The Second Declaration

by T Emerson May

  When she first put her mouth over the not yet hard tip of Mitch's shaft, he gasped audibly, but quickly succumbed to the situation and relaxed his whole body. Mitch reached down and put his hand on Sandra's beautiful hair and pulled her head closer to his now hardening shaft. She engulfed him and moved her head slowly up and down on him, quickening at times then slowing, ever so teasingly. Mitch was immersed in pleasure so delightful that he hoped that he could hold out for an hour, but knew that was not possible. He could smell Sandra's heady cologne, see her head moving slowly upon him, just make out the form of her hips and buttocks. The effect was overwhelming. In a very short time, too short for his wishes, he exploded in her mouth. She responded by burying his shaft even deeper into her mouth and moving faster now to elicit the last gasp of pleasure from his convulsing body.

  Mitch cried out, "Oh, God, Sandra! Oh my God that's good! Oh man! Oh Christ, oh, oh!" It was almost painful, the pleasure was so intense. It was for this kind of pleasure that men had killed and conquered nations. It was man's weakness, his Achilles heel, to do anything for a few moments of physical pleasure. Knowing Mitch was finished, Sandra got up from the bed and left for a few minutes. She came back and joined Mitch under the covers.

  "How do you feel, Mitch?" she asked, as though the question needed an answer.

  "I don't think I ever felt better in my life than I do right now. You know, I was married for almost eight years and my wife never once gave me that kind of pleasure. What a shitty world. I found more pleasure with a stranger in one night than with my wife of eight years."

  Sandra just smiled and said, "Don't analyze things so much, Mitch. Just learn to enjoy what comes your way. Let's go to sleep. You should be tired by now. Wake me during the night if you need anything."

  Mitch smiled at her comment and closed his eyes. He turned to snuggle against her back. He could feel her soft buttocks against his groin. He wished he could harden again but knew it was not to be, this soon after. They both fell asleep in ten minutes.

  Chapter V

  The Convention

  "Fellow delegates, fellow westerners, fellow Americans, honored guests from Canada, please come to order so this convention may begin," announced Roger Preston, state legislator from Colorado and temporary chairman of the convention. It was his honor to act as chairman until both Robert Winston and Tom Adams addressed the convention this opening night. It was now July 16th; the convention was at last underway. He continued to pound the gavel on the podium until the delegates moved to their seats and quieted their conversation. Preston gave the gathered delegates ample time to seat themselves then said, "I declare the Western States Convention in session and ready to begin the business at hand. The first order of business is the appearance of Governor Jim Helms from the great state of Idaho to introduce the man who will deliver the keynote speech."

  Governor Helm's introduction followed the generally accepted protocol of all introductory speeches. He did not refer to Senator Winston by name until the last sentence of the last paragraph. Helm's speech was brief, a mere seven minutes in length. The delegates were there to listen to Winston, not Helms. Helms was Bob Winston's friend and longtime supporter so that what he said was genuine and spoken from twenty five years of acquaintance. When he concluded with, "It is my great pleasure and high honor to introduce to you Senator Robert Winston from Idaho," the delegates stood as one and applauded for almost 20 minutes. It was applause coming from old friends, and a few political enemies, but it was applause meant to be genuine. It was clear that Bob Winston was deeply touched.

  When the applause at last dwindled to a few scattered yells and whistles, Bob Winston began, "Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow delegates, fellow citizens of the greatest area of this or any nation, dear friends. We gather here this evening to begin a discussion of the issues that affect all men and women of our great land. We are westerners and we hold certain values over those of the eastern parts of our nation. We hold honesty higher, we hold truth higher, and we hold duty and pride much higher than our eastern friends."

  At that the delegates interrupted him with a one minute applause. They would interrupt him 12 more times in his 35 minute speech. He told them what they wanted to hear, that the nation was headed down a course of fiscal disaster, that only the western states showed any fiscal responsibility at the state level, that crime and drugs were devastating the country, except in the west. He told them that the eastern liberals and money centers were controlling every decision made in the USA and had for the past 40 years. He reminded them that western values were no longer important in the country, that they were largely supplanted with greed and the quick fix. He pointed out that no real planning was being done at the national level, nobody was looking to the Twenty First Century. The delegates were eating out of his hand. He had their attention and admiration.

  When he concluded with, "It is not too late to consider alternatives. It is not too late to reverse the course of greed, incompetence and quick fixes. And if it means that our great part of the nation must carve out a new destiny for ourselves, and in conjunction with our great neighbors of the north, build a new nation dedicated to honesty, competence and virtue, then let it be so!" The delegates and guests, some one thousand total, lifted the roof of the convention center with the roar of approval and applause. He had defined the course of the convention, now he had challenged the delegates to follow his lead. Without ever uttering the word, he had said 'secession'. The applause did not end for five minutes, at which time Preston called to order and introduced Tom Adams as the next speaker.

  During the cacophony of applause and horn blowing for Robert Winston, Tim Mullenski, a CNN reporter assigned to cover the convention, and in only his second major assignment, shifted uneasily in his chair. He was situated high up in the almost empty press boxes reserved for TV and newspaper reporters. He turned to his assistant Julie Warner and said, "These people are talking secession! We're sitting on the hottest story in North America and I don't think we even have a satellite link to Atlanta. He's talking secession!" Expecting a dreary week in Denver, suddenly he was witnessing a very historic moment in the United States. He dashed for the phone booths and made a call to his office in Atlanta.

  "Sam, that was a rousing speech. I can't remember a better one from Winston," said Mitch Elliot to Sam Brouchet.

  "If that doesn't build a fire under their collective asses, then nothing will. Did you help Bob write that speech?"

  "I helped him some. Mostly the text was his. I proofread it for him and gave him some ideas."

  "Tom Adams's speech is next. We'll see how quick he can fire them up. I read it this morning. Tom is a hell of a speaker and it's a good speech."

  Tom Adams began his address slowly and deliberately and only when he had the complete attention of the delegates on the floor. He was a far better orator than his friend Bob Winston. Adams was gifted with a deep, sonorous voice in the mold of Everett Dirksen, the late senator from Illinois, about whom someone had said, "When Dirksen speaks, the words float to the ceiling as though they were balloons filled with helium."

  As his speech progressed, his voice raised in pitch and tempo until he was pounding his fist on the dais to make point after emotional point. Ten minutes into the speech he exclaimed, "In country after country around the globe nations are realigning and struggling for ethnic and regional rights. In the former Soviet Union, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania cried out for independence, to throw off the yoke of Soviet oppression. Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus voted for independence from the Soviet central government. The Russian Republic is struggling to free itself from its former communist masters. The two Germanies united to form a single homogeneous state after 45 years of separation. Can we expect any less than these people? How long must we wait for our own identity?" Adams was stretching the comparison unfairly to make an emotional point; Georgia and Armenia had been annexed by force, as had the three Baltic states, into the Soviet sphere. The western states had freely sought admiss
ion into the United States in the second half of the Eighteenth Century. The delegates chose to ignore this historical fact, if indeed any of them knew it.

  Midway through his 40 minute speech Adams lowered his voice and appealed to the heart of the assembled guests and delegates, "The West is not about politics and ambition. It is about horses roaming freely on the high plains, it is about men and women going to rodeos. It is about mountains and valleys between where people raise cattle and grow crops. It is about corn in Nebraska and wheat in the Dakotas and mining in Nevada and lumber mills in Oregon. This is the west that I know and love and it is the west that people beyond Kansas City will never understand or appreciate!"

  Those comments produced the most sustained and the loudest applause. He was there to fire up the assembly, to appeal to their sense of regional differences. And he succeeded.

  At the end he concluded with, "Ask yourself over the next few days what kind of world you want your grandchildren to inherit. Will it be drugs, crime, despotism, wasted tax dollars, indifference, greed? Or will it be a sense of identity, a belief that wrongs can be made right? Will they grow up knowing their parents made difficult decisions so their life would be better? Or will they grow into adulthood witnessing the same sad plight continuing. Only you can answer those questions. I cannot help you with your own conscience. But if I could, if I could see inside your mind and help you with this agonizing choice, I would merely say, 'Be true to yourself'."

  Tom Adams, after 20 minutes of unabated applause, took over from Governor Helms as the permanent chairman of the convention. He then introduced a series of five speakers from five different states who appeared on the podium to sway the delegates or just to address a specific point of interest to themselves. The speaker from Alaska spoke about the effects of the Exxon Valdez disaster. One from Oregon spoke about the economic hardships being imposed on the lumber industry. The speaker from Montana addressed the assembly on the difficulty of exporting beef to Japan. At the end of that address, Tom Adams called for adjournment until one o'clock the following afternoon. The delegates began filing out of the great hall; many of them had left after Tom Adams had delivered his address earlier.

  The real work of the convention was about to be started. Political gatherings are very deceiving events. While it may appear to audiences watching on TV that the delegates are conducting business on the floor, in fact the real business is generally conducted behind doors in caucuses. This convention was no different. Each state had called for a brief caucus after adjourning for the evening. It was in those caucuses that some hard decisions had to be made.

  Tim Mullenski finally activated the satellite link with Atlanta just as the last speaker delivered his address and Tom Adams called for adjournment. By the time he was prepared to file a report, it was too late. It was two am in the east coast and his report would have to wait until tomorrow. He decided to find out which hotel Tom Adams and Robert Winston were registered in. He would try to get to the bottom of this story; he did not want to make a fool of himself by filing a story that would prove to be ludicrous. Still, there was something about the tone of this gathering that intrigued him.

  The next morning he found Bob Winston at the Marriot Hotel, having breakfast with Theresa. He walked over to their table and introduced himself. Winston invited him to sit with them and drink a cup of coffee. "Senator Winston, I was quite impressed with your speech last night. Unfortunately I did not have my equipment set up for a link to Atlanta, so I was unable to file a live report. Can you tell me, sir, what you were really saying to the delegates last night?" asked Mullenski.

  "Well, you heard the speech. What do you think I said?"

  "What I heard and what you said were two different things. You didn't really say it, but you were talking about leading the west out of the Union and into secession. Coming from one of the most powerful men in the American political scene, it was pretty heady stuff," said the young CNN reporter.

  "The delegates from the western states are here to try to resolve some problems that have plagued this part of the country for a very long time. If the convention as a group decide that our destiny is not to be found with the USA, then I will have to abide by that decision," said Winston, a bit condescendingly.

  "Are you saying that you would be happy to see the west break away from the United States and form a separate country?"

  "No, you said that. Now my wife and I really have to get back to our room so that we can prepare for the afternoon session. Very nice talking to you. Hope to see you at the center this afternoon," said Winston brusquely. Both he and Theresa rose and left the restaurant. Tim Mullenski decided that it was time to file a belated report on the mysterious comments made by Senator Robert Winston. He left quickly for the convention center.

  Mitch Elliot and Tom Adams made a routine walkthrough of the convention center before the afternoon session was to begin. Always painfully aware of details, Elliot felt that a quick tour was a necessary part of the preparations. Mitch spotted an electrician coming out of the service room. He asked the man, "Are we having any problems with electricity? Anything I should know about?"

  "No, sir, just part of our routine maintenance. I was checking some meters and breakers. I installed a metering device on one of the main panels. Nothing to worry about."

  "OK, thanks. We've got an important session scheduled for this afternoon. Never hurts to ask."

  "Right. No problem," the man said as he departed.

  "Tom, did you notice anything unusual about that guy?" asked Mitch when the man was out of earshot.

  "No, not really," said Tom

  "He was wearing dress shoes. Electricians must make damn good money in Denver."

  Adams looked at Mitch and smiled. "Mitch, you're the only man I know who would have noticed that. Maybe you should have been a private detective."

  "Yeah, really," said Mitch, still puzzled by the demeanor of the electrician.

  The afternoon session of this, the second day of the convention, started surprisingly on time. Generally, in conventions of this type, egos and simple effrontery made it impossible to maintain a schedule. This was different. The organizers of the gathering wished to press on with the business at hand. It was either today or never in the opinion of Tom, Bob, Sam and the others.

  The afternoon session was largely devoted to purely organizational matters and parliamentary obscurities. The chairman announced committees and their chairmen and members. The chairman called for reports and a vote was taken on whether the convention should create a permanent office in Denver for its continuing business. Two more speakers addressed the hall, which was generally engaged in private conversations among the delegates. Polite applause greeted the speakers.

  By eight that evening, after a dinner hour break of three hours, the most important session convened. From the floor, the Honorable Phillip Di'Agusto, delegate from Nevada and member of its general assembly, rose and asked to speak to the convention. He was not a scheduled speaker, but Tom Adams recognized him and invited him to the podium. In a very brief but impassioned speech Di'Agusto cautioned the assembly to think clearly about the matters being discussed. He too avoided the word 'secession', but left no doubt as to his meaning. He pleaded with the audience to beware of false promises and shattered dreams. He explained the realities of establishing a new government, the cost, the awesome realities, the liabilities in case of failure. It was very pessimistic and Tom Adams watched helplessly as the faces of the delegates changed from fire to ice. He was losing the delegates and there was nothing he could do in a democratic process such as this. He would have to let the speaker have his say.

  Di'Agusto's speech was followed by applause that concerned Tom Adams and Bob Winston. They looked at each other across the platform where both were seated. Tom made his way quickly to where Bob was seated.

  "Bob, did you have any inkling that Di'Agusto was going to deliver a speech such as that? What the hell turned him around?"

  "I don't know, Tom
. I talked to him the other day and he seemed to hold a moderate view of the idea of separation. He wasn't a fire eater, but he sure as hell wasn't dead set against it. What do you suppose changed his mind? His speech could have quite a negative effect on some of the other delegates."

  "Damn right it could. I'm going to see if I can get hold of Mitch Elliot and ask him to find out what's going on." Tom quickly made his way to a phone located on the platform and called for Mitch.

  The next scheduled speaker departed from his prepared text with other pessimistic remarks. He continued the cautionary tone set by Di'Agusto. In a short speech, he called for the necessity to work within the existing system, though it had faults, and not to be too hasty in what he called a "political divorce". He reminded the delegates that westerners prided themselves on not being "quitters" and "gutless losers". He reminded the assembled crowd that the region had endured hardships before and it could weather this adversity with equal evenness of temper.

  Tom Adams finally located Mitch on the phone just before the next speaker was scheduled to speak.

  "Mitch, what the hell got into Di'Agusto? He's trying to turn this thing around. Can you tell me anything?"

  "Tom, I don't know. He seemed to be in favor of separation. I just don't know."

  "Can you get down there and try to talk to him? See if you can uncover his motives or why he flip-flopped?"

  "OK, Tom, but things are pretty hectic down there. I'll get back to you."

  A Canadian observer was then invited to speak by Tom Adams. The Canadian, a member of the group from Manitoba and a close friend of Premier Jeffries, traced the recent problems that had clouded the future of Canadian unity. He spoke at length of the divergent makeup of Canadian culture, the stress caused by the demand of the French speaking citizens on the rest of Canada. He emphasized the possibility that Canada was on the verge of breakup and how precarious that would leave the western provinces along with their hopes of joining the American west. He left no doubt that their greatest opportunity lay with a marriage with their "American cousins", who shared a common origin and language. He left no doubt either that the Canadians in attendance hoped for a new nation born out of the western provinces and the western US. His speech was followed by raucous applause from those supporting secession and this time the CNN reporter had it taped for transmission to the Atlanta headquarters.