Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1) (27 page)

FIFTY SIX

Asheville,
NC

The Asheville
Regional Airport is small as American airports go. Local leaders have for years
asked for a longer and wider landing strip. Only 40,000 passengers a month flow
through its gates. Thus, when the massive Air Force One Presidential aircraft
landed at Asheville the plane dwarfed the modest terminal. A Presidential visit
was literally a huge event for this mountainous artsy community. In planning
for the major address that the President would deliver, White House planners
selected a rural location as a quiet, peaceable backdrop for a speech that they
knew would be anything but.

A bunting-draped
platform had been erected on the airfield side of the terminal. A large red,
white and blue banner welcomed the President to North Carolina. Thousands of
sympathetic North and South Carolinians had been bussed in to swell the
enthusiastic ranks greeting their nation’s CEO, each given a small American
flag to wave. The visit had been promoted by the White House Press Office as a
major address, a policy-setting speech that would be long remembered. The Press
Office, at least in this instance, didn’t exaggerate.

The Governor of North
Carolina was given an allotted ten minutes. He welcomed the President for honoring
their State, thanked the hard-working event committee for their untiring
efforts, thanked the assembled area high school bands for providing the best of
John Phillip Sousa’s patriotic marches, thanked the employees of the State for providing
great government for their State, thanked the many hundreds of volunteers who
made the event possible, thanked everyone else he could possibly thank. He then
said that the President needed no introduction, and after nearly twenty-five
minutes of political-speak, exceeding his allotment, he gave him the shortest
of introductions. 

“And now it is my
distinct pleasure to give to you the
Pres…i…dent…of…the…U…nited…States…of…Amer…ica.”

After Hail to Chief
was played through three times, accompanied by the cheers of the flag-waving
crowd, the President, held up his arms for quiet, then looking at the nearest
Tele-Prompter, plunged into his address. Notably, though he initially flashed
his well-known smile, by the time he began to read his speech, his facial
demeanor was clearly somber.

“My fellow Americans.
We are gathered today to discuss a subject of great urgency to our nation, that
is, if America is itself to survive as a free people. I don’t say those words
lightly. No nation in history has survived when its people have torn each other
apart, internally inside their own nation. That is exactly what we have been
doing as a nation now for several years, tearing each other apart….with the
hate speech of hateful people….aimed at hurting other Americans….even shooting each
other in unjustified protests against legally adopted laws restraining hate
weapons and hate speech. I’m here today to announce, yes, even to proclaim as
your President, that the days of open and unrestricted hate speech are over.
Done. Finished.

“We all know that
recently the Congress of these United States of America, elected by we the
people, adopted the Lawrence McAlister Hate Speech and Hate Weapon Elimination
Act. I was most proud as your President to sign the McAlister Act into law. As
we all also know, the McAlister Act is now the law of the land. We honor our
brave former Vice President with this law. Even though there are apparently
some, those who are gun-loving radicals, who seem hell bent on violating the
McAlister Act, we will soon be a hate weapons free nation. We
will
enforce this new law. Thank you, Congress. Thank you, ATF. Thank you,
peace-loving Americans.

The cheers, routinely
expected at Presidential events after a speaking point, were noticeably less than
enthusiastic. The President’s mention of the McAlister Act, while quite popular
with most of his public employee and labor union audience, lacked support among
many in this mountainous part of the country. Some in the crowd had been
hunters or sports shooters, but because of McAlister, were now unarmed. The
President’s planners knew, of course, that the location for the speech could be
somewhat dicey, but concluded that what the President would announce in his
speech would win over even some of the disgruntled previous gun owners, particularly
if they were unemployed.

“Getting rid of hate
weapons is the good news. But, anybody who watches television, listens to talk
radio or visits the internet knows that the bad news is that the hate speech
portion of the McAlister Act is a very long way from being implemented. Hate
speech is destroying America. Let me repeat. As President, I am proclaiming
that hate speech is destroying America. It is today’s enemy number one. Too
many Americans are abusing their so-called First Amendment rights by using hate
speech to attack other Americans, and doing it hatefully.

“A moment ago I
mentioned that the McAlister Act was enacted into law by the elected
representatives of the people. In addition, the McAlister Act has been
confirmed as fully consistent with the Constitution of the United States of
America by our nation’s highest Court, the Supreme Court of the United States.
Lest anyone incorrectly charge that what I am announcing today violates their
First Amendment rights of free speech and free expression, I would remind them
that we are a nation of law, and that our Supreme Court has ruled that the
McAlister Act does not violate our Constitution, in any way. Hate speech
regulation is now legal, and this Administration is committed to implementing hate
speech regulation, under the law.

“How will we fight
this scourge? What can we do to stop the hateful use of words to attack our
public officials and our minorities? As a student of American history it seemed
to me that we should reach back in our nation’s proud past and revive a program
that was more than successful in helping to cure our nation’s ills. I am
referring to the Civilian Conservation Corps, known as the CCC, created by my
predecessor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, under his Executive Order
Number 6101. When President Roosevelt was faced with tough economic times he
initiated the CCC and, over time, from 1933 to 1942, he hired three million
Americans to help build our nation. Today, we don’t have quite the same need as
in the 30’s to build physical infrastructure, national parks, roads, and such.
But we do have the need to re-build the moral foundations of our land, by
ridding our nation of hate speech. Even Republicans should be in favor of that
goal.

“Therefore, I am
announcing today that I am signing Executive Order Number 13627, re-creating
the Civilian Conservation Corps. Its task will be to hire as many American men
and women, and young people, as apply and are qualified, to help conserve our
land, as its name implies. How will these modern CCC Conservators, as they will
be known, work to conserve our nation? They will be trained to help our
Administration implement the McAlister Act, by locating hate speech and
identifying hate speakers. Once the Conservators have succeeded in doing so,
the hate speakers will be charged by the Department of Justice, through our
local District Attorneys, with violating the McAlister Act. Just as the CCC
rooted out unneeded trees and vegetation that stood in the path of progress in
the 30’s, today’s CCC will root out unneeded hate and bigotry that threaten to
destroy our nation today. I will shortly send a request to the Congress for
legislation that will fund the new CCC. The new CCC will be administered by and
under authority of the Department of Homeland Security, and will be trained by
its TSA, which now numbers over 50,000 federal employees, working every day to
protect traveling Americans.

Several persons in
the crowd were seen high-fiving each other, as they realized that they were
hearing the President say they could get a job, soon hopefully, and a federal
job at that.

“I can already hear
the partisan critics of this Administration. They can be expected to object to
this plan to employ unemployed Americans. They will say that these newly
created jobs are not real jobs, that they don’t involve any meaningful work.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as each CCC Conservator will be hard
at work in two areas. First, Conservators will help implement the McAlister Act
by monitoring the many thousands of public meetings that take place in this
country, every morning, daytime and night of every day of the week. As friendly
faces, they will attend these public meetings, listening respectfully, making
notes on what is said and reporting any overheard hate speech to their
superiors for any needed legal action. This will be the ‘Oversight’ aspect of
their jobs. Obviously, many hours per week will be required of the Conservators
to fulfill this critical aspect of their work.

“Secondly, each
Conservator will be trained to train others on proper and civil speech, and how
to avoid violating the McAlister Act. I hasten to point out that not every hate
speaker will be charged with a felony, especially on their first violation.
Identified hate speakers will generally be assigned a CCC Conservator who will
work with them to show them how to avoid hate speaking in the future. They will
be taught how to refer respectfully to public officials, without verbal
attacks. They will receive instruction from their assigned Conservator on how
to respect all persons, no matter their race, their sexual orientation or their
other differences. This aspect of the job of each CCC Conservator will also
obviously require many long hours, fully justifying our nation’s expenditure in
their training and wages. Every corps functions best when uniformed, just look
at the military and the TSA. Accordingly, each Conservator will be provided
with attractive forest green colored uniforms, proudly bearing the official
seal of the CCC. The chosen color also bears witness to our Administration’s
commitment to a green economy and preserving our environment.

“Lastly, let me just
say that I see a bright future for America under the guidance of the new CCC,
just as the CCC helped this nation exit the difficult economic times of the
Great Depression. Many Americans of note originally worked for the CCC,
including Admiral Rickover, pilot Chuck Yeager, actors Robert Mitchum and
Walter Matthau and baseball player Stan Musial. The newly re-created CCC should
likewise raise up and mentor future Americans of great note and worth to our
nation. I fully expect that the CCC will help usher our nation into a joyful,
civil and hate-free future. Once the CCC is established, I am sure that there
will be many Americans blessed by the program and there will be other important
assignments for the many competent and skilled men, women and young people
hired by our nation, which only time will reveal the nature of those
assignments as we move forward. Moving forward is what this is all about, which
is why I am so proud of the Americans who will work together to bless our
nation. God bless them and God bless America. Thanks, Asheville. Thanks, North
Carolina.”   

The combined
Asheville area high school bands were cued to launch into Sousa’s Stars and
Stripes Forever, which they did with a crashing flurry, accompanied by the
cheers of the assembled thousands, many of whom had just caught a vision for a
new job, as a CCC Conservator. It was certainly something for them to cheer
about, with real unemployment in their area hovering just over 16%.   

FIFTY
SEVEN

Billings,
Montana

“What kind of name is
Gunning
?” How many times had Gunning Bedford, Jr. heard this question,
as a child, even as an adult? What made the name even more unique was the
well-known fact in Montana that Gunning Bedford, Jr. was the organizer and
President of Montana Gun Owners for the Second Amendment, Inc. ‘What a great
name for a gun supporter’, Gunning had often heard. But, of course, he didn’t
select his name. His father had been named Gunning Bedford by his father,
because as a student of American history, and a conservative, he admired
Gunning Bedford, Jr., a Delaware Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of
1787, where he was an advocate of small states and limited federal government
power. Gunning’s dad, unable to think of a better name, bestowed the name of
Gunning Bedford, Jr. on his son.

That son, whom many
said looked like Gary Cooper, just couldn’t get over his President desecrating,
in his view, an iconic American patriot monument at Old North Bridge in
Concord, Massachusetts. He had been wrestling for several months, since the
McAlister anti-gun bill had been submitted in Congress, with what he should do
as a leader in the Montana gun rights movement. Montana had two U.S. Senators,
of course, and only one Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. All three,
as would be expected, were adamantly against the McAlister Bill, and had given
numerous speeches across the State rallying voters. So, there was little more
politically they could have done in Montana. Gunning had an internal ‘itching’,
he later called it, to do something more, anything, to try and stop Congress
from passing the McAlister Bill. But, what could they have done? He had invested
hours patiently enduring long meetings, and then more hours of late night
meetings with what he affectionately called his ‘posse’, the fellow members of
his Montana gun rights organization. They saw the danger coming, they followed
the news every day, they knew they could lose their right to keep and bear
arms, no matter what the Second Amendment to the Constitution said, but they
didn’t know what else they could do.

Some argued for armed
resistance. Others cited the Biblical admonition to submit to earthly
authorities. Some said that Congress would never pass the bill because the
White House didn’t have the votes. Once it passed, others counseled waiting to
see if the Supreme Court would overturn McAlister, hoping the high court would
find the new law unconstitutional. Then Gunning Bedford, Jr. saw his President
desecrate the Minuteman monument at Old North Bridge in Concord, while
celebrating the end of the Redemption Period under the anti-gun law. Gunning
thought that the official Presidential ceremony at that particular sacred
location went too far in rubbing the nose of gun owners in what the government
had done to their right to own firearms. Then when the Supreme Court affirmed the
Constitutionality of McAlister, a new plan began to emerge. Gunning knew he had
to assemble his posse of friends and supporters to talk about it.