The Prodigal Daughter (45 page)

She told
Richard. He agreed.

Florentyna listened
intently as other members gave their views for and against the amendment.
Robert Buchanan gave a considered speech against it. When he took his seat,
Florentyna was surprised the Speaker called on her next. She rose to a packed
house. Representative Buchanan said in a voice loud enough to carry, “We are
about to hear the views of an expert.” One or two Republicans seated near him
laughed as Florentyna walked to the podium. She placed her notes.
on
the lectern in front of her.

“Mr. Speaker, I
address the House as a convinced supporter of the MX missile. America cannot
afford to delay any further the defense of this country because a group of
congressmen claim they want more time to read the relevant documents. Those
papers have been available to every member of the House for over a year. It
hardly needs a course in speed reading for members to have done their homework
for today. The truth is that this amendment is nothing more than a delaying
tactic for members who are opposed to the MX missile s ystem. I condemn those
members as men with their heads in the sand, heads that will remain in the sand
until the Russians have made their first pre-emptive strike. Don’t they realize
America must also have a first-strike capability?

“I approve of
the Polaris submarine system, but we cannot hope to push all our nuclear
problems out to sea, especially now that navy intelligence inforrns us that the
Russians have a submarine that can travel at a speed of forty knots and remain
underwater for four years-four years, Mr. Speaker-without returning to base.
The argument that the citizens of Nevada and Utah are in more danger from the
MX system than anyone else is spurious. The land where the missiles would be
deployed is already owned by the government and is at present occupied by
nineteen hundred and eighty sheep and three hundred and seventy cows.

I don’t believe
the American people need to be mollycoddled on the subject of’ the nation’s
safety. They have elected us to carry out long-term decisions, not to go on
talking while we become weaker by the minute. Some members of Congress would
make Nero appear to the American people as a man who was giving a violin
concert in aid of the Rome fire brigade.”

When the
laughter had diminished, Florentyna became very grave. “Have members so quickly
forgotten that in 1935 more people worked for the Ford Motor Company than were
in the entire United States armed forces? Have we also forgotten that in the
same year we had a smaller army than Czechoslovakia, a country since trampled
on by Germany and Russia in turn? We had a navy half the size of that of
France, a country humiliated by the Germans while we sat and watched, and an
air force that even Hollywood didn’t bother to hire for war movies. When the
threat of Hitler first arose we could not have rattled a saber at hkm. We must
be certain such a situation can never rise again.

“I’he American
people have never seen the enemy on the beaches of California or on the
dockside of New York, but that does not mean that the enemy does not exist. As
late as 1950, Russia had as many combat planes as the United States, four times
as many troops and thirty tank divisions to America’s one. We cannot allow
ourselves to be at such a disadvantage again. Equally I pray that our great
nation will never be involved in another debacle such as Vietnam and that none
of us will live to see another American die in combat. But our enemies must
always be aware that we will meet aggression head-on. Like the eagle that
bestrides our standard, we will hover always alert to the defense of our
friends and the protection of our citizens.”

Some members on
the floor of the House started to applaud.

“To each
American who says our defense expenditure is too costly, I reply let them look
to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and see that no price is too high to
pay for the democratic freedom we take for granted in this country. The Iron
Curtain is drawn across East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, with
Afghanistan and Yugoslavia guarding their borders in daily expectation of that
curtain being drawn still further, perhaps even reaching the Middle East. After
that the Soviets will not be satisfied until it encircles the entire globe.”
The House was so silent that Florentyna dropped her voice before she continued.

“Many nations
have through history played their role in the protection of the free world.
That responsibility has now been passed to the leaders of this commonwealth.
Let our grandchildren never say we shirked that responsibility in exchange for
popularity. Let us assure America’s freedom by being willing to make a
sacrifice now. Let us be able to say to every American that we did not shirk
our duty’in the face of danger. Let there be in this House no Nero, no fiddler,
no fire and no victory for our enemies…”

Members in the
chamber cheered while Florentyna remained standing. The Speaker helplessly
tried to gavel the meeting to order. When the last cheer had died she spoke
almost in a whisper.

“Let that
sacrifice never again be the lives of America’s youth, or substituted for by
the dangerous illusion that we can keep peace in the world without providing
for its defense against aggression. Adequately protected, America can influence
events without fear, govern without terror and still remain the bastion of the
free world. Mr. Speaker, I oppose the Simon Amendment as irrelevant, and worse,
irresponsible.”

Florentyna took
her seat and she was quickly surrounded by colleagues from both sides who
praised her speech. The press heaped further praise on her the next day and the
networks included passages from her speech in their bulletins. Florentyna was
shocked at how glibly they described her as an expert on defense. Two papers
even talked of her as a future Vice President.

Once again
Florentyna’s mail rose to over a thousand letters a week, but there were three
letters that particularly moved her. The first was a dinner invitation from an
ailing Hubert Humphrey. She accepted but, like the other invited guests, did
not attend.

The second came
from Robert Buchanan, simply written in a bold hand:

“I salute you,
madam.”

The third was an
anonymous scrawled note from Ohio:

You are a
fucking communist agent bent on destroying America with impossible defense
commitments. The gas chamber is too good a place for people like you. You
should be strung up with that dummy Ford and that pimp Carter. Why don’t you
get back to the kitchen where you belong, bitch?

“How doyou react
to people like that?” asked Janet, stunned.

“You don’t
bother. Repudiating that sort of mindless prejudice is beyond even your
skillful hand. Let’s be thankful that ninety-nine percent of the letters are
from fair-minded people who wish to express their views honestly. Though I
confess if I knew his address I’d be tempted to reply for the first time in my
life, ‘Up Yours.”‘

After a hectic
week during which she seemed to be pursued by phone messages, Florentyna spent
a quiet weekend with Richard. William was home from Harvard and was quick to
show his mother a cartoon from the Boston Globe depicting her as a heroine with
the head of an eagle, punching a bear on the nose. Annabel phoned from school
to tell her mother that she wouldn’t be home that weekend.

Florentyna
played tennis with her son that Saturday and it took her only a few minutes to
realize how fit he was and what a dreadful state she was in.

She couldn’t
pretend walking around golf courses kept her fit. With each shot it became more
obvious that William wasn’t trying very hard. She was relieved to be told that
he couldn’t play another set because he had a date. She scribbled a note to
Janet to order an Exercycle from Hammacher Schlemmer.

Over dinner that
night, Richard told Florentyna that he wanted to build a Baron in Madrid and he
was thinking of sending Edward to check the building sites.

“Why
Edward?”

“He’s asked to
go. He’s working almost full-time for the Group now and has even rented an
apartment in New York.”

“What can have
happened to his law practice?”

“He’s become
counsel to the firm and says that if you can change your whole career at forty,
why shouldn’t he. Since The Present: 1968-1982 279

Daley’s death he
hasn’t found it a full-time job proving that you’re worth a place in Congress.
I must say he’s like a schoolboy who’s found himself locked up in a candy
store. It’s taken a great load off my shoulders. He’s the only man I know who
works as hard as you.”

“What a good
friend he has turned out to be.”

“Yes, I agree.
You do realize he’s in love with you, don’t you?”

“What?” said
Florentyna, “Oh, I don’t mean he wants to leap into bed with you, not that I
could blame him if he did. No, he simply adores you, but he would never admit
it to anyone, although it wouldn’t take a blind man to see that.”

“But I never-,’

“No, of course
you haven’t, my darling. Do you think I would be considering putting him on the
board of Lester’s if I thought I might lose my wife to him?”

“I wish fie
would find
himself
a wife.”

“He’ll never
marry anyone as long as you are around Jessie. Just be thankful that you have
two men who adore you.”

When Florentyna
returned to Washington after the weekend she was greeted with another pile of
the invitations that had been coming in with increasing frequency. She sought
EdWard’s advice as to what she should do about them.

“Select about
half a dozen of the major invitations to places where your views can be
expected to reach the maximum number of people, and explain to the others that
your work load does not pe, ‘nit you to accept at the moment. But remember to
end each letter of refusal with a personal handwritten line. One day when you
are seeking a bigger audience than the Ninth District of Illinois, there will
be
people
whose only contact with you will be that
letter, and on that alone they will decide whether they are for or against
you.”

“You’re a wise
old thing, Edward.”

“Ah, but you
mustn’t forget I’m a year older than you, my dear.”

Florentyna took
Edward’s advice and spent two hours every night dealing with the letters
prompted by her speech on de fense. At the end of five weeks she ha * d
answered every one, by which time her mail had almost returned to normal pro
portions. She accepted invitations to speak at Princeton and the University of
California at Berkeley. She also addressed the cadets of West Point and the
midshipmen at Annapolis and was to be the guest of Max Cleland at a Washington
lunch to honor Vietnam veterans.

Everywhere she
went Florentyna was introduced as one of America’s leading authorities on
defense. She became so involved and fascinated by the subject that it terrified
her how little she really knew which made her study the subject even more
intensively. Somehow she kept up with her work in Chicago, but the more she
became a public figure, the more she had to assign tasks to her staff. She
appointed two more assistants to her Washington office and another in Chicago
at her own expense. She was now spending over $100,000 a year out of her own
pocket. Richard described it as reinvesting in America.

“ANYTHING THAT
CAN’T WAITT’ asked Florentyna, glancing down at a desk full of correspondence
that had arrived that morning. The 95th Congress was winding down and most
members were once again more concerned about being re-elected than about
sitting in Washington working on legislation. At this stage of the session,
staffers were spending almost all their time dealing with constituency problems
rather than concentrating on national affairs.

Florentyna
disliked a system that made hypocrites of normally honest people as soon as
another election loorned.

“
nere
are three matters that I ought to draw to your
attention,” said Janet in her customarily efficient manner. “The first is that
your voting record can hardly be described as exemplary. It has fallen from
eighty-nine percent to seventy-one percent this session and your opponents are
bound to jump on that fact, claiming that you are losing interest in your job
and should be replaced.”

“But the reason
I’ve been missing votes is that I’ve been inspecting defense bases, and
accepting so many out-of-state engagements. I can’t help it if half my
colleagues want me to speak in their districts.”

“I am aware of
that,” said Janet, “but you can’t expect the voters of Chicago to be. They’re
not pleased that you’re in California or Princeton when they expect you to be
in Washington. It might be wise not to accept any more invitationsfrom other
members or well-wishers -until the next session. If you make most of the votes
during the last few weeks we may push you back above eighty percent.”

“Keep reminding
me, Janet. What’s second?”

“Ralph Brooks
has been elected State’s Attorney of Illinois, so he should be out of your hair
for a while.”

“I wonder,” said
Florentyna, scribbling a note on her pad to remind herself to write and
congratulate him. Janet placed a copy of the Chicago Tribune in front of her.
Mr. and Mrs. Brooks stared up at her. The caption said: “The new State’s
Attorney attends charity concert in behalf of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”