by Phil Walker
“If that is the case, let me show you the standard which the majority of the world regards as the proper position of their country in the family of nations.” She pushed a button on a controller. A Chinese women came on the screen, speaking in Mandarin and using a pointer to highlight the charter of the United Nations. She explained in detail what each point meant in the daily life of a country. At the core of the charter was that the Creator had given each person certain inalienable rights, which must be respected by each government. She talked about a government only having power at the consent of the people. She explained what this meant in real terms for the citizens of the whole country, including universal suffrage. She concluded her presentation by enumerating what the people should expect in the Bill of Rights.
“I must admit the Chinese form of government is authoritative in nature. Moving to a system like this would take a long time, indeed,” said the Premier.
“Are you finding the Peace Corps teams making a material improvement in the morale, productivity, and quality of life of your people,” asked the President?
“There’s no question about it. The phenomenon has the entire government talking.
“If that is the case,” said Moore, “then may I respectfully suggest your upper class requires an adjustment in their attitudes. You see, Premier, our trade of advanced products and technology improves the entire country. It’s like the principle a of rising tide raising all ships. You’re going to start having real problems with your working class if they are being significantly more productive, but the government still takes the same share as always. The people will reasonably say, ‘you had no part in our increases, why should we not keep more of what we have earned?”
“We already are,” said the Premier.
“If that is the case and you wish to stop it and go back to the way things were, then we will remove all our Peace Corps volunteers from your country.”
The Premier of China left the Oval office a very confused and frustrated man. It was much the same for Japan.
Another year went by. The President let some selected technology and modern products slip into China. It only made the government’s position more untenable. A very big shake-up occurred in the upper ranks of the Empire. The old leaders were replaced by younger, more practical men, who had spent a considerable time in America. Their attitudes were simply that they actually had nothing to fear from a vibrant and active middle class. They saw it as a way of increasing revenues without arbitrarily raising taxes. Meanwhile, the Peace Corps teams were penetrating all the strata’s of life throughout the country.
The great triumph of Susan’s Moore’s presidency, as far as she was concerned was the day that both China and Japan applied for membership in the United Nations. It had taken a lot of soul searching, and there was bloodshed in some of the top ranks of the most independent provinces, but the reformers prevailed. Some of them had become Christians, saying that the teachings of Confucius had been leading to that kind of outlook on life all the time.
The enterprising Chinese had spotted, what they thought, was the secret to America’s success…the schools. They were right. With 150 years of bringing in students demanding they think for themselves, that knowledge was not an end to itself, without innovation and growth added to the total body of wisdom, the schools thrived. Students were tested continuously as the educators looked for the areas in which the young people could make a contribution to the total society. There were now over 2000 universities and all of them had advanced research centers attached to them. The gifted students went right to the place where they could make the biggest impact.
Arcadia’s goal was always to stay at least 100 years ahead of the rest of the world. The schools had exceeded that standard in a great number of areas. Medicine was one of the greatest triumphs. No longer were the physicians who had come from the future the teachers. They were now the students. The DNA genome was manipulated to prevent birth defects, Down’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease and a dozen other diseases and conditions. Transplants of every organ was routine. The cure for cancer was discovered, and grafting of limbs was a standard. Moreover, the life expectancy of the normal human shot up to over 100 years old.
The soul of the country was its dedication to seeking to live lives that were as close to the life of Jesus as possible. Of course, there was still sin and behaviors that could not be honored by God, but the people worked at it. The Peace Corps teams were always respected in whatever society in which they were placed because of their pure love, patience, and sincere giving hearts.
The result of this was the world’s religions lived in harmony with one another. Each was tolerant of the differences and every person was free to exercise their expression of faith in whatever fashion was right for them.
Very quietly, the U.S. worked diligently on their space program. There were now enough communications satellites in orbit to handle whatever load might come in the future. Every American had an advanced cell phone. A substantial space station had been constructed and it was used to build a band of solar receivers, which increasingly beamed power to the surface that was connected to the vast electrical grid that had been built over the past 100 years. The Europeans noticed it first when the amount of natural gas needed to run the power plants dropped to zero.
Computers were now compact tablets, which connected to a number of public websites containing any kind of information anyone could want, transferred to other computers or printed out through the 3D, super high definition, plasma screens of all sizes in every home. The keyboards on the tablets appeared whenever they were needed.
The United Nations now contained 105 members. The trend for countries to decide that their ethnic and cultural differences were not that significant, particularly when a larger country was able to make a better trading relationship with the United States, created fewer states. The organization was much superior than the one from Arcadia’s time. It confined its business to resolving conflicts, keeping accurate records on the state of every nation in terms of health, wealth, quality of life, and overall satisfaction of the people. It had an Executive Council that dealt with bigger issues, but membership was rotated between all the countries and nobody had a blanket veto.
Susan Moore stepped down in 1925, after 30 years of service as President. Unfortunately, the man who stepped into the Presidency was killed in a freak boating accident just a year later, and the process of selecting a vice president was still incomplete. Congress approved a compromise candidate named Tom Wilkinson. Arcadia had her doubts about him from the start. He lacked the discipline of previous Presidents. He increased the size of the Federal government and began issuing Executive Orders that ran contrary to the minds of the citizens who were accustomed to the government serving as a partner rather than an organization that complicated people’s lives unnecessarily. He lasted just one term. By that time Arcadia had picked five people who she thought were outstanding and started an intensive course in training. She made her choice of a brilliant, sensitive, thoroughly Christian man whose name was Arthur Curtis. His tribal name was translated as “Man on the Mountain” and he was a Lakota Sioux.
Curtis took office in 1936. His first actions were to reduce the size of government, and rescind all of the Executive Orders of his predecessor. He also took a hard look at the current fiscal health of the nation and wisely declared a tax holiday for the next year, the third such time that had happened. His popularity soared long enough for the country to realize what an outstanding President he actually was. He and Arcadia were great friends. She even took to putting on a hat and a pair of sunglasses to visit “Art” at the White House. This was entirely parenthetic. The two had direct contact with each other on the almost lifelike screens that connected her Georgetown mansion and the White House. It was just that they liked each other’s company.
Curtis was the President who got to announce in a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly the completion of the solar band and tell all the countries of the world
that a simple antenna, tuned to the right frequency would interface with the electrical grids and that gas operated Power Plants were no longer necessary. This came as something of a shock to most of the world. America had built the solar band from trading profits over a period of 40 years. Now, almost free power was available to the entire world. A very small surtax was added to the cost of outgoing trade from the U.S. and this maintained the Solar Band, making improvements, and repairs as needed. Nobody complained.
His second big achievement was to announce that nearly 15 million Jews lived in the land America owned in the Middle East. He said that the Jews had petitioned for self-government and membership in the United Nations. Not even the Syrians or Iranians objected.
America started to unload a good deal of its backlog of modern technology to the world. Curtis was careful to hold on to some of the more exotic developments, but the world didn’t really notice. They were busy soaking up the improvements for their own countries, and life became very pleasant, indeed.
The world population was actually decreasing. The need for big families to maintain farms and do work was eliminated and most families were having only one or two children. In many cases, they had none at all. By 1950, the population of the earth hovered just below 5 billion. The populations of China and India fell to under 750 million each, owing to a concentrated policy of encouraging birth control.
It became fashionable for the United Nations to initiate projects that involved the whole world. These were things that everyone could support and receive the fruits of the labor. One of the “Global Projects” involved weather control. It turned out to be possible after all. The scientists erected entire fields of giant ionizers to generate waves of negative ions, which rise into the lower atmosphere and attract dust particles. The dust particles, in turn, attract condensation from the ambient air, and when enough condensation is achieved, the clouds can't hold the water anymore and a downpour of rain is unleashed.
The first practical application of the principal was with the Sahara Desert. In a few years, enough rain was falling every year to turn that enormous barren wasteland into a rapidly growing number of vast farms. It worked the other way too. The Americans set up ionizers that produced a counter storm near tornadoes and hurricanes and caused them to dissipate. This reduced damage and loss of life that had been a way of life for the east coast and Caribbean, and for Tornado Alley in the Midwest.
Buoyed by their success and public approval with weather, the United Nations became fascinated with space travel. The U.S. had a huge foothold in space and used it to expand the space station extensively. From it, regular missions to the moon were started and a permanent colony was established there. In 1956, the combined scientists of Earth built a vehicle to go to Mars. With a crew of eight, the roundtrip took three years. The whole world followed the flight, landing, and exploration of Mars and the return flight like it was a television series. Every week planet Earth tuned into the Mars program. It was the most popular program on television.
In 1976, Arthur Curtis stepped down after 40 years in office. He was a very healthy 75 years old. His replacement was 35-year-old Thomas Frost and he served longer as President than any of his predecessors, owing to a rapidly expanding life expectancy, there was nothing odd about him serving into his 80’s. His Presidency lasted for 50 years, and was considered the Golden Age of America specifically and the world in general.
The major accomplishments for Frost was to see the moon colony top 100,000 people and the colony on Mars grow to 10,000 people. Missions were sent to the Jovian moons and the think tanks in America announced they were working on a radical new propulsion system that could send ships from Earth to far planets at multiples of light speed.
Another major step by Frost, in cooperation with the United Nations and the approval of the United States was to make the Ranger force an international police force. The expanded Ranger force recruited from many nations using the same rigorous standards the Rangers had always maintained, and set them up in scattered locations, never more than an hour from any place on Earth. Their installations were off limits to the public since the Rangers were now using technology far advanced over anything in the world. They were just as efficient and lethal as some factions learned, but were loved universally by all people. Being a Ranger was the most prestigious profession a man or woman could aspire to be.
It was summer of 2025. Arcadia was sitting on a comfortable park bench. It was in the mall near the Capitol in Washington. She closed her eyes in the warm sun. A voice close to her said, “I would imagine you’ve just about run out of things to do?”
Arcadia opened her eyes and smiled, an informally dressed man, was grinning at her. He sat down on the bench and said, “I’m very proud of you. Everything has worked out perfectly, and the best part was that humanity did almost all of it on their own.”
“It’s been a long, almost three hundred years. I miss my family, the Park, the animals and all that was normal before you set me to working this considerable task. In my opinion, You can open the gates of time and let them run freely. My guess is that no one will notice any difference in their lives. I assume the bombs never went off, and all of that was just a bad dream.”
“You could certainly put it that way,” said the man, “and you would be right.”
“With your permission,” said Arcadia, “ I think I have done what you asked. I would like to go home now.”
A wave of disorientation swept over here, and she opened her eyes. The scene in Washington was fading and in its place, the air grew cool and the familiar sight of the Emerald Cathedral came into focus. She was not alone. The familiar shining globe hung in air.
“Is it over?” she asked.
“Yes, it is now complete. You’ve done very well, and I am proud of you.”
“Are the cities of America intact and are our people alive?”
“You would know that better than anyone else,” said Jesus. “The world outside is the one you created. Your family is holding lunch for you, they think you’ve just gone for a walk. The memories of the America you’ve created has replaced the ones they used to know. It’s the same all over the world. The dam of time put in place in 1770 is gone. The past as they used to know, has been wiped out.”
“Because you actually lived through the interruption to do your work, you were enfolded in the warp. For you, no time has passed. It is the same for all those who went back with you. However, you retain the memories, all of them, of the past 275 years. Unfortunately, none of the people of earth realize anything has happened. From their point of view, the future you crafted is the way it’s always been. It says so right in their history books. So, no ticker tape parades, no adulation of the masses. You’ll now live out your normal life, although I would say it will be anything but normal. You possess an understanding of history, like no other. You have a vision for the future that will be an inspiration to everyone. I promise your life will be beautiful, exciting, and filled with many adventures. Your Presidency will be long and prosperous. Everyone will be happy that their president is a blued-eyed girl named Arcadia.”
“Lead the world as you have. The Golden Age of Earth has truly begun. Have no fear. I am with you always.”
Arcadia Martin left the Emerald Cathedral and walked back up the hill to join her family for lunch. As she came in, her father, Jacob said, “There you are, we were just about to start without you.”
“Sorry, Dad,” said Arcadia, “I had a lot of things to think about.”
“Come to any big conclusions,” asked her mother?
“Yeah, I’m gonna be President one day!” said Arcadia.
Table of Contents
1 Branson, Missouri
2 Iran
3 The Emerald Cathedral
4
5 Mains Neck, Virginia
6 Mount Vernon, Virginia
7 Mount Vernon, Virginia
8 Fort Independence, Virginia
9 Fort Independence, Virginia
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10 Fort Independence, Virginia
11 Fort Independence, Virginia
12 Fort Independence, Virginia
13 Concord, Massachusetts
14 Outside Boston, Massachusetts
15
16 Mount Vernon, Virginia
17 Fort Independence, Virginia
18 Concord, Massachusetts
19 Fort Independence, Virginia
20 The Black Hills, South Dakota
21 Fort Independence, Virginia
22 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
23 Montreal, Canada
24 Veracruz, Mexico
25 Fort Independence, Virginia
26 Concord, Massachusetts
27 Boston, Massachusetts
28 Fort Freedom, Virginia
29 The New District of Columbia
30 The Atlantic Ocean
31 Charleston, South Carolina
32 Charleston, South Carolina
33 Fort Independence, Virginia
34 Washington, D.C.
35 Washington, D.C.
36 Fort Independence, Virginia
37 Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
38 The Great State of Sioux, United States
39 London, England
40eHH Washington, D.C.
41 Washington, D.C.
42 Washington, D.C.
43 Washington, D.C.
44 Cape Canaveral, Florida
45 On the Road to Three Rivers, Pennsylvania
46 Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
47 U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C.
48 London, England
49 London, England
50 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
51 Europe to America
52 Washington, D.C.
53 Washington, D.C.