by J. F. Krause
At it’s heart, the government, such as it is, will use the economy, such as it is, to help make the lives of people more meaningful and fulfilling.
May 7
What a couple of weeks! The trial finally went to the jury yesterday just before lunch, and first thing this morning, they came back with a verdict. Much of the defense was based on the legitimacy of the trial. Hawkins claimed that as the only identified, surviving currently elected state legislator, he was the rightful leader of Indiana and that he had duly declared martial law and that Charles Smith and Maxine Berger were in defiance of that declaration. They were shot as an emergency measure in order to gain control of a dangerous situation. The legitimacy argument was the only thing they had going for them, and it couldn’t address the rape and abuse of women and girls. Marcus Washington rebutted legitimacy as a defense pretty easily. In a nutshell, our present government is legitimate because it has the acceptance and commitment of the population. Since everyone in the room had experienced the same relief when Bobby’s leadership brought safety and focus to the chaos around us, especially in Indianapolis, Emily Wong was fighting a losing battle. Besides, the jury was never going to let those men get away with doing what they did, legitimacy or not. I suspect that the only reason they took as long as they did was that there were so many charges against the accused that it took that long to get it all organized.
Of the twenty-two men on trial, twenty of them were convicted of everything they were charged with and sentenced to life in exile. Two, who had the bad luck or good luck, depending on who you ask, of arriving mere hours before the battle to retake Indianapolis began, were convicted of conspiracy. It was decided to give them the option of serving their four-year sentence in the Cook County jail or joining the other convicts in exile on Tristan da Cunha.
The Tristanian population died of the sickness like everyone else. Of the almost 300 people who lived there, 6 survived the sickness. While this sounds like very few survivors, it was really a huge percentage of the original population. The high rate of survivorship was probably due to the fact that most people on Tristan are related and were lucky enough to share the gene or genes that it appears made it possible for everyone else to survive. The Tristanian survivors opted, as a group, to go to one of the communities in Scotland.
Interestingly, the disease struck Tristan da Cunha almost a week after it struck everyone else. During that time, they knew that the mainland had been practically obliterated by a virus, but there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. They hoped it wouldn’t reach them, but, of course, it did. They had several days to prepare for what might, and eventually did, happen. I guess the virus is part of our environment now.
For the next few weeks, some of the Tristanian survivors will be working with our Coalition navy to remove all weapons and boats from the island. There’s no guarantee that the exiles won’t build a boat to try to escape, but since none of them seem to have any nautical training, we don’t think it likely they will succeed. Sailing books will be removed as well. The nearest populated land before the illness was 1,200 miles away. But now, they will have to make it all the way to South Africa in order to reach people. They’ll be monitored by satellite so, while it isn’t foolproof, it should work. In the meantime, they’ll be housed at the county jail.
Enrique will no longer be on prisoner guard duty now that the trial is over and is free to return to SLO, but somehow, I don’t think he’s planning to do that just yet. I initially got to know him when he was guarding Bobby right before and after all the Angelenos moved to SLO. Of course, safeguarding Bobby took on a deeper urgency after all the threats from Hawkins. Now that I’ve been here, first in Bloomington and now in Chicago, I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with Enrique when he isn’t on guard duty. He, Carl, and I have been having dinner a couple of times a week. Now that the trial is over, I think he’s planning to take advantage of the Gap year and take some time off from military duty. At least that seems to be his plan. He’s going to be in the Gap cohort that starts July 1, I think.
Enrique lost everyone in his big family. He was very close to his younger siblings and he speaks reverentially of his father and mother. Enrique was born in California, but his parents were from Mexico. He told us how both of his parents worked at two and sometimes three jobs in order to provide for him and his siblings. When he was very young, his uncle’s family lived with them in the same house, but as time passed, and both families became more established, they were able to buy separate homes just across the street from each other. Once Enrique graduated from high school, he joined the Marines because he knew he would never be able to afford to go to college without the money he would get from his military service. Of course, that all changed after the sickness.
By the way, Enrique is very handsome. This attribute is not lost on the female population both here in Chicago and back in Bloomington. There are always young, and not so young, women coming up to our dinner table in the food court to say hello and chat for awhile. Enrique is also very modest and reserved. He clearly enjoys the attention, but I think he’s at a loss as to why he’s getting it. He thinks it’s because of the uniform. The uniform is certainly attractive, but that is definitely not the reason.
Conversation this evening was mainly about Bobby. While he was in Orange County and SLO, Enrique was given the job of guarding Bobby. There were some threats made by the Hawkins Gang against Bobby, and Marco decided it was best to be safe rather than sorry. Enrique and some of his fellow Marines were given the job of being nearby wherever he went. Bobby didn’t make a fuss and put up with it. Consequently, Enrique got to know him and Kevin pretty well before he ended up in Bloomington and now Chicago.
“Did you know Bobby and Kevin were gay when you were guarding him?”
“Oh, yeah. My cousin across the street was gay. I grew up just sort of knowing that some guys are gay. Some girls are lesbian. We all knew not to say anything about it ‘cause some people aren’t too cool with it, you know? We didn’t want Chuy to get picked on. He was a nice guy. But yeah, I knew. Hector and Jovantha knew, too. I don’t think Bobby and Kevin knew about each other, though. I sort of wanted to tell them, but Jovantha said they’d work it out on their own so we listened to her. What I was surprised about was how he ended up being the Executive Director of the Coalition. He didn’t even want to be the leader of SLO! How did that happen?” Enrique had been in Bloomington after the battle for Indianapolis, so he’d missed all the excitement following Bobby’s getting shot.
Carl fielded that question. “We were having a meeting in San Luis Obispo with all the North American Communities, and some of the communities from Europe, Asia, and around the world wanted to send some of their people, too. That was when Bobby got shot. The Europeans were really concerned about the raid on Malta from North Africa, so they asked if we could become a more unified group in order to protect our more vulnerable communities from raiders.
Everyone knew Bobby from the broadcasts the first days after the sickness, and we needed someone fast. Regular politicians weren’t very popular after the Indianapolis thing. Since everyone knew Bobby, and they trusted him, we decided to make him the first Executive Director. What could he say? He was in a coma.” We all chuckled over that. “Irma and Lydia took over the meetings with all the leaders from around the world, and we hammered out the Coalition ‘Rights and Responsibilities’. When Bobby woke up we sort of handed him a done deal. We knew he didn’t want to do it, and that’s what makes him the right person for the job. We probably don’t have to worry about him trying to make the position hereditary.” Carl laughed at his little joke.
Enrique didn’t get it at first. “Bobby and Kevin aren’t going to have any children, at least not on their own.”
We just smiled.
“Oh.” Enrique smiled, too. “Is he okay with it? I mean, he’s a really nice guy. He’s pretty tough, too. I don’t mean muscle tough. He’s like Chuy, you know, not afraid. And he’s smart, too. He was
always worried his guards would get cold or sleepy while we were on guard duty around his motor home, and he was always giving us coffee or telling us to come inside and get warm. We told him how we had to do it, so he would just bring coffee out to us. I don’t think he ever thought anyone would try to hurt him, but he didn’t argue with us. I liked him. I still like him. Is he okay doing the Executive job?”
“He’s doing fine, and he never complains,” I said. “What he really wants to do is raise all those kids and make sure they are safe and get taken care of. He misses teaching, but he’s still sort of a teacher. Bobby’s the right person for the job, and even he knows it.” I hope I’m correct. I don’t want Bobby to be unhappy, but we really didn’t have any other choice right then. We still don’t.
There’s one other thing that makes Bobby almost unique. He knows when to cut bait. If someone has a better idea, he’ll embrace it. First, he seldom has any answers himself, and he knows it. That’s unusual in itself. Next, he insists that if one of the ‘thinkers’ has an objection to or criticism of an idea, they must come up with an alternative of their own, or at least help the group advance. Doing nothing is not an answer, unless doing nothing is the actual answer. He doesn’t let people put up roadblocks without good reasons. Finally, he refuses to put things off. Once an answer or decision has been reached, he wants a tight time line. If necessary, meetings are paused while the participants call home to let anyone waiting for them know they’ll be late, and the next day, sometimes sooner, the dominoes start to fall.
May 15
This was a really busy week, too! I’ve been back to SLO with Carl for meetings with Bobby and several of his ad hoc ‘think tanks’. It’s surprising how many meetings are actually going on. The university is gearing up to teach again and there are people arriving for that; there are think tanks starting up and finishing up all the time. There’s even a think tank dealing with think tanks. Bobby calls it the ‘committee on committees’. It’s their job to make sure that every committee functions and that their recommendations are properly considered.
Bobby has divided the groups into triage, the things that have to be done right now; maintenance, the things we won’t be able to live without before too long; and foresight, the things we are doing to correct problems we inherited from the past as well as things that must be dealt with at some point in the future.
Think tanks dealing with triage are working on farm production, food preparation, fuel manufacture and distribution, pharmaceuticals, and the preservation of art and culture. One of the lesser-known groups in triage is working with the cities that had zoos. Very early on, Bobby sent word out to the communities to remember to feed the zoo animals. Who thinks of that! Anyway, it wasn’t perfect and there was a lot of loss, especially among some of the really exotic animals that had very unique needs. But the group working on this problem is making real progress.
Most of the triage and maintenance groups have a foresight component. It isn’t enough, for example, to save the art in a museum from decay and neglect. It has to be available for display and study, if not now, at least at some point in the future. Avery Wells is in charge of the overall plan for this, and the foresight component includes the training of art curators and the display for future generations. Having warehouses full of masterpieces isn’t the final answer. They have to be shared.
The reverse can be said of the foresight groups. Education falls into the foresight group, but there’s a triage and maintenance component to that as well. First, take care of the children so their guardians can help out in the communities. Teach them to read, write, and do arithmetic. Make sure that great universities and cities of learning maintain their traditions. And finally, create new solutions to deal with our new problems. That’s why the Gap Year is so important. Our young people are learning a new way of viewing themselves and the world. It turns out that we’re creating international citizens. Sometimes unintended consequences can be good!
The first thing I did after getting back to SLO was take a long shower and sleep in my own bed. Then, I reported to Bobby and Lydia. They do almost everything together, even though Lydia is technically only responsible for SLO and Bobby has to deal with problems all over the world. While I was talking with Bobby and Lydia, Carl was with the Education oversight group. After a couple of hours, Carl and I would change places and he would talk with Bobby and Lydia.
Carl is one of Bobby’s, and now Lydia’s, mentors. We all sort of realized early on that Carl could never do what Bobby does for the Coalition. He’s too philosophical and theoretical. But Bobby could never do what he does without Carl. Carl taught political science at Cal State University, Los Angeles. Whereas Bobby is always looking for a practical application for everything he learns, Carl will go on and on with an idea and never quite get to the point of what to do about it. Bobby may not reach the right conclusion immediately, but he keeps asking questions until he has it all worked out. He seems to know instinctively when he has a workable answer. That’s why he’s been nicknamed ‘The Closer’. He doesn’t just close deals; he closes projects by making them get started.
When it comes to bargaining, Bobby is all big picture, but when it comes to details, the bargainer in the group is Lydia. When Bobby was in the coma after being shot, Lydia was the one who took the lead in the foundation of the Coalition. Using Bobby’s mantra of start simple; do something; and finish it up, she hammered out an agreement that everyone could agree to. Knowing that Bobby wanted to create a Gap Year, something I don’t think Bobby had ever thought possible, she threw that in as part of the goal of getting Bobby to accept the Executive Director’s position. Then she bargained poor Bobby into taking on the responsibility of the world. Not bad for a former Social Security bureaucrat.
Bobby isn’t without faults, though. One of his worst is also one of his cutest: he’s flippant. We’re all pretty sure that’s what got him shot. He was having a little face off with George Francis and his buddies just outside Bobby’s office in the administration building. He just had to tell George to go home, put his feet up, and take a Valium. That’s probably what pushed George over. Later that day, someone shot him, sniper-like, and while we’re pretty sure it was George and his cronies, we just don’t have the forensics expertise to prove it. Or we didn’t. Thanks to Todd’s want ads blog, we now have a traveling forensics department. It’s based in Washington, DC. That’s where the best equipment was, and since we don’t have much call for that sort of thing, we just centralized it there. Jovantha Barnes probably saved Bobby’s life, but took a bullet for her trouble. Her injuries weren’t nearly as bad as Bobby’s, thank heavens. However, Bobby knows it was probably his own mouth that caused it, and I don’t think he would have been able to live with himself if Jovantha had been really hurt. He still pops off once in awhile, though. Like I said, it’s cute, but maybe not so wise.
Aside from the meetings, Carl spends a lot of time with his ward, Eric Bowersock. Eric is originally from Pismo Beach and rode into SLO on a bike! He saw one of the airplanes fly over trailing a sign telling people about San Luis Obispo and started planning his journey. It took awhile, but for a 13 year old, Eric is really resilient. Carl became his guardian, and the two quickly grew to enjoy each other’s company and personalities. Carl is 43 and never had children of his own. His wife died a few years before the sickness, and he never remarried. I’m not sure he even dated. Carl is short, funny, and infinitely thoughtful. He and Eric bonded immediately. Aside from looks, Eric is remarkably like Carl. He’s funny and extremely thoughtful, too. He’s also tall, for his age, and blond, and he’ll be a dreamboat when he grows up.
An interesting side-note to all that is happening in our lives is that Eric asked if he could join Carl’s “church”. Carl and I go to the Jewish temple every week, something I rarely did before the sickness. So Eric, who had no religion before he met Carl, attends temple every week with us, or, when Carl and I are traveling, he goes with Todd who accompanies Cynthia. Anyway, once Eric h
eard about bar mitzvahs, he started studying for his own.
Bobby and Kevin take their four kids to the Episcopal Church every Sunday. It seems that Chad’s parents were Episcopalian, and Bobby and Kevin attend that church to honor their commitment to them to raise Chad in his parents’ heritage. According to Bobby, he and Kevin try to sit behind Rusty Holloway and Janet Mrozinski during the service. Bobby told me Rusty and Janet are dating, and Janet is just as unfamiliar with the service as Kevin and Bobby. Rusty is from SLO originally, like me, and grew up attending that very church. So Bobby, Kevin, and Janet all do what Rusty does. While this is going on, the kids are all in children’s church.
While I’m talking about religion, as far as I know, almost none of my friends were actively involved in any religion before the sickness, except for Jane and Carl. Now, at least for the time being, most of us have returned to our roots. Jane plays the organ at the Presbyterian Church; Lydia is Catholic, again; LaWanda’s a Baptist, Anna and Zach attend the Buddhist Temple when they’re in town; and Avery Wells and Dr. Mary Truitt attend the same Episcopal Church as Bobby. I think Avery may have always been an Episcopalian like Rusty although Avery lived in Los Angeles. Avery and Dr. Mary attend together. According to Bobby, “the best place to see who’s hooking up with whom is to hit the churches”. His words.
Bobby also takes Chanelle to the Buddhist Temple. I gather that the whole family goes. They’ve even been to the Zoroastrian Temple a few times. Bobby says he does that just because he likes them. The local Zoroastrian Temple takes converts now, something they didn’t do before The Sickness. Bobby says they’re growing, but he doesn’t plan to convert or anything. He says that having grown up in church in the south, he enjoys the extended family feel of it. Besides, he said the Buddhists and the Zoroastrians cook their own meals after their services, and it’s a great change from the cafeteria. Like I just said, he can be flippant. I’m guessing that the Episcopalians only serve coffee, tea, and cookies.