it will be arrested and classified as domestic terrorists.

  At the same time, the morning news programs report the deaths of the two radio hosts, a 59-year old man in Ashburn Virginia woke at 6:15 AM. Michael had been born in Colombia, Maryland where his parents worked at the State University. Today, like he did every morning, he had a cup of coffee while he made breakfast; he had the same breakfast every day for 40 years. He read the paper while he ate his breakfast. Sometimes he would linger over a cup of coffee remembering his days as a pilot in the Air Force. He flew an F16 in the first Gulf War. He loved flying; it was the only time he truly felt free. Normally he worked as an engineer for Harris; he arrived in his cubical every day at 8:15 and left at 5:30. He lived alone; he ate out on Friday and Saturday evenings. He had been married for twenty years; he loved his wife so deeply it hurt when he was separated from her. One Wednesday morning he woke and showered as he normally did, when he returned to their bedroom to dress for work, he bent down to kiss his wife good morning. She didn’t stir, he felt her head; it was cool, he felt her neck, there wasn’t a pulse. He picked up the phone to dial 911. The police arrived within two minutes; they found him standing next to the bed wearing a pair of black pants, no shoes and a T-shirt holding her hand. The police sergeant tried to explain to him she’d passed on sometime during the night. Her heart had stopped. Michael felt his life drain away as they took his wife’s body to the morgue. As the months and years progressed, Michael became an avid patriot. He was an early member of the Northern Virginia Tea Party. He did everything in his power to stop the federal government power grab and the destruction of personal freedoms. On Sunday afternoon, he watched the televised reports of the shootings. He became furious with the way the news reported the events. He decided he was going to do something, something that would most likely cost him his life. He went to visit a couple of like-minded friends; he explained his plans to his friends. The four of them pitched in making a large bright yellow banner. On Monday morning, he woke as he always did dressed and left the house; he left a note behind in case he didn’t return from his mission. A mission he planned in detail most of Sunday night. He drove to the Leesburg, Virginia airport, where he and his four ex-Air Force pilot friends shared ownership of a small single engine plane. He preflighted the plane, started the engine, and contacted the tower which gave him permission to take off. He was calm knowing this might his last flight. His friends were OK with the potential loss of the plane since it was going to be used for freedom. When he reached 500 feet, he turned to follow the Virginia Greenway, he then released a large yellow banner saying, “We the People have had enough. Don’t tread on us.” He flew over the Greenway, then turned to fly over the beltway, following the beltway he flew around Washington DC with the banner flying behind him. The DHS called NORAD for help claiming the small airplane was violating the restricted airspace over the Capital and could be filled with explosives. It could be a terrorist plane getting ready to fly into the White House. Two F 22 Raptors are scrambled from Andrews Air Force base. They race to the position of the small plane an AWACS command plane gave the Raptors the single-engine plane’s position. The Raptors flew at 600 knots eating up the distance between Andrews and the beltway in seconds. They easily found the plane, which they noted was staying just outside of the restricted airspace, minding its own business; just flying over the beltway towing the banner. The two Air Force pilots read the banner and laugh, they radio back to base; “Raptor flight of 2, have suspect in sight, he’s staying just outside of restricted airspace, he’s flying low and slow, he’s towing a large yellow banner behind him. In our estimate, he’s completely harmless. Over.”

  “Raptor flight, this is Able six actual, code is bacon, I say again code is bacon.”

  “Able six actual, say again?”

  “Raptor flight, repeat code bacon, confirmation green six four.”

  The two Raptor pilots switch to a private channel, “Raptor two this is lead, did you copy code bacon?”

  “Yes, I don’t agree, he’s not dangerous, just exercising his first amendment rights, I’m refusing code bacon, how about you? Want blood on your hands?”

  “No, I’m also refusing the order.”

  Changing the channel, “Able six actual, this is Raptor one, we both say negative, repeat, negative code bacon, small airplane is in our opinion not dangerous, we refuse to execute code bacon and splash the target.”

  “Raptor lead, this is a direct order from the National Command Authority, over.”

  “Able six actual, negative, this is an illegal order, Raptor flight is refusing to comply, we are RTB. (Return To Base).”

  “Roger, report to me when you land.”

  On the private channel Raptor, two calls one, “Sir, I think our career in the Air Force is over, I wonder how hard it is to fly off of a floating runway, maybe the Navy would like a couple of pilots.”

  “I enjoyed this job; I love the Raptor, it’s like flying a science fiction craft. I hope we don’t get arrested when we land; we’ll see soon enough, listen, just say I gave you the order not to follow code beacon, you’ll be OK.”

  “No, sir, we both jointly agreed not to bring the poor SOB down. Something is very wrong if the National Command Authority ordered the shooting down of a small plane just carrying out his first amendment rights, something with this sucks. If we’re going to be cashiered, we might as well give them cause, how about we break Mach on the way home?”

  “Roger, at least we’ll go out with a bang, advancing to military power now.”

  Both Raptors accelerate to Mach 1.2 in an instant; their sonic boom followed them at ground level breaking windows and scaring people going to work. Many looked up to see two dark fighters flash across the sky followed by a boom that rocked their cars. Many called 911 calming they saw UFOs flying over the beltway or Russian fighters. Many called demanding compensation for broken windows, one woman called 911 complaining that the noise woke her baby.

  The Raptors are met by armed air police when they land. Both pilots are escorted to the Colonel’s office, “Well look who decided to drop by for a visit. Asshole 1 and asshole 2. You had been two of my best pilots before you decided not to follow orders that came down directly from the Commander in Chief. What in the blue hell were you two hot shots thinking?”

  “Sir, we intercepted the plane. It was a small single engine Piper. Sir it was outside of the restricted zone, sir, repeating it was outside of the restricted zone. The pilot waved and gave us a thumbs up. He was towing a banner. Sir to shoot him down would be murder. We’re fighter pilots flying the world’s hottest plane, we’re not murders.”

  “You were given an order from the Commander in Chief.”

  “Sir, we have the right to refuse an illegal order. To have carried out the order would have
resulted in an illegal act.”

  “Gentlemen, relax, I happen to agree with you. I want both of you off this base within an hour; the Feds are most likely going to be coming here to find you. Go on leave, go get lost, stay in touch via text, if something comes up, I’ll contact you.”

  @@@@@

  Rachel Madcow led off her program on MSNBX saying, “The time has come to take a hard look at the racial situation in our country. For far too long African Americans have been viewed as second-class citizens. They were enslaved; they were denied equal rights, and they typically grow up in single parent homes because the whites in America do everything possible to keep the black man and woman a second-class citizen. Look at yesterday’s events. A group of peaceful inner city young mostly African Americas were peacefully parading when they were attacked by a white racist Tea Party. Our President has gone out of his way to protect all Americans. All he asks of us is to treat everyone with respect. He asks us to treat everyone as equals. When we address a person of another race, we have to remember their upbringing and the conditions they grew up in. Much of the violence attributed to the inner city young isn’t their fault; they tend towards violence because they’ve never been given the respect they deserve. Our poor and oppressed are so because we as a country have let them down. It’s all of our duties to support our elected President. The internet is full of stories shouting about revolution, and the Constitution says this and the Constitution says that. Well, I’m here to tell you the Constitution is a document written over 200 years ago. Before the internet or instant communications. The Constitution was written for another time and other conditions. We shouldn’t be bound by a document written 200 years ago by a group of rich white men that kept slaves. Slave owners wrote our Constitution, as such how can we expect our young African Americans to live by it?”

  @@@@@

  Admiral Zander placed the red telephone down after listening to his orders from the Commander in Chief. The Admiral called General Simpson, “General; the President has just given us a direct order to appear in the Oval Office in thirty minutes.”

  “Admiral, we’ve discussed this, I’ll see you at the White House, as agreed we’ll travel in four vehicles and four decoys just in case our friends over at DHS decide to try and detour us. I’ve alerted Captain Grover to prepare the security details.”

  The four service chiefs arrive at the White House. Six armed secret service agents meet the four service chiefs. The lead secret service agent address’ the group, “Generals, Admiral, are any of you armed this afternoon?”

  “General Simpson responds for the group, “Senior Agent Brandon, we aren’t armed. We did bring our own security details who are armed with M4s.”

  “General, your security details will have to remain outside of the White House.”

  “Agent Brandon, that’s fine.”

  “Captain Grover, please wait here with the security details, Captain, code word is ice blue; repeat ice blue.”

  “General, I understand, code ice blue, understand and will comply, sir, thirty minutes to code change.”

  “Captain confirmed.”

  Senior Agent Brandon looks at General Simpson, “General, what’s code ice blue mean?”

  “Agent, it means to stay here and be alert, the thirty minutes means we should return in thirty minutes.”

  “General, and if you’re not back in thirty?”

  “Than agent, your people might get to meet the Captain in different circumstances.”

  “General?”

  “Lead the way Agent.”

  The service chiefs are led directly into the Oval Office where the President and the Secretary of Home Land Security are waiting for them.”

  The President remains sitting behind his desk with his feet propped up on the desk’s corner, “Generals, Admiral, thank you for coming. I’m glad we have this opportunity to work out our differences face to face. I would like each of you to review the senior officers under your command to ascertain where they stand on the Constitution. Are they going to defend it? Are your people prepared to fire on other Americans who may be on the domestic terrorist lists? Are your people willing to swear an oath of allegiance to me?”

  “Mr. President, every member of the armed services, swears an oath to defend the United States Constitution, we swear to obey your orders and those of the officers appointed above us. We pledge to defend the country against all threats, foreign and domestic. Mr. President, I hope you understand what our oath says because our answer to you is in our oath.”

  “Generals, Admiral, then we agree, which is very good. I see we’re all on the same side, I have nothing else to say to you at this time.”

  The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security stood saying, “Mr. President, ask them what happened to my men who went to the Pentagon to see these officers.”

  “General, do you have any comment to the Secretary?”

  “Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, I have no personal knowledge of any of your agents who came to the Pentagon, I only know about a group of domestic terrorists tried to attack our facility. These terrorists were met and defeated by our rapid mobile security forces. Our security squads saved many lives by defeating these terrorists.”

  The Secretary jumped up and stood in front of General Simpson, “Sir; you lie.”

  The general takes a half step forward, coming nose to nose with the Secretary, he lowers his voice so that only the two of them can hear what he says, “Talk like that to me again and sir, you will not live to wake another day. Do you understand me you little shit?”

  The Secretary starts shaking, he responds, “General no one speaks to me like that.”

  “Someone just did, what are you going to do about it?”

  The four service chief’s turnaround walking out of the Oval Office, leaving the Secretary of Homeland Security shaking in anger and the President sitting behind his desk smiling. Two hours later the four of them meet in the Pentagon bunker. “Admiral, what are your thoughts?”

  “General, my gut says, we’re on the verge of a civil war. That crazy SOB in the Oval Office is preparing to go to war against the American people in order to hold power; the question is what are we going to do about it. We swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Since he’s breaching the Constitution, does he, our, Commander in Chief, our President fall into the category of a domestic enemy? He wants us, the entire military to swear an oath to him, just like Hitler did with the German military.”

  Chapter 7

  The President and his Chief of Staff (CoS) discuss the President’s next move. The CoS is worried the President hasn’t taken sufficient action to respond to the slaughter outside of Baltimore. The President tells his CoS, “We lost the midterms, we lost additional seats in the House, and we lost the Senate, I’m going to shake the country up so that I can control everything through executive orders. There’s no way I can count on Congress supporting me. Even with the Republican Senators being held in Manassas, the House can block my policies. I bribed the Speaker to bring my policies to the floor; I know I can’t count on all of those Tea Baggers voting with me.”

  “Sir, what do you in mind?”

  “I’m going to create such an uproar in the country that the people will be behind me no matter what Congress decides. I said I was going to transform the country, what I have planned will allow me to use executive orders to complete the transformation. I plan to address the nation next week.”

  “I’ll have the press secretary announce you’re going to make a new major policy statement.”

  “Oh, and, by the way, with all of the domestic terrorism happening, I think it would be wise for me to address the country and Congress from here in the White House versus going to the Capital.”

  “Sir, its tradition the President go to the Capital when they're addressing both houses of Congress.”

  “I don’t care about tradition. Didn’t I just finish saying I’m going to transform the country, I’m not going there, and it’s no
t safe for me to go there.”

  “Yes, sir, Press and I will work something up to explain it. Sir, do you think the country will hold still for another week?”

  “You and Press make the announcements about my major policy statement; the country will be sitting in front of their TVs and computers waiting for me to make my statement, nothing is more important to the country or maybe even the entire world then my remarks. Inform the world as such. Oh and on your way out, please ask the Secretary of Homeland Security to see me.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The Chief of Staff leaves the President’s office thinking, there sits the smartest man in the world, he’s writing history, hell, he’s rewriting history right in front of me. I’m part of his inner circle, the group that’s changing the world. One day my great grandchildren will be so proud of me. My place in history is assured. I wonder what he has in mind.”

  The Secretary of Homeland Security enters the Oval Office, “Mr. President you wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, Edgar, we need to give the country another little push. I’ve tried to explain to the people that income inequality is a serious if not the most serious issue we’re facing that is after gun control, which is now solved, and climate change, which I’ll tackle shortly. I have an idea how to get the people wound up in the next week; however I need some of your help in preparing for the little shove of our people.”

  The Secretary of Homeland Security leaves the Oval Office smiling, thinking the man is a genius. This is going to be fun. The Secretary returns to his office, making some calls. Tomorrow is going to be the start of a new dawn in America.