THEAMENDMENT.NET



THE AMENDMENTBY PATRICK DE HAAN ISBN 978-0-615-44083-5 a·mend·ment (?-mend?m?nt), n. [ME. < OFr. amendement < amender; see AMEND],improvement; bettermenta correction of errors, faults, etc.a revision or change proposed or made in a bill, law, etc.a statement of thisfrom Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition? 1958, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 by The World Publishing CompanyTo Kenneth MinueTable of Contents Part I Chapter 1Dear Mr. President 1 2Plebian Elites 3 3Prison Spark Plug School 7 4Meet the Millers 9 5Taking Stock 15 6Pseudomorph 19 7Iniquity 25 8Variegation 29 9The Dollar Man 3510Fatuity 3911Thermolysis 4512Taxing History 5313Vitrification 5714Persiflage 6915Cephalization 7716Acts of Action 8717Vermiculation 91 Part II Chapter 18To The President 10719Urburbia 10920Far but Closing 11521Yupurbia 11922Hit Men 12723Roots 13724The Rectory 14525Closed Far 157Glossary 159PART I- 1 -Dear Mr. President:Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I am writing to tell you that we are happy you have been elected and we have a great sense of relief that things will get back on track and we will all begin to move our country in the right direction.We are a good, decent people who live in peace. Most unfortunately we have earned a bad reputation and have made our allies angry. We don’t deserve this and it shouldn’t be. The way our government goes about fixing a problem just makes it worse, creating more antagonism which then repeats the cycle we have perpetuated through some of our misguided, interventionist efforts. There is a better way and that’s why we elected you.Rich people and all their corporations make life so difficult for everyday citizens. If you’re lucky enough to get a job that pays for doctors and medication you can forget about the other people who can’t afford it. Out of sight, out of mind, that attitude – the mindset of the Washington DC fat cats – doesn’t make the problem go away. More and more people are going to go bankrupt if something isn’t done. The cost of health insurance can’t go up twice as fast as take home pay, every year, forever and ever; there’s a train wreck just down the fiscal railroad tracks we’re on, if we don’t do something about it.The powerful have screwed things up, people are losing their homes like never before, jobs are being cut and at the same time everything gets so expensive all the time. The oil companies take advantage and jack up prices just because they can. In short, I am writing to thank you Mr. President, we know you’re going to make things right for us and a more fair America will be ours again. Very truly yours,A Majority- 2 -Plebian ElitesThe subway train rolled steadily ahead, gaining speed as it descended the gentle slope that dropped the tracks back to ground level beyond the previous station. The tunnel was still a few miles ahead and the dull, light gray exterior of the car fought off the reflection of light and made the train appear suddenly out of the light fog as if it were a ghost. The rumble of the wheels rose steadily in volume with the increase in speed and then the pace leveled off as the train continued its even march towards the string of green lights ahead, its next station nine minutes farther down the tracks.Aaron looked back through the large plexiglass picture window and watched the tall buildings slowly eclipse one another as the train moved forward, gradually leaving them behind. Through the early morning mist the sky above promised clear blue without a hint of clouds. He pulled back his left sleeve to glance at the time; the minute hand was just starting to cross over the five point crown at the top of the hour, leaving an hour and two minutes before the nine o’clock meeting. He’d make it to the final stop in less than twenty minutes now, in plenty of time for some coffee. * * *Across the plaza and its flocks of pigeons the sunlight was just beginning to filter through between the buildings. The plaza was a welcome gap in the asphalt, stone and concrete forest and it was the best example in the city of the zoning law that forced its creation. The fog was lifting in fits and starts the way clouds do in equatorial mountains, drifting by in silence. Here it was fog in the mountains of money, losing its struggle with the rising sun and temperature, evaporating into invisibility to try again the next morning. The seamless glass of the newer steel mountains mirrored the sky and the smaller windows of the older stone structures showed thumbnail flashes of sky and brightness as the fog broke intermittently. The shadows of the Twin Towers would have fallen over the river at this time of morning. Those long, long shadows didn’t cover these streets until later in the day and those who remembered this place before their loss, saw it as it was before. The morning light illuminated long streaks of sidewalk, the plaza itself and the faces of the nation that marched towards progress, a paycheck and a first hot cup. Over Broadway and down the slope towards the East River, Kathryn watched the mass of legs flow through the crosswalk as her taxi waited at the red light. Content to take a cab to the office and also satisfied that it was just a yellow cab, not car service or a company limousine, she still wondered if she’d save time by taking the subway and then walking. Maybe she’d find out but either way, New York was everything she did and did not expect. The light turned green and the pedestrians, in rehearsed unity, gave up the street. The taxi pulled forward with a whining moan from its innards.“Watch the closing doors, watch the closing doors!” the cracking voice announced through the loudspeakers and then the double pocket doors thrust out of the sides of the subway car, their rubber end strips clamping together to pinch both the air and the extremities of any passenger too slow for the conductor’s warning. The train lurched gently forward, its couplings thunking and passengers leaning, those standing tightening their grip for just a moment. Aaron felt his briefcase tilt between his legs; the walls became a blur and then a dark gray abyss as the train hurtled into the tunnel, leaving the station quickly behind. Just four minutes from becoming history, it was an insignificant run that made this same route every few minutes of every weekday morning into the basement of the greatest city in the greatest nation the world has known. America’s monument to itself, a massive collection of functioning obelisks symbolically reaching for the once greatness they still yearn to represent. Aaron looked at his watch; 8:16. The train shot through the last stretch of tunnel, pressing ahead with its final load of passengers, the financial beast of the world waiting to begin its transaction pulse and to welcome this latest platoon of players into the bullring of commerce.Kathryn Miller had not given the environment of New York City more than a passing thought when considering whether she should relocate. The details of the assignment were a bit overwhelming even for a person like her who rose to such challenges like a coach. She played in games without a schedule, in contests that were always spilling forth and often she found herself on the team like a prime athlete. The possibility of encountering a hostile press was her largest worry; news editors could not be controlled to the extent she preferred but at least the opposing message was only delivered in the limited doses permitted under the FairDoc rules. She admired the deft skill and sometimes to her own consternation, the cunning tactics used to discredit any journalist that pushed the wrong opinion. It was easy to blur a message with enough smoke signals but it took the right person to blow that smoke. It also took experienced skill to avoid handing a smoke bomb to one of those firebrands and she didn’t yet have that ability. A capable strategist herself, she had quickly learned to identify weakness inside herself to then spot vulnerable points of attack in adversaries. Dealing with the press was going to be a tricky proposition, she thought, but as shallow as she was in that experience, she was supremely confident she would devise a strategy to turn the issue to her advantage. Aaron could be a key link in the effort and she was glad he was already close by and could make it to her new office with less than a day’s notice. The taxi turned the corner.She was discovering New York City to be a collection of towns and most of Manhattan to be made up of transplants, natives from suburbs and outer boroughs and a myriad of business serving and employing all of these people. There were many types of people in Manhattan that didn’t fit into these groups but they were invisible to her existence other than as occupiers of space on public transportation and taxi drivers. For anybody having been raised in almost any other city, the idea of an impassible moat that limited travel onto and off a city was hard to even imagine. New York’s moats are far enough apart that at least it doesn’t look like an island. You get the impression you could drive, walk or even ride a bike over several horizons. The reality is that only a car provides an on-demand escape off Manhattan and even then, through tight checkpoints. Trains run but on their own schedule. She thought far back to the days when no tunnels or bridges existed; boats were the sole means of entry and exit and yet still the people came and society grew. Was it, she wondered, this separation that acted as a magnet? What brought people “aboard” Manhattan? Her thoughts now turned to herself; she had now come on board herself, too. Why?* * *Aaron walked confidently with the crowd, keeping the natural pace and distance from other pedestrians the herd automatically enforced. He came up to the building in what seemed like no time at all; his mind occupied and his legs on autopilot, he hoped this morning would move along just as anonymously, knowing full well it would not. “What the heck” he thought “hope is free”.“Aaron Miller to see Kathryn Miller” he announced to the reception desk on the forty sixth floor. The interior finishing matched the fa?ade in the way it only can in an owner-designed and occupied building. It had the standard neo-classical look that attempts to replicate an architectural era long gone, the historical image of which is far more substantial than reality at the time. Like holiday postcards with lovely, snow dusted scenes of small town beauty, this building’s molded granite fa?ade and interior finishing attempted to evoke a timeless stability and resilience missing from its owner’s business. Aaron thought the building to be an ironic metaphor for what might manifest itself at the nine o’clock meeting.“Please take a seat, Mr. Miller,” came the polite, perfunctory instruction, “and somebody will be here shortly to take you in”. “Thank you” answered Aaron and then he sat in the nearest stiff leathered wing chair which squeaked as his weight settled on the cushion. Obviously these chairs get very little use he thought, which has to mean very few visitors, quick entry or new chairs. The chairs weren’t new, that was for sure, so why so few visitors to the forty sixth floor, he wondered? No sooner had this chair cushion analysis begun when a loud buzzer jolted the quiet reception room and the floor to ceiling glass door opened. Aaron glanced reflexively in its direction and noticed then how thick the glass was, something not noticeable in the closed door.“Please step this way” said the man who had just emerged no more than a half step out, and as Aaron rose from the leather chair the man disappeared back through the door. Aaron noticed it was cleverly smoke colored so the inside office space was visible but not very much so. He hadn’t noticed that either at first and wondered aloud to himself why his big sister would accept this assignment – was there a razor slim possibility she didn’t really know what was involved? Aaron pulled open the now buzzed unlocked door and its balanced heft matched its thickness. As it closed and latched behind him the sound of its mechanical locking clicked from the floor underneath the threshold. He got the fleeting sensation of being locked in and now looked forward even more eagerly to seeing Kathryn and the chance to ask her about this whole deal.His escort was already many steps down the aisle, not looking back and not looking very subservient either. The man wore a simple black suit and black, low gloss shoes with rubber, not leather soles. His stride did not match an office worker whose rung on the hierarchy’s ladder might include collecting a visitor. His haircut and face were equally out of character and he gave off the air of a courtroom bailiff. He briefly vanished after a quick right turn and as Aaron reached the end of the aisle and repeated the turn himself, he saw his black suited escort stop and turn obediently back in his direction, hands at his sides for a brief moment looking for that second like the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier without a rifle. The hands then quickly came together in a relaxed formal clasp as he waited for Aaron. The door to the corner office was open but his sister’s voice came from around a corner; all he could see was the elegant furniture setting and finely curtained window to the left. “Please wait just a moment while I inform Ms. Miller we’re here” said the black suit leader in a deep voice straight from somebody accustomed to giving instructions always obeyed. His sister’s telephone voice dropped to almost inaudible and then resumed its tone again just as the suit re-appeared at the doorway and told Aaron to go in and take a seat on the sofa. The black suit stepped into a large, also elegantly furnished office immediately next to Kathryn’s and closed its heavy wooden door. - 3 -Prison Spark Plug SchoolThe control of a large organization serves several key purposes, not the most minor of which is to provide those charged with the management of said organization the feeling of control and thus ability. A knowing confidence is essential to act decisively.If you have read these words before, you’ve been exposed to Management Gospel “as she is spoke”. Any group of people brought together with a common name, brand or purpose requires organizing in some amount to achieve their objective. They can do it voluntarily – willingly, of their own choice – or they are forced. Given that participation in almost every organized effort is voluntary – freedom to join in or leave – we could cast aside jails, their inmates and ignore the methods used to manage incarcerated populations, right? It is self evident, logical and of plain common sense that prisoners are forced. Inclusion in nearly every other group is by choice. Are there significant differences between the organizational structures of a school district, a prison and a spark plug manufacturer? Each one has controlling owners, directors, appointed managers, employees and finally the subjects of the activity and purpose. In these examples the subjects are the students, inmates and customers. The controlling owners are, respectively, the residents of the district, all registered voters and the owners, the shareholders. The appointed managers are selected by a group of directors chosen by the owners; the school board, the corrections department, and the board of directors; there is always a general manager individual with broad, defined executive authority. Responsibility for key functions is delegated to managers of each functional area; there are employees in greater numbers and then finally the aforementioned recipients of the collective effort. The organizational structures of these three are very similar; almost identical. The good news is that such similarity indicates an effective structure. The curious and even troubling question is: if the natures of these three organizations are vastly different – three corners of a triangle, voluntary, compulsory and physically forced – why do their organizational structures resemble each other so closely? Certainly they do function; but would they function better if organized differently?Could a school district produce more graduates of higher academic performance if it were set up differently from a prison? Does a spark plug manufacturer make its best effort to produce a quality, reliable product with the same outline used to structure education? If A works and resembles B, will B also work because it resembles A?No likeness should be inferred that primary academic curricula are closely related to the custody of incarcerated felons, just as little overlap exists between an exotic sports car and a cement truck. Where there are broad differences of purpose and function, do similar structures impede or assist achievement? A tall office building has a very similar structure to a tower such as an obelisk. They can never be used in place of each other. If the use of a new building is unique, a new structure will be designed to accommodate it. Think of a grain elevator and then a cantilevered bridge. Apologies to the reader for belaboring the obvious, however such self evident examples highlight the contradiction repeated across many entities with only one common element; that they are comprised of humans, and preferably alive. Apologies to cemeteries everywhere. Could a unique set-up improve performance? The components of an entity do suggest alternatives. Consider a state that owns no prisons. Penal codes, law enforcement and criminal courts operate as they do now; incarceration, however, is handled by a private company not a part of a corrections department, with no requirement to organize itself any certain way. It only need perform as agreed; receive, house and release. It could easily raise capital as any private company does, and employee ownership is certainly possible. If they were investor owners, could employees vote on most operating decisions, the criteria for which they establish on their own? Could management responsibility over operating functions such as maintenance, purchasing, food service, population management and so forth be rotated by vote? Technology and a relatively small workforce make this feasible. Would this produce a more or less efficient prison function? Would a state pay more or less doing this as compared to owning and operating the facilities itself? Does or should a government agency, funds for which are raised through forced confiscation, follow the existing organizational structure when intervening to seize a previously privately held company, taken over in the name of “rescue”? Will the investment be passive or will the government intervene? Will the structure become harmonious or adverse to the imposition of new rules and protocols?Given that government and its functions are deemed to be by, of and for the people – we the citizens – the noble goal of fairness is then expected and generally attempted. Human nature and circumstance ensure that exceptions to equality will always happen. A seized company previously achieved success and grew on its own. Collapse would cause widespread problems, so goes the explanation. The success and growth that produced its size and influence were not the result of rescues, fairness and revised plans. Rational decisions made in competitive markets are what make a company grow successful. The imposition of change from outside the company was not a component of historical success. No investment would have been made in a company run like a school district. Are new shareholders investing in a rescued company therefore simply gambling? Do shareholders from prior to the seizure remain with the hope of recovering prior value, fearful of a large realized loss? What plan does the government have for exiting the business? Does the government hope to recover all monies injected? Can executive authority just be imposed via one or a few top executives, leaving the organizational structure intact and can this be reasonably expected to spark a turnaround? Valid contracts and good agreements are decided by the parties to them. Disputes are resolved by established procedures. Does the seizure and operation of an otherwise doomed company not place the government – the one that establishes courts and makes law, including contract law - in a position of deciding which contract will be honored and which will not?The Constitution prohibits the federal government from doing things unless specific authority has been granted. Authority to own and operate a company previously owned entirely by voluntary investors has not been granted. An eventual loss is a loss to the citizens, the final losers at the end of the exercise. Should the citizens not have the authority to decide what investments could be made? The Constitution addresses this question.What will be the effects of governmental takeovers of private companies? Will structures common to a spark plug manufacturer, a school district and a prison be the right answer for a failing company, with just one chief executive taking government orders? The new ingredient is a lot of taxpayer money. With all else the same, will the new boss, a pot of gold with arbitrary strings attached and buckets full of hope all be enough to return a seized company to its former standing?Aaron and Kathryn Miller now find themselves behind heavy wooden doors in unwitting pursuit of the answers.- 4 -Meet the MillersAaron’s relocation east last year to pursue a law degree was an unusual move for somebody who finished college nine years earlier, to say the least. With something like two percent or so of the adult population over age twenty five holding a law degree, it couldn’t ever be argued there were not enough lawyers to go around. Even with the amounts of money society spent on legal services, finding a lawyer or law firm to do work was easy. Aaron knew the real opportunity would lie in taking on the contingent fee case, and not the slip & fall or adverse outcome medical variety. Those cases settled out or became so expensive to take to trial, a settlement was usually better for the plaintiff’s lawyer. Aaron knew the real money would be found in pursuing official misconduct cases where victims were ordinary citizens who had been set upon be overzealous law enforcement. DNA evidence was making it easier and easier to crack open crooked prosecutors and these defendants – bad cops – were much less likely to settle out and then invite public scrutiny and ridicule; the police union would almost always resist. Best of all, they had good money to spend on defense; taxpayer money. Those funds were bottomless and the settlement was paid in cash. It was easy to get the client to agree to a one third cut. Liability insurance was almost never enough money, and the insurance company would always try to settle early and lower its defense cost. Often there was no liability coverage or it didn’t kick in until the value of the settlement hit millions. Lawsuits had killed off insurance for cities like it killed off insurance for doctors before that. It came back for the doctors much more expensive than before, who just passed the increases along to their Medicare and Medicaid patients mostly. It killed off Medicare/Medicaid but got the prices of doctor visits and fees up high enough to allow physicians to keep paying those high premiums for insurance, which they really needed because of all of the lawsuits they were always seeing. The government health insurance plan benefitted the most; it provided one of the strongest arguments needed to take over the health insurance and then those same elected officials turned their backs on physician liability once that was done. It became obvious only afterwards why there was never any response by elected officials to reform tort laws and to put limits on medical liability payouts; it would have kept costs lower and reduced the number of catcalls for healthcare reform. So the doctors had to take whatever fees the federal plan would pay and figure out on their own how to pay for malpractice insurance. Some did, some left the medical profession and most of them left the medical profession after a few lawsuits. Fortunately for the lawyers, cities and towns didn’t, because they couldn’t “quit”. They just raised taxes.What those municipalities also did was spend lots of money on programs and benefits, so why not knock off a chunk of that government money when a state, county or city screwed up and put an innocent person in prison? Aaron saw this as the ultimate public benefit he would help provide, taking a nice piece of the action for the service. It was really the people’s money and Aaron understood that but no matter the huge strain on municipal finances, the guy was a victim of prosecutor malpractice. The whole liability issue with medical treatment set the table for this opportunity; why not take advantage?So after nine years of post college career shots, which followed precocious academic progress, a degree at age twenty, career starts managing a sales force for portable satellite internet service, electric car charge plans and selling government long term disability coverage, Aaron decided the law career would be a more settled lifestyle that wouldn’t require a whole lot more effort, wouldn’t require a lot more travel and might even convince his girlfriend to make things more permanent. Going to school on the East Coast was going to be tough since there were not many jobs for her and even though his savings would make it feasible, her independence would be compromised if she had to depend on him in any way. The only bone he could throw her was the lack of a common law marriage law there; she could move in and no legal obligation would exist.All of this became irrelevant the day the phone rang in his apartment.“Aaron?” his sister asked.“Hey, Kath, what’s up?”“I’m moving to New York for the next assignment, it’s a big deal really, and you’re part of the deal I hope”. “Wow” said Aaron, “New York? How long are you going to be there?”“Long enough to get rid of the D.C. apartment.”“OK and when did this come up and what are you going to be doing?”“Chief Compliance Officer, Consolidated Indemnity Group”.Aaron whistled softly in admiration and with a little bit of concern for his sister.“CIG? Most mere mortals like me would ask if you’re sure, but I know you know you are, so just ‘wow’ is it, for now. You want me to do something with this assignment?”“You betcha, I hate to waste phone calls and I’m not wasting one now”.* * *Consolidated Indemnity, or CIG, the abbreviated marketing name by which the group was known, was never a stranger to controversy throughout its past. Given its recent history there was zero chance it would fail to be controversial now. It had grown vigorously, especially over the twenty years prior to its takeover by the Federal Corporation Agency, and had been created anew out of assets seized by the Federal Reserve. Assets were sold off with much struggle but barely made a dent worth its independence in the size of the federal intervention. Soon there was nothing left to sell. Its brand names had long since been integrated for operational efficiency and it was not now possible to sell them off as separate pieces. It was almost like sixteen different sizes and brands of tomato paste, sauce and purees all coming out of the same production plant.The company got into hot water when real estate prices began to fall. CIG had entered into a new product, a guarantee that made it safer for banks to sell bonds attached to mortgages. With the house as collateral, a mortgage is believed to be a safe investment. The guarantee sold by CIG paid off if the bond missed its interest payment. Lots of mortgages had to default for that to happen. The insurance company might even have to pay off the bond plus overdue interest. It got the collateral, the houses, but they sell for less than the amount borrowed in the first place, the insurance company eats the loss. The bond holders come out OK, and so does the bank. Hopefully the insurance company collected enough premiums; after all, that’s insurance.It turned out CIG wasn’t using one of its tomato paste brands to sell the guarantees. It wasn’t allowed to. Because each insurance company had to remain separate and account for the capital, premiums and claims, the insurance commissioners would never allow it without enough capital set aside plus a plan to liquidate the portfolio, just in case. So CIG took its lead from Washington, DC and its comfort with selective ignorance of Constitutional obstacles. CIG just sold the guarantee through the unregulated holding company. They created a new entity, tomato free and off they went. Then houses stopped selling. The mortgages started defaulting and as they piled up, it became obvious the banks would not have made them to keep on their own books. They didn’t have to; they just packaged them, wrapped up in a bond and sold them off, keeping a nice profit. All guaranteed by CIG.So a collapse meant a lot more than shareholders taking a hit; could it knock down dominoes across the nation and then the world? Insurance company guarantees are no “guarantee”, just a promise to pay. The insurance company wants to make a profit just as badly as the drug dealer does, the difference being, the insurance company must make a profit, or else. Insufficient fences were built around a run of big claims and now the guarantees were not going to be paid. The government decided to become the biggest shareholder and according to it, saved the world economy from imminent collapse.Several government appointed chief executives later, Kathryn Miller came into the picture. An old and young thirty eight, she fit the plan for CIG perfectly. The open secret was to refer to this venture of her federal agency as “Confidence In Governing”. Kathryn believed in it and was intent on playing a pivotal role making over the image and reputation of the agency. She had the track record required of nearly every successful corporate climber; she was successfully compliant. She was at her natural ease projecting the appearance of complete agreement with her superiors. She had been fortunate to be part of past operations with good perceived outcomes. She gave off an air of manufactured authority without ever having put in the trench time to develop the toughness that makes ease of command seem natural. She was good at extracting perceived compliance from subordinates and knew exactly, instinctively when to cross legs, fold arms, interrupt and sneer at the appropriate moment, creating conversational confusion. During any presentation where her immediate administrative boss was not present, she excelled at waiting for the right moment to inject questions from left field to demonstrate to the presenter and audience her skepticism of the plan and ability to extract certainty. In any one-on-one or one-on-two conversation, she launched criticisms of anything her emotions did not prefer; she extolled the virtues of results but in her essence only cared about the results when her administrative superior might connect her with dissatisfaction in those results.In the majority if not totality of successful for-profit companies, Kathryn would have soon been relegated to a backwater job if not run off entirely; her disinterest in the nuts and bolts of a business, the intricacy and detail and understanding of why a customer would give a company money would soon become apparent. She survived where immediate supervisors remained pleased with their perception of her assertive style and unfailing desire to please them. Subordinates would soon grow tired of her style as they always did, becoming unmotivated with the natural performance decay soon to follow. She was the manager who found plausible, superficial explanations for employee resignations and for lackluster performance. She would almost have dared superiors to act against her, were she running a dynamic, growing operation that required a coordinated plan to keep customers happy.Kathryn Miller was adept at avoiding jobs that sooner or later would puncture her style. She did not need to worry about pleasing an outside customer. Right out of college she fell into a trainee audit job at a large accounting and consulting firm. Only two years later, with minimal accounting experience, a new and sudden audit assignment gave the appearance of a promotion and didn’t require her to make decisions, just to go along with them. She was transferred out of Chicago to Los Angeles to be part of a team to audit the Congressional Budget Office. They had been looking into cash flow, cash disbursements and general cash management practices at Navy and Marine Corps facilities in southern California. She knew nothing about the Navy; she wasn’t expected to.As simplistic as this characteristic seems on the surface, it turned out to be defining and advantageous. Expressing interest in a topic often led to learning and then conversation with colleagues, clients and co-workers. In a time limited and task focused project like an audit, expressing too much knowledge was politically risky; some colleagues could misinterpret such discussion as distraction and lack of seriousness. The opposite extreme, just clamming up and avoiding any conversation beyond good morning and so long, was just as bad, maybe worse. The solution is to make the perfunctory six sentence comment on the most recent current event, always careful to avoid any violation of the political correctness code. This was an especially effective way of getting along since the avoidance of political in-correctness didn’t itself look like being politically correct; the absence of a negative being a positive. It is not progress but on the job, people who look like they have their eye on the ball, look good for that alone.So Kathryn just ignored the terms she didn’t recognize such as SOCOM, SPECWAR, SSgt, 5.56x14mm and let other people worry about what exactly was the activity that involved the cash movement they were examining. From time to time she’d be required to write an interim summary and for that she would piggy back on some other team members’ work that mentioned a phrase or term of which she didn’t know the meaning. Sometimes she’d use search websites like Yoohoo, Bang and Gargle to get filler and make it look as if she truly understood her explanation and report, to a reader not familiar with such jargon. She knew the job would be finished at some point; she needn’t worry about how the Armed Forces worked. Her biggest concern, frankly, was remaining single.College in her straight-laced family was tough because she couldn’t justify a college dormitory with her house so close to the university. Even though many female college students were rumored to attend just for the “M-R-S” degree, this wasn’t the case in reality. The party scene held little attraction for her and she knew very few women that actually got married before their late twenties or early thirties. Nevertheless, the opportunity to meet a future husband was found in three places for such a woman; college, college and college. Her father settled for buying her a car to commute to and fro and she made her way through to her degree without any social fanfare or lasting series of dates. She made some friends, made some grades, made a mess of her difficult relationship with her mother but she didn’t make much boyfriend progress.The accounting job was her break from the family pattern and her move to Chicago the first step in making her own way. She was frightened by it but terrified of staying in what was now just her parent’s house; it had evolved into just the scenario of childhood memories. Terror beats fright most days of the week and Kathryn made the drive back to Cincinnati as often as holidays, birthdays, Hallmark Holidays and her usually thin social schedule allowed, which was often. Only two trips out of town for work amounted to the extent of her worldly travels; she was arrogantly embarrassed when asked by corporate travel why Sunday evening’s outbound flight should not depart from Chicago. She just felt safer driving “home”, visiting and leaving her car at her parents’ house. What danger her sensibly cute VW Beetle would face in an airport parking deck at O’Hare full of Cadillacs, Bimmers and the omnipresent Lexuses she didn’t bother to think much about.So the L.A. job cut a few family cables Kathryn hadn’t bothered to either measure or inspect. Her terror versus fear choice solved a year ago, the move to California meant she would need to find new things to occupy her free time and worry, just as the Chicago move had done without warning.Someone at the CBO liked the job done in California since Kathryn had just given notice on her furnished apartment when she was asked to fly to Washington DC to discuss findings. As part of a group, she was happy for the business company on a cross country flight. Driving trips to Coronado, San Diego, Pendleton and especially Twenty Nine Palms got old quick. Meeting at LAX to fly to Dulles and then to shuttle van their way in to DC was like a school trip and she felt more like an elementary student than at any time she could remember since being a little girl. The city was magical in its appearance with so many buildings of the same height all around the White House. The collection of architecture was something she’d only seen in books and the air of a university without students all over the place was as far a cry from Chicago or Los Angeles as she could imagine.The request to fly back and consider a job working at Treasury was like a new medicine. Concerns about family, idle free time and future uncertainty were swept aside. She instinctively knew this was a calling she had to answer. Resigning from her old job felt like throwing away old clothes long since forgotten and never liked in the first place. She felt a twinge of guilt at such an ungrateful thought, realizing her move to Washington, DC would never have come about without going to Los Angeles.* * *“Three’s a charm on the dozen year itch” she thought as she came out of the elevator on the forty sixth floor. Her progression to a public high school was a big shift from the private schools she always believed were not the better place to be, despite her parents’ regular comments about those ‘public school children’ and how they were allowed to wear whatever clothing they wanted, a metaphor for thinking whatever they wanted or so went her parents’ belief. In reality private schools such as the ones she attended answered to parental expectations in return for the tuition paid. Receipt of benefits under government programs was a simple matter of expectations with little hope for regular good service. Paying out of pocket meant the school found solutions for students that didn’t perform. Parents weren’t supposed to educate their offspring any more than design their car to run well. That was Toyota’s responsibility along with its dealers. So room for thought at public schools in classes like “Life Skills Management” and “The Role of Government” didn’t fit in at St. Ann’s. She studied her subjects and that was it, pretty much. Arriving later at East Lewisville High School opened her eyes like she would never forget. Teenagers driving cars to school was the first hint of things to come. Academic classes were not so different and the strange clothing and tattoos showing was something she was used to, since she’d seen it plenty at the movies, the mall and everyplace else teenagers clumped together. Somehow she’d never thought about it at school and was genuinely surprised to see the hair, the ‘body art’ (or ‘potty smart’ she called it) and strange combinations of clothes. Deep down below the surface the rest of the kids were pretty okay but they didn’t go easy on her appearance, calling her a conformist and constantly suggesting footwear and hair styles more in line with popular choices. The pressure wasn’t intense at any one moment but it was low level unrelenting. Looking back on it now, she was as far away from conformist as any student there could be. She had always been told by other kids to “express herself” and to “do her own thing” which meant be like everyone else. She also now understood why certain political trends take hold; conformity was understood as progress. If the idea were new, it must be better. Who could reject better and prefer what’s not new?A dozen years after high school started, she had transmogrified those years of college and her first job into a continuum. Kathryn had just come to realize it a few years ago, looking back at it through a decade long focus.Today at thirty eight, the dozen year itch required no rear view mirror; her assignment by the Treasury Reserve to CIG as Chief Compliance Officer was the beginning of the third dozen year stretch and held every promise of ending on a real charm. The idea of a comfortable retirement at age fifty almost seemed appealing, horrendous as the idea would have been in college. Having the choice would be the charm. * * *Kathryn was a grown up, Aaron always thought, and while he knew college was study, he imagined his big sister going off to manage some operation there when he finally made it to Junior High School. When she went to work after college, she came home for long weekends, birthdays and such and for a few weeks during summer vacation. By the time he’d gotten his first year of high school under his belt, she’d moved to Washington D.C. Her visits dropped off a little for the time she was in California so the move east didn’t change much around the house except the VW New Beetle he secretly hoped to ‘inherit’ vanished into the twilight zone of trade-ins, never to be seen again.Aaron settled into the guest chair on the other side of Kathryn’s new desk but couldn’t tell how used it was from the quality fabric. The large corner office had draped windows on two sides, with elegant outer curtains and semi-translucent ones next to the glass. The leather sofa, lamps, end tables and glass topped coffee table spoke of the status found only in those offices furnished to mimic an elegant house as ironic compensation for the sometimes un-elegant dealings taking place on that very furniture. Missing was the expected handmade Persian rug. Maybe it was not in the original budget but more likely than not it could have been taken away to lessen a look of excess luxury.Kathryn hung up the phone, came out from around her desk and exclaimed “hey kiddo” as she hugged Aaron. She sat in the other guest chair and turned towards him. “Coffee?” she asked.“I stopped for some on the walk over from the subway” he said.“I’m going to need your help big time and it might get in the way of law school, but it could still be good for both of us” she stated.“Wow” was all he could say.“I’ll give you the background” she went on, “about what I’m doing here and then you’ll get the picture which will make sense for your role”.“Which is?” Aaron said as Kathryn smiled back with open, inquisitive eyes.“Remember I mentioned doing research into special projects?” she reminded him. “Well, there’s only one special project which is this company. Specifically as an agency of the Federal Treasury because of the ownership control, which really means the money that’s been poured in. The company’s barely scraping by and hasn’t made a scratch much less a dent into repaying the rescue money. The preferred shares can’t be extinguished until CIG has bought them all back. Since it’s a complete unknown if that will ever be possible, we have to get rid of those preferred shares before they become a political liability.”“We as in CIG or the Federal Treasury?” asked Aaron.“There’s no difference and it doesn’t matter.”“Pardon my ignorance” Aaron grinned, “but I think it would matter to the common stockholders. All those shareholders from before the near meltdown, remember those ‘little’ folks?”“Of course, everybody remembers them” answered Kathryn.“So who’s gonna buy? Who you gonna sell ‘em to?”Kathryn didn’t respond right away. She looked down at the floor, re-crossed her legs, looked back up at her younger brother, and coolly and calmly said “they won’t sell but they will go away. That’s a big project and it certainly will be special.”- 5 -Taking StockStandard investment advice says buying stock in a company is the best way to gain over the long term. The performance of a company – how much profit it makes on how much it sells – will be reflected in the price of the stock. Standard advice also says an investor should not put too much into just stocks and also not too much into any one stock. These two beliefs – hold stock and diversify – are correct yet contradict each other. “Huh?” many readers may ask after reading the last six words of the previous sentence.What’s long term? Buying a house to live in it and then actually living in it as intended is certainly a long term asset. Does a stock investor keep shares for as long as a home? If every owner of stock kept it as long as a house, most stockbrokers would go out of business long before reaching “remembered” size; brokers make money on transactions.Employers routinely award shares as part of incentive pay and retention. A natural desire to see the price go up is created, and thus an incentive to work for that is the accepted belief. This is usually done every year, providing an ongoing incentive. If employment is terminated – by resignation or dismissal – stock awarded but not yet in the hands of the employee is not given. It’s an incentive to stay and it punishes the one they get rid of, for the all rest to see. Competitors will find luring away staff to be expensive.Whether historical data demonstrates better profitability as a result of this compensation practice versus earlier periods in economic history when it was done only for the few key executives, does not really matter. It has become a mainstay of employee compensation.Does an employee paid in the employer’s stock have better information about company plans and performance compared to an arm’s length investor at a regulated exchange? Of course. Can this information provide an employee an advantage? Of course. Has a more advantageous insider position been used by employees to profit where outsiders did not? Of course. Have stock regulations attempted to limit this un-equal position? Certainly. Do violations occur still? A quick look over the case list at enforcement divisions of bourse regulators worldwide will tell all.Should a long term investor consider this risk when buying stock? That’s similar to asking a shopper to consider the risk of their car being broken into while at the store. A stock price that satisfies investors makes everything panies raise funds by selling their stock, buyers make money by eventually selling it at a price they deem attractive; so go the stock markets and the investment business.If however holding stock over the long term is a way to outperform other investments – Piece of Advice, Standard, No. 1 (see beginning of this chapter) then why shouldn’t too much of any investment portfolio be made up of stocks? Why spread money among several different stocks? In two words, market risk. The price will fluctuate, we’re told, and indeed it does. We’re told not to time the market, to not sell based on recent market movements and to not buy or sell based on guesses as to where stock prices will be at any given moment. Hang on and lower prices today will recover and eventually surpass the price before fluctuations began. The gains of the most will cover the losses of the few and the investor will come out ahead.This method held true in 1987 when stocks crashed in November of that year. The calendar year ended with a small gain and most stocks regained the pre-crash prices within the short and mid-term.Stock ownership has become widespread and many investors own shares, often via mutual funds as part of their retirement savings. Tax breaks are given to employees to encourage saving and a further tax break is given to employers to match those savings. Mutual funds have made it simple to buy combinations of investments, stocks and otherwise, all encouraged by tax laws. Investors and savers that bought stock during the twenty year period between 1988 and 2008 lost their proverbial shirt. The longer investments were made and held over that time, the worse the loss. We’re advised to buy stock regularly over time, not timing the market and thus engaging in a technique called dollar cost averaging. All sensible if the stock price goes up and stays up and continues to hold promise of going up. In 2008 most stock portfolios lost about forty percent. The entire prior discussion popped like a balloon. With unemployment hovering at ten percent plus and showing no signs of dropping, stocks will not recover any meaningful part of the forty percent lost; forget about actual appreciation above that. If fifteen or twenty years isn’t long term, then the phrase should be banned. Any loser in the last quarter of 2008 cannot help but look back at the several moments in the years before the drop (as prices declined over several weeks and not all at once in a one or two day crash) and wonder what would have been a good enough reason to sell. In the beginning of the chapter it was said that long term stock investing contradicted stock and portfolio diversification. If long term holdings outperform the same money invested for a fixed gain – such as in a bond – then, the belief goes, intermediate fluctuations will be minor and not material; it will still outperform alternatives. It can be argued that diversification is necessary for long term stock holdings in the event of companies like Enron or WorldCom that collapse from fraud. The number of publicly traded companies that implode this way is infinitesimal. Like the risk of walking down the street versus air travel, could any stock investor identify such a company before it blows up where even the Securities & Exchange Commission cannot? Unlike commercial air travel, investors do have some chance to detect warning signs even without a crystal ball.Investing in several different companies, perhaps many, is a good way to insulate against losses from short term fluctuations in prices. This depends on the length of short term, which brings up the “standard advice” discouraged practice of timing transactions to market peaks. How will any one single company perform and for how long? Timing stock buys specific to one single company can be prudent; can such active investors ignore market indices? Will the variations be possible to be ignored? Can a golfer ignore lighting because the chance of being struck is low enough to justify remaining on the links until rain actually falls? Does knowledge affect behavior?Stock price declines in 2008 set a new paradigm for investors be they day trade gamblers or very long term retirement savers; stock investing entered a new phase. Over a ten year period starting in early 2000, stock indexes showed no gain at all. Zero. If over a ten year period no gain was to be had, what about over a twenty year period? Sure, there were ups and downs within, but surely, according to standard advice, the ups would have outpaced the downs and even a disappointing result would have been less up, not zero gain. Thus, traditional advice now tends to be contradictory if an investor follows most of it. Conservative, prudent long term retirement funds, well managed and designed to provide long term safe returns also lost significant value. When it rains, everybody’s roof gets wet.The intervention into theretofore private companies, across an entire sector of the market such as commercial banking or automobile manufacturing, sets up a distortion not ever seen. The reader may legitimately ask the purpose of this discussion on stocks and investing, which is this: forces beyond the control of an investor determine the value of a company’s stock. If enough institutional investors, such as stock fund managers, hedge fund traders and the like all agree the stock of a company should be worth 6 times the annual profit – voting with their wallets and paying such a price – then nothing any one individual investor says or does will change it. No such investor can implement a new strategy, develop new products, provide better service or reduce operating expense and improve efficiency.Should the citizens of a country, subject to confiscation of their earnings and assets (taxes) have those same monies put into profit making entities? The ailing company was bailed out by the taxpayers; if it continues to fail, will the government allow it to collapse or will even more funds be injected? The perpetuity of government programs gives a clue to the answer. Should a government with the power to regulate the companies it now owns be allowed to compete against entirely privately held companies subject to regulation but without access to government financing? Where lenders and investors will not become involved in a poor performing company with even poorer prospects, why does such a company become worthy of massive investment by citizens? Seizure of control by majority ownership while retaining the power over a company’s accounting, stock transfers and product markets, does a government fall victim to making decisions that will principally provide political advantage and benefit? If ever higher salaries must be offered to attract good talent and prices cut to attract customers, will competitors remain more profitable without similar high expense or low prices and eventually force the government entity to lose money? The ability to serve customers is limited to capital, output capacity, supply chains and distribution networks. Cutting prices works only within these constraints; the speed of an assembly line has its limits independent of the sales price of the device made on it. Capacity expansion can take months and years, while price cuts can take effect tomorrow. Facing heavy losses, can the elected officials who also hold the authority to appoint and dismiss regulators resist the use of such power to restrain competition? Will new regulations or capital requirements be imposed? Will there be compulsory output quotas? Will there be a rise in product costs by limitations on raw material imports? Will government controlled entities be made exempt in some way?Kathryn Miller the new Chief Compliance Officer for Consolidated Indemnity Group and her younger brother Aaron are about to find out. - 6 -PseudomorphKathryn thought for a moment why she felt so pleased to involve her younger brother in this new project, and suddenly the realization struck; an epiphany in one’s maturity often does. The abrupt arrival of the realization his presence evoked was a discovery of the unseen familiar. Aaron being around her office was reality symbolism. An image of her family pattern, live and right in front of her, a refuge from the present time, hiding from the past, brought here to interact with her and build a wall around her fears. Looking at junior high school from her perch of age, Kathryn now remembered the comfort of tension of that time of her then still young life. Adolescence forced growing up on her just the same as everyone, especially as it does to girls, and just like everyone, it came differently to her. She could not grow up and didn’t know she wanted to grow up but wasn’t going to, not for quite a few years. The move to break the pattern came easily, much easier than she expected it would happen. Worry about how something will come down usually overshadows the event, like going down a long waterslide. Fast and then it’s over and just like that, she found herself in Washington, DC, the trip away from her mother’s aspirations to matriarchy ended in a quick, wet splash.Reminders of her place in the hierocracy of her mother’s mind came in visits home, but her childless, unmarried adulthood kept her parents away from the center of DC; reigning over the rearing of children was the keystone of grandmotherly maternal dogma, if not the cornerstone of its foundation. As Kathryn had yet to produce this essential kingpin to which the cable of her mother’s prevalence would be attached, her sprouting maturity continued to evolve on a parallel track that sometimes seemed to her like an alternate universe. The separate existence faded over the years as she grew accustomed to her innate process; Aaron’s agreement to come see her and play a role scoured away the sediment which had settled in and smoothed over the distinctions.Her mother was to be given credit for a sense of class, appearances and order that looked up to status and well regarded recognition of the unimaginative, ordinary trappings of achievement. What was truly achieved and how such achievement produced a social agreement of goodness never occurred to the woman; seeing to it that Kathryn would display the qualities her mother sought to show was the objective all decisions of her upbringing would follow.She parted her hair in the middle; she parted it to the side; she wore it shoulder length, neck length, below her shoulders and in pigtails. Her blouses had rounded collars; burgundy penny loafers and socks finished off the plaid, pleated skirt that bespoke a uniform exclusivity of blandness. The wool coat and white gloves hinted at an image some girls envied, to the horror of others who could not imagine the incarcerated existence of such a wardrobe. None of this registered on any radar screen Kathryn knew to exist, such was the success of her mother’s management. Kathryn simply accepted as fact that her brightly polished grade school shoes would turn into the loafers of junior high at such time as back to school shopping would come due in the summer after sixth grade, and she would step forward and upward into education as was expected. The appearance of a handsome and distracting guy gave the first hint there was a way that her mother’s agenda did not consider. Kathryn thought back now to the moment just a thought or two after the epiphany elbowed its way to the front of her thinking and truly didn’t remember if ‘the agenda’ was her mother’s or her own. Today she knew there was a step away, a step up and a sidestep through the work in Chicago and Los Angeles that set a new course. The transfer to Washington set sail for new oceans; off course meant on course now. Taking her own helm brought worries and fear out of hiding, and success made them seem to grow dim. Continued success erased them, and her course continued to a new set of destinations that only became known as each was mapped. It was an achievement to the extreme with unknown objectives. The contentment, satisfaction and confidence she felt from them gave dimensions to her universe and value to its costs.In her office on the day she was called by the Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank she’d felt smugly confident his request would be no more than a new project with new process and protocol and a closer move to a position on the Senate staff committee she so desired. Later that evening, looking over her notes written in the hasty wake of that phone call and the subsequent one from her boss, she trembled at the thought of refusing the offer.She couldn’t shake off the worry of her mother’s criticism and disapproval, the cross face and folded arms of discontent that make gloom. She felt a dread overcome her at those times and felt it again now, many years and experiences later. Aware as she was of the passing of time, the feeling was the same, unchanged and unaltered in spite of the vastly different circumstances and years of distance this new job assignment held. She knew she could refuse as she knew she could jump from a large building; if anything the building jump would be easier if she were forced to choose. Aaron’s presence stood for continuity, familiarity and acceptance. He would always be her brother, in spite of the push towards sibling ‘divorce’ she had noted among recent social trends. He accepted her as she did of him and he knew enough of her career course to be of value but not intrusive. Once conquered the fear of refusal, she faced the fear of failure, which masquerades as fear of acceptance in one of the curious twists of language where the opposite meaning attaches. Life insurance was Kathryn’s most remembered example of this; it pays upon death, not life.Aaron was no such contradiction in lexicon and permitted her the luxury of thinking directly to herself of the fear of failure she felt anew, so long after getting away from the fear of her mother’s oppressiveness. She dared not show any consternation to her superiors; to her subordinates it was a simple matter to paper over, something she’d done for years and gotten good at. Aaron gave her a vent without knowing it, the depository she desperately needed in order to pack away her worry and not be distracted by it. She wondered if asking him to participate was a subconscious move to evoke her moment of epiphany or was it due to come out anyway? Either way, the newly understood clarity of her mother’s patterns – to command, criticize, control, withdraw, disapprove and complain – shed light on the source of her concern and if not able to reduce it, at least this insight gave her confidence enough to assume the challenges the new assignment promised in great volume.* * *Aaron opened his briefcase and took out a printed, hard copy of yesterday’s Blumburg online edition and showed Kathryn the headline: “Chairman of Federal Reserve Invited to Hearing on CIG Payments to Banks”.“This doesn’t look good” he offered.“I know” was all she could drum up as a reply.“They say he gave instructions to cover up from the press, do everything to keep it from the public’s eyes,” said Aaron.“I don’t think that’s the case at all and I am sure this will blow over. It’s just the latest political attack, nothing more” she assured herself as she answered him.Aaron, comfortably aware she said this only to soothe herself, pressed on; “you and I both understand how bad it looks for taxpayers to put billions and billions into a company and have the money be turned over and paid out to banks in other countries.”“Yes” Kathryn shrugged “which is the reason for the political attacks.”“Political or otherwise, attacks are attacks. If they do damage, the attackers will try again and again” he countered.Kathryn felt a twinge of failure fear creep back into her gut. Aaron was right. There was no sugarcoating on his comments and she knew he’d never try to protect her feelings, watering down his opinion. All possible arguments about a company collapse if agreements weren’t honored didn’t change the result. Foreign banks bought protection from CIG and taxpayers were stepping in to make good on the shareholders’ obligation. Turning taxpayers into shareholders could only be mentioned after a respectable profit and hope to repay someday became possible. Kathryn knew it would be corporate and political suicide to make public mention and such was her concern she dared not hint at it, even in front of colleagues, including superiors she trusted.“Can’t a list of policyholders be shown, along with the claims the few of them have to justify the ongoing business need to keep up with obligations and save the company?” Aaron served up na?vely. “The public wouldn’t understand; I barely understand. Thank goodness there aren’t any jobs for enough existing staff to quit and go elsewhere, otherwise there’d be a steady bleed of talent and then even nobody here would really know.”“Who inside the government understands? Somebody must, otherwise who thought up this idea and why?” Aaron asked innocently.“Aaron” Kathryn started slowly, “nobody inside any government agency really understands everything this company did and even its competitors weren’t up to speed all those years it outpaced and outgrew them to become the behemoth it was. Any competitor that really did would have cut into its business, and CIG wouldn’t have grown as much. I didn’t come here to learn the minutiae and intricacies of this business and make it profitable. Government doesn’t make profits; it makes rules, makes trouble and makes news. I don’t sell things and I don’t make them efficient; I make them run and then make it look like it’s running better than when I started. That’s usually easy since things were going badly for government to get involved to begin with. There’s never a shortage of difficulties and government has the authority to shut things down anyway. So we can kill what isn’t working and chalk it up to regulatory action. There aren’t any shareholders of government looking at lower dividends and complaining about the stock price. Government agencies always spend more money than they get anyway, so the only thing any one citizen cares about is when their own taxes go down. Since they never do, we just move ahead.”“But paying three and a half billion dollars to a huge German bank that lost its bet on US housing prices isn’t what any taxpayer signed up for, Kathryn” said Aaron. He went on, “why can’t that bank eat it?”“Aaron” Kathryn smiled, “now you’re beginning to grab hold of what I signed up for with this assignment. I’m in charge of compliance, which really means enforcing instructions. That means I have to see timely reports on all activity and decide where instructions aren’t being followed. Then I issue orders to make people comply.”“Kathy” Aaron interrupted in frustration, using the nickname he gave her as a little boy, “you know that usually doesn’t work; if the instruction wasn’t followed to what you expected, maybe it really was obeyed but the circumstances didn’t fit.” “It isn’t my job to make things fit; it’s my job to make them go, especially where they really need to go when they’re heading off in the wrong direction”. One thing Aaron had learned well on the job before deciding on law school was that plans and strategies are great but circumstances don’t get fitted into plans; strategies have to adapt to conditions, plans have to fit circumstances. His sister had enjoyed success out of school in much the same way she enjoyed it while still in school. Each course had an outline of the material and topics, sometimes a syllabus, and it was up to the student to get through the material and do well on exams. She was good at it and so good grades followed her pretty much all the way through. The accounting and finance courses required this method often; it was in the courses where more abstract thinking was required that she got grades that, while certainly good enough, (after all, what do they call the second lowest grade point average among West Point graduates? Second Lieutenant) they kept her from being one of the top academic performers. Listening to her brief comments now a decade and a half after college was over sounded to him like she was still in that mode.These guys at CIG had to face the heat of the competition and they usually did it by turning the heat up on competition. It’s often been said the best defense is offense and while that’s endlessly disputed in sports, there was no dissent from this gospel in the history of CIG’s growth. No bank could make a loan to every customer that applied, they’d run out of money. If one just gave out loans first come first served with only a few limits on loan size and minimum interest, they could also go broke; without evaluating, how would they know the chances of re-payment? Same thing with the policies, swaps and guarantees from CIG – they had to look as closely as time and information allowed, and then they had to take a chance. Picking and choosing was the only way to prosper and grow. Kathryn was looking at reports on the results of new business, but how did she know what would be the results from business not taken on, for when they said “no”? Even if the competitors’ public financial statements were analyzed, there was no way to know which ones had taken on which business that was turned away. Maybe those competitors did poor analysis but got away with it for a little while. Aaron understood his sister’s success and advancement a little better now; there’s no competition in government service and anybody that spends enough time in it can forget how to compete or never learn it. In Kathryn’s case, he didn’t think she’d advanced enough to be in the “need to compete” mode before making the jump to Washington, DC and it was pretty clear the activity there was pushed by political consideration. Aaron wondered to himself if the same qualities that made for success in a political and not competitive environment didn’t come under the influence of some sort of symbiotic relationship where the one was attracted to the other by its inherent nature and nothing overtly obvious. Either way, Kathryn was now in charge of major pieces of a company that had gotten that way by duking it out in the ring every working day. In government there was no boxing ring; there was a task list and meeting its deadlines equaled performance. Meeting a deadline at CIG didn’t make a profit; selling a service, taking in enough money and having lower costs produced a profit. Most of the company had done this well and for a long time and had a habit of acting this way. Kathryn was a Chinaman in Rome in the eyes of many of her newfound subordinates, most of whom didn’t yet understand her objectives. Kathryn knew well what she had to do, and assumed by habit this was understood all around her also. Aaron knew it wasn’t and was waiting for her instruction to find out for himself what was known.“I’ve pushed the nine o’clock to nine thirty so I could talk to you first,” said Kathryn as she hugged and smiled at her brother after coming around from behind her desk. They took a seat on the sofa and chair in the elegant corner of the office rather than the working corner of desk, telephone and calculator. The furniture set up an air of relaxation that wasn’t supposed to be around an office; Aaron wasn’t relaxed and he was sure his sister wasn’t. The dark suit that had ushered him in was enough to make sure nobody would be at ease. “Aaron” Kathryn began, “you almost can’t imagine how much your help means to me at this place, but I’ll try to tell you anyway,” as Aaron settled back and crossed his legs, and she continued, “so, in the little time I’ve been here, it’s been unusual, to be gentle. The existing staff sees anything related to the company’s rescue as an invasion. There seems to be no realization of what the bailout did for them; sure, they know what would have happened had the central money not stepped in, but they still regard my presence as an intrusion”. Aaron shifted in his chair. She went on, “when I ask for a report on nearly anything – other than something really simple like a headcount – I get the information very quickly with as little explanation as possible. I’ve never run into a similar situation. Any report I’ve seen prepared before coming here always had attachments and annexes to provide background data, histories, figures, trends and all sorts of explanations. Sometimes the background support is too much I’ve often thought, and gives the impression that what’s perceived as the true purpose is all that supporting material, not the eventual good decision that may come out of it. Here, it’s different like night and day, I get a fast, accurate list of basic answers, very quickly. No background to it and the sensation is of people that can’t be bothered or don’t have enough time to do the report. It worries me these people don’t see the big picture and aren’t interested in the recent history as an insight into the foundation and then as an indicator of how to proceed.”Aaron shifted again in his chair and wondered if this conversation was going to be the extent of the nine o’clock meeting Kathryn wanted. He was waiting for the specifics of his role in this and became un-easy at the idea of nepotism he believed others would see. He looked at Kathryn.“So”, she went on, “what I’ve done is ask ten key people to come meet with us in the board room down the hall and explain what each one does. From the organization chart I have, each one is responsible over a certain area however I’m not sure how each one interacts with the others in practice, from the reports I see. Hopefully we’ll get a glimpse into that this morning”“What’ll you tell them about me?” Aaron asked. “What do they know about me and why I’m meeting with them?” “They don’t” she said. “I’m going to inform them you’re from a consulting firm asked to provide recommendations in specific areas of the company.”“What consulting firm?” Aaron quizzed her. “I’m not supposed to be helping you?”“The one you are going to incorporate after you leave here today, and yes.” Aaron looked at her with a weak smile as Kathryn finished with “they’ll be coming in in about ten minutes; let’s be there first.” She stood up, retrieved her notepad and motioned for him to follow as she stepped out of her office. - 7 -Iniquity“I can’t have this continue, you understand that?”“Yes sir, I certainly do.”“Well, to look around at the whole deal, you’d get the impression nobody does. What purpose does it serve to save the people from themselves if I have to fall on my sword to accomplish it?”“To put a smile on the faces of your adversaries? If I had to force an answer. Other than that……sir.”“We’ve put a number of people in charge of the thing. Whether it gets better or not is no longer the issue; perception of this situation is reality and the perception is my involvement and THAT company’s terrible performance. It’s crap and all the accounting tricks ever invented since accounting can’t wipe away enough of it. Hell, outright fraud wouldn’t put enough lipstick on this pig to make even a pig want a date.”“Yes sir.”“Enron blew it for everybody. At least they had a head start. Not here…all the king’s horses and all the king’s men….”“You need a solution, sir, and may I offer some suggestions?”“Yes but no. Yes, of course, any suggestion is welcome but no, why waste your time? What magical potion is there out there to rub on this problem and make it better? How do we tell the taxpayers we’re going to just let it tank? We don’t. Period.”“Sir, there are some possibilities that have been looked into but not presented to your direct staff here, of which we’re aware. I believe we’d be burdening you unnecessarily to make a presentation, as it would involve some time. If you wouldn’t mind, we could prepare a shortened summary and make that presentation. I couldn’t guess how much time would be needed, but I’m sure no more than one hour or so.”“No, no shortened summaries. I prefer the Full Monty, with all the warts, their height, size and width and I need to see every blade, scalpel and suture that’ll be used to cut ‘em off, open ‘em up and close ‘em. My political butt cheeks are making friends with the frying pan right now, get what I mean?”“Yes sir.”Who has looked into these possibilities you mention?”“I have sir.”“Who else?”“No one else, sir.”“Research?”“Did most of it myself, delegated and farmed out parts to subordinates and contractors without detail enough to give hints of what I was working on.”“Good. When can you make a full presentation?”“Tomorrow morning, sir. All I need to do is pick up a portable projector and laptop and bring them here.”“Right here in my office?”“Yes, sir. We can also follow along on the laptop screen if required. I suggest no hard copies, so there’s little risk of having my plans looked over.“Why not today?”“Today’s possible, but I need to go back to the office and return in such way that no suspicion is aroused; the staff is aware I’m here.” “Understood. Check into that today anyway, call from here, on a secure line, I have a half dozen. If you can give me the high points now….”“Shall I call my office now?”“How long will it take you to give me the high points from memory?”“Twenty minutes, maybe less.”“Do that and then make your calls. Maybe you can come back tomorrow like you suggested. Let’s do twenty minutes right now, I’ll buzz outside and tell them I’m secure until I advise.”“Mrs. Sturdivant, please secure and hold all incoming unless it’s Defense with a code thirteen. Exclude my wife, also. Will advise fourteen.”“Yes, sir.”“Let’s sit closer to the fireplace. Please go take a seat and then look away for a moment.”“Problem, sir?”“None at all, just procedure to secure.”“Something to do with those codes?”“Yes, and please keep looking away…..okay, there…it’s done. Let me come over there.”“All right sir, here’s the lead up to the likely alternative I will suggest; large amounts of preferred shares are now in possession of Treasury in exchange for the disbursements. These shares were essentially created from authorized stock that was never sold before. Common voting shares could theoretically vote down any proposal at any time, but they’ll never shoot their Sugar Daddy, the only thing that saved the value of those shares was our disbursements. We’re majority owners. We’re the regulators. So, the bleeding stopped, assets were sold but they still owe fifty plus billion and they keep losing money, billions every year. We’ve had to inject more money but unlike the initial intervention which used loans, we can’t justify lending anymore, haven’t been able to for some time now. All additional injections have been made with more preferred shares. Anything I’ve covered so far that requires expansion?”“Go on.”“We barely escaped the congressional hearings a while back on price cutting. Customers hung around because prices were cheap, twenty to thirty percent less than the competition and government ownership was seen as a backstop. It hurt the market, and that’s why the hearings. The customers knew we’d hold the walls up, especially after paying counterparties one hundred percent on the initial rescue. The quarterly, not to mention annual losses since then are the direct result of those invasive price cuts. The industry was only returning a profit of three to five percent on sales to begin with; need I say more on this?”“Go on.” “The positive side of hearings is the lack of will to jump into that pool again. Subsequent and repeated election losses have created a lot of gun shy elected officials. The survivors were singed and are running scared and the newcomers are also scared since they know it could happen to them at the next election, with voter momentum now difficult to predict. The era of the career politics has come to a halt for many of them. The upside is they stand up to party leadership like never before, like they think they work for their constituents first and don’t have to answer to the Majority Leader or Speaker anymore. The saber rattling from the Russians and Chinese distracted everybody. We’re not likely to face scrutiny over asset conversions what with prior spending, leftover debt and deficits out to the horizon.”“Good. Continue.”“We’ll use a simple technique in Federal Reserve terms to take care of the asset. Just like currency can be created, it can be extinguished. We all know about printing money, which we don’t really do. We create money by making a deposit, a book entry onto the account of a member bank at the Federal Reserve. We’ll just sell the shares and then when the bond is on deposit at the Federal Reserve, we’ll just extinguish the bond.”“How?”“We’ll swap the shares for an equivalent amount of Treasury Notes bought at auction, to be credited at settlement and in return, we’ll pledge shares; no cash. Since they’re preferred with a nominal face value, that total face value per share times all the shares we hold will be payment for the treasury notes. The rest of the notes we sell at that auction will provide enough background noise. We’ll also call a few treasury bonds from other holders, showing a cash outflow to those holders. The influx of treasury notes will include the ones we get for the preferred shares.”“What does this achieve?”“We get rid of the preferred shares, we sold ‘em for treasury notes.” “What happens to the treasury notes?”“We extinguish them. We rip ‘em up.”“They’re gone?”“Yes.”“Where do the preferred shares go?”“Into the Federal Reserve.”“What does the Fed do with them?”“Nothing, not a thing. They sit and die off. Well they don’t die literally, but they are forgotten.”“How?”“Stockholders like people, mutual funds and companies darn well keep track of their assets, don’t they?”“Sure.”“So do they worry about other shareholders also?”“What do you mean?”“Do you worry about other depositors at your bank? Do you worry that others are being looked after well? Not really, as long as YOU are taken care of. No one depositor is so special to be handled better than all the others. As long as you don’t hear about complaints, then the bank is doing a good job; with you and all the other customers, right?”“Certainly.”“Remember we created the Federal Treasury as oversight of both the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve? To centralize all financial operations of the government and provide direct oversight by both the House Ways and Means Committee and your staff? Executive authority to look into all operations?“Yes.”“What about stocks? Is a customer handled well by the stockbroker? If yes, the customer’s pretty sure all the other customers are satisfied also. So if there’s no widespread complaint, the SEC doesn’t look into it. Their job is to fix problems and punish infractions. No complaint, no investigation, no infraction.”“Right. So?”“Does the general public pay any attention to treasury security auctions? Nope. Buyers of treasuries pay attention. As long as it goes well for them, everything’s fine. Just like you don’t interview other bank customers at your branch if you’re satisfied and don’t know of any complaints or regulator action.” “So this operation flies under the radar?”“Yes, because it IS the radar and we control what’s on the radar screen. ‘The Federal Treasury has looked into the matter and is satisfied all transactions were done transparently and in a correct manner’ is what we’ll say, if we’re even asked about it.”“I see.”“You’ve got a glib press secretary, sir. Plus, the press loves to hear what it loves to hear. So if the press secretary’s office is asked, they’ll hear just what they love to hear. Those assholes still haven’t figured out why their business tanked, but it’s all been good for us. As distasteful as some of them thought the FairDoc rules were, there those rules are castor oil our good government needed to feed the electorate to make everyone feel better again. Makes the mid-managers nervous, sure, but they only risk their own backsides with the press, not anyone higher up.”“Right. So…this plan takes effect, when? And explain the final outcome.”“The plan can take effect right after the next Treasury Auction or the one after that; the announcements are about once a week, and the auctions are every few days. Settlement is a few days after auction. The common stockholders will see that the preferred shares have been converted. Convertible debt has been sold by companies since day one; we’ll now have convertible preferred shares; since they earn a fixed dividend and are like a bond, we converted them into one by a swap. They’re gone. Then we extinguish the treasury notes, the same way we do to remove excess liquidity from the markets.”“Sounds like mumbo jumbo, and it will sound like mumbo jumbo to the public.”“If they even ask. Will they? I highly doubt it. What public?”“So Treasury holds the notes, is what we’re telling everybody?”“Correct, and the notes will disappear with the next round of extinguishment we undertake to remove liquidity to try and tamp down inflation.”“Yeah, inflation. Please don’t say that word again. I thought it was all partisan whining when they started chirping about that. Then it happened.”“Shall I return tomorrow with the presentation?” “Yes after three PM, please. Call my secured line; I’ll answer personally. When you leave now, wait for the click and the door will open. Please tell Mrs. Sturdivant code fourteen and to put Marigold back on line. It’ll make them trusting of you for the next visit.”“Yes, Mr. President”.- 8 -VariegationKathryn sat in her now quiet office. She thought forward to the outcome. What would it mean? This was uncharted water. Thinking back to life, it was always uncharted, wasn’t it? She did not know her participation was unknown beyond the Representative’s staff advisor; she acted from the outset to be included on the list of managers delegated with responsibility to achieve stated objectives. Securities swaps were standard transactions. Stock was given as payment, collateral and consideration for any and all manner of deals. Heck, it was even given as gifts. Employees were paid with it. It wasn’t possible to tell an employee how to spend net pay so it wasn’t possible to dictate disposal of stock paid by an employer.The immediate staff including the chief didn’t know. The Oval Office did not for a moment believe only one staff assistant at Commerce, from his home congressional district, was the sole master of the exercise. Moreover, staff would have to know in time but executive privilege would prevail to their advantage. The suggestion to brief the press secretary was discarded as it was spoken, not a word of reaction was said. The chief of staff – not the press secretary – would get out in front of the matter if needed.Aaron was an unwitting key component, unaware of its unfolding, not knowing of his role. Armor plated with thick layers of ignorance, a turtle hurrying across a busy roadway protected by a force field was he.A proper revaluation would achieve nothing; balance sheets photograph static moments. Restatement over successive accounting periods would knock down results in steps, the balance sheets but reflections of each notch downward. The advantage Kathryn thought most attractive was how it dovetailed neatly with the reality of the company’s demise; it would never recover to pay off taxpayer investment and only survive with below-cost prices combined with federal treasury backing. Buyers would flee if the walls had to stand on customer faith. The regulated subsidiaries or their books of business, if it came to that, would be sold in the event no offers came forth for the whole turkey. It would be easy to de-bone it as needed. The left over shell would then be revalued, and the opportunity timed just right for the exercise. Kathryn chomped at the bit to discuss it with superiors, both the appointed chief executive and her real boss, but knew not a word was possible lest her resolve to act be placed in permanent doubt.* * *The bright yellow flowers of the dandelions-to-be bloomed happily and waved gently in the cool, pleasant breeze as Kathryn gazed out across the field in front of the school. The bright green grass grew now in fast clumps in some places and shorter in others, all the same radiant verdant color of springtime. She looked down at her buckled, black shiny shoes and long white socks and felt the breeze blow her hair off her shoulders and across her face. The nylon rope on the flagpole snapped against the aluminum shaft with an intermittent thwack; she looked up at the metal ball on top and at the rippling stars and stripes that waved gently in the breeze. The deep blue sky held not one cloud. The cool air and warm sun made her feel comfortable and protected in her school sweater; she looked across the field the teachers called a front lawn. The breeze made the taller blades wave and she wondered how long the grass and young yellow flowers would last before falling victim to the first pass of the mower this spring. This day was for peacefulness she thought, for contentment and tranquility. She sat alone on the concrete step and didn’t feel any of these things. She looked at her shoes again and felt the manila envelope under her crossed arms; she lifted her head and the sun warmed her face. She turned her head and pulled her hair back behind her head; how was she going to explain the grade to her mother? She could already see her father’s distant and deferential stare from the sofa as her mother stood over her while she sat with her legs together, the palms of her hands curved over her knees and her head up and back in fear. She felt the trembling inside, where it would stay throughout the ordeal. If her mother saw her react badly, it would be worse she was sure. How did she know what grades she’d get? It was so unfair, nobody asked her anything. She felt forced to agree. Now she’d missed and gotten a “B” instead of the “A” that was demanded. What was she going to do…..??She had to return to her classroom pretty soon, since her visit to the girls’ room should now be done. She’d better be in her chair for lunchtime. She looked out across the field at the houses on the other side of the street, on the far side of the field. The deep blue sky above held the world in its peace; she tried to think of happy things, of laughing. It wouldn’t work; she could only worry. What could she do, oh please!! Would her mother erupt and scream? Could she hold still long enough? Would she shake in fear again? Would that upset her mother the way it always did? Could she resist trying to explain? Or collapse in tears, Daddy just staring blankly…..she felt her stomach tighten with the thought. She felt the fear in the pit of her insides. It was only mid-term; maybe she’d recover and get that “A”. Maybe. She knew she’d better get back to class. Now.* * *“Ms. Miller, Ms. Miller, John Marcus from Foreign Consolidation here to see you.” “Thank you, Miss Sullivan,” Kathryn answered, “please send him in.”John Marcus, head accountant in the department, had been with the company since the inception of his professional career, she learned from reading personnel files of all staff on the organization chart that she believed would be proper to see. About 40 years of age and neatly dressed in suit and tie, in notable contrast to the expected Friday casual look that had taken over most corporations and their offices, he’d moved steadily up the ladder in foreign accounting and finance and his file indicated satisfaction with his work and good results. This was Kathryn’s first meeting with him. It probably wouldn’t be the last.“John” she began, “and may I call you John?”“Of course.”“I’m interested in the accounting reconciliations of foreign operations and how those are converted into US dollars. No doubt you are aware of Federal Accounting Standards Board Statement no. 52?”“Of course, fazzbee fifty two” John answered.“Just as I was sure. What I’d like to see is how we receive figures for new insurance claims, claims we pay, adjustments, and premiums and how those are converted to USD for preparation of financial statements. No doubt the source information is voluminous but it’s also summarized. How much detail is available here and how much summary do we have?”“We can provide the quarterly totals for each account in original currency and dollar conversions. If transaction per transaction source data is required, we can request it, however we never have, not since I’ve done the process.”“Why not?” she inquired tersely. “Audits at local level randomly select original source data and compare. I’m not aware of inconsistencies; in fact the automated accounting program makes original figure entry the only source of input error. The accounting application’s satisfactory performance and positive audit results never indicated we’d need to. Thus all financial statements reflect source data accurately.”“So consistent application of the accounting standard is to be expected?”“Yes” John Marcus answered.“Can you e-mail me a sample of original currency source data and conversion figures?” she asked him.“Certainly; it may take an afternoon to extract properly and populate a spreadsheet, but you will have it sometime tomorrow morning, e-mail servers willing.”“Very good, thank you again John. We’re done, you can go if you’d like.”“Yes ma’am” was his formal reply and with that he rose, zipped up his leather notepad folder and promptly left. Kathryn was not yet used to being addressed as “ma’am” by people older than herself and she hoped her slight unease didn’t show. She turned back to her desk and to the extracted copies of accounting procedures for this new business.* * *Aaron raced down the driveway and turned onto the sidewalk, running as fast as he could towards his new red bicycle. “Oh boy” he thought, it’s been here for at least a few minutes all by itself and how I missed this thing. He leaped aboard and started pedaling as fast as he could, back past his house waving at Kathryn who was standing in the front door watching him, half smiling, half scowling at her little brother. His birthday coming and going barely two days before and besides sleeping and eating, he’d hadn’t been off his new toy any more than was absolutely necessary; he was warned not to cross the street and knew he’d be grounded or even worse, not be grounded but have new bike privileges suspended. He was dying to get across that street and race down the other side as fast as he could. In fact he was dying to race down every street in town, but knew that would have to wait. Kathryn seemed so tense but was nice to him through it all. The muffled voices Aaron heard last night after he was sent to his room let him know Kathryn wasn’t happy and he wondered why. He tried to go talk to her but she wouldn’t let him in her room. She wasn’t the typical big sister whose little brother was a permanent pest like all of his friends with big sisters always said was happening in their house. She gave him things to do and he was happy for the time and things she wanted him to do. She didn’t like his bicycle; said she didn’t like red. He suggested a green one but Dad said they only had red and it would cost too much to be worth it to paint it green. Aaron didn’t care but Kathryn did.“So” she said, “are you gonna save up and paint it green?”“Nah” he answered, “I like it red, with the white rims.”Every boy has a red something she thought, not being the bike type herself, and why not be different? She wished she could wear different clothes to school and a single pigtail instead of pony tails but knew it would happen right after Aaron got his green paint job.He dreamed of his own paper route like the big guys had; now he had a way to deliver the papers, maybe Dad could call up and see about getting him one? He pedaled faster and jumped the curb onto the street at the bottom of the neighbor’s driveway and raced down the side of the street to jump onto the next driveway and back onto the sidewalk. Cool.* * *Kathryn peered over the stacks of reports spread across the table in the board room down the hall from her office. She had two thoughts; thank God for board room tables and computers. The first set showed figures from Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Germany and Indonesia in the original currencies. The second set showed the conversions to dollars at the exchange rate in effect the day of conversion. She ran through some of the figures with her desk calculator to see how they totaled up; for reference she brought an accounting textbook and looked into the figures for claims paid out. She noticed an accepted formula that was new to her; she hadn’t seen it in college courses nor had she run across it when preparing for her certified public accountant exams. Still, it was simple enough. CIG like everybody else had to set aside a reserve for paying a claim even if not yet paid out. Her mind wandered and she punched up website pictures of the different currencies on her laptop; the Euro was attractive but so different from the Deutschmark (and others) it replaced. The Japanese Yen was more classic in its appearance; she wondered what the characters said; maybe the Japanese had the same thought looking at greenbacks. Brazil’s “royals” were standard fare, with the usual selection of colors. The bills for South African Rand were unique with the all the big game animals; she wondered if people joked about the money when making change; “Hey can you break a lion? Sure, whattaya need, two elephants and a rhino?” The Indonesian rupiah was standard issue with famous people on board, and every bill a different color. Just like casino chips, to quickly tell them apart. She thought colors for spreadsheet columns could be used, would make it easy to read values? What’s money? What do these entries mean? If a hot air balloon suddenly dropped chests on the country, from parachutes, all of them full of cash, would everyone be richer? Would there suddenly be more demand? More supply? Sure, somebody would spend it, some would save it, inventory would sell out. Some would spend it at the undertaker for relatives killed in the stampede. It would stimulate things, but what if everybody got the same amount of money at the same time? The same percentage of what they personally have now; if fifty percent more money is printed tomorrow, so everybody gets another half of what they now have, would they “have more money?” Prices would shoot up by three o’clock in the afternoon, Kathryn chuckled to herself.She glanced back at the accounting entries in front of her; the textbook said a company had to calculate total claims by taking three figures; claims for the last year, new claims this year and the amount at the end. She thought for a moment and imagined stacks of colored bills, wads of rand, rupiah and “reais” as the Brazilians said, and euros of all sizes, all in bundles stacked like bricks all around the table; a kaleidoscope of finance, being watched over by a bunch of claims examiners pulling bills from one stack, making a note in a file, putting some more in another and making a note….just like pirates counting gold doubloons. What was the amount set aside for a lawsuit and what happened when the set aside was reduced? How much did they put up when they found out about a claim? How much did the actuaries set aside for more claims to come? Anything? How did they decide? The original amounts were being converted on the last day of the year. The accounting standard said fluctuation over a few years of more than thirty percent or so meant they had to average it out. She started digging into the details to understand this better; here we had educated guesses to decide how much profit a company would make, how much dividend it could pay and most worrisome to her, how much income tax it would pay. An accountant like her needed to understand this better. Much better.“Ms. Sullivan” she said softly into the telephone, “can you give me Mr. Marcus’ direct extension? I can’t locate it in the intranet employee directory”.“Three fifty six, Miss Miller, shall I call him for you?”“No thank you” said Kathryn as she pushed down on the receiver button to end the call, holding the receiver over her shoulder and thinking. She then closed the employee database on the laptop screen and looked back at the figures in dollars. “Ending amount for prior year subtracted from new claims, the sum of current year payments and ending outstanding amounts equals claims incurred” she read aloud to herself from the textbook. Okay, but how did they set the claim amount for a huge explosion that would take a year or more to pay? A lawsuit that would stretch out over several years? How much do they add in for claims they don’t know about yet but will come in eventually? Every automobile manufacturer adds something to the prices of its cars to cover the warranty work they know is coming; they have good statistics to use as a guide. What stats did the subsidiary have in Jakarta for insurance claims? In Frankfurt? S?o Paulo? Could it be reduced before payment? What were the local rules? These figures, the claims the company was paying, they were 60% of the company’s costs and a half of them were ongoing claims where the payment was made much later than the accounting for it was first entered. She had to look closer.“Ms. Sullivan!” she snapped as she wheeled out of the board room and down the hall back towards her office, who abruptly raised her head with a surprised look. “Please call Mr. Marcus again and leave a message for him to be here at eight thirty tomorrow morning, if you don’t get him on the line”.Ms. Sullivan dialed without saying a word, glancing annoyingly at Kathryn Miller from the corner of her eyes as she waited for the phone to be answered on the other end.- 9 -The Dollar ManHas the speed of communication in the modern world been a great force for the homogenization of modern societies? Has the desire to be happy, successful, content and well-off become defined by material considerations? There is no shortage of arguments that support positive responses to both questions.One can only speculate if the rapid increase in the amount of imagery from the west has contributed to, at the least the cultural friction and in the extreme, violent attacks against Western nations, most notably directed at the United States. Without quick video and internet images, all in full blazing color, it would not be simple to inflame and enrage the masses with the decadence of the west, we can say with some degree of certainty. Throughout increasingly more violent and focused attacks against it, the west has gained a similar glimpse into the societies from which Islamic fascism and terrorism have sprouted. It is a horrifying scenario to many; subjugation of females, archaic social practices, outdated methods and fanaticism in God’s name. We have noted that principles of our society, the foundation of our most basic civil rights, are not even understood much less compared, contrasted and debated before being cast aside in those places. They are declared to be the work of the devil, to be eradicated including all those voluntarily associated with them. Have we examined the perspective others hold of us, giving consideration to an even deeper rejection of what’s seen in the United States by those peering in? While it may be judged negatively, nevertheless, do we stop to consider and appreciate the fear both religious and press freedom provoke in such societies? In the same way, have we stopped and considered what the imagery of ourselves to ourselves creates within our own society? A well educated former colleague in a large, pro American nation, a faithful ally of the United States since its founding once told me all Americans ate lunch at McDonald’s several times per week. When I suggested that would mean McDonald’s might take in as much money as a large automobile company such as General Motors; he looked perplexed. He was a financial analyst. Yet he believed in the imagery and he extrapolated.I gradually appreciated the type and volume of images of American society seen abroad; they heavily outweighed historical realities and focused almost exclusively on manufactured goods, possessions, material affluence and lots and lots of American citizens, all well dressed and seemingly happy, enjoying these things at will. The study of economics is the study of human behavior. Famous economist and musician Alan Greenspan, longtime presidential adviser and Chairman of the Federal Reserve commented in his memoir “The Age of Turbulence” that the two people with greatest influence upon him were a professor who later preceded him at the Federal Reserve and philosopher and author Ayn Rand. Rand encouraged Greenspan to see beyond economics and its measurements to look deeper into human behavior and its influences. In the preceding chapter our protagonist Kathryn Miller asks, what is money?One example provides a partial answer; to defend their purchasing power against rampant, corrosive inflation, Brazilians once turned to buying and selling US dollar bills between monthly paydays. The black market dollar dealers, who subtracted a percentage for this service, created a huge demand for physical paper US currency which sometimes outstripped the available supply of it in that country. Being a black market business, the easy next step was to counterfeit US currency. As long as the quality of the fake banknotes satisfied the customers, business continued. Why did customers readily exchange hard earned money to these illegal traders? Faith. In the absence of the service, the salaried worker who could not afford an expensive bank account, one that would pay enough monthly interest to keep up with inflation, would suffer a devastating erosion of value, thirty percent or greater in any given month. This was money to buy essentials for survival, such as food, in many cases. The number of people doing this was significant, many tens of millions of Brazilian citizens.A bank note all by itself means nothing. If suddenly all of the counterfeit US bills in the hyperinflation Brazil of the 1980s and 90s suddenly disappeared, what effect would this have had on the USA? Virtually none. What about Brazil? Vast and far reaching. The difference? Belief and faith in the currency, nothing more.Money is a voucher of value. The giver does so in return for desired things – goods and services – and the recipient ascribes value solely because of the belief that desired things can be obtained in turn.When a company fails, it’s reached a point where its obligations to give value vouchers exceed the vouchers it receives for its services. An intervention by taxpayers delays the collapse and, it is hoped, gains enough time and opportunity for a recovery. The ability to distribute enough value vouchers when called upon must be restored, and faith, above all, needs to be reestablished amongst customers and the general public.If we cannot see and experience an event for ourselves, we know of it through the words and images provided by someone who did. We have agreed that testimony in courts is not permitted where it involves what another person heard another one say, and logically we call it “hearsay”. It is deemed doubtful and unreliable. We are required to testify to what we ourselves hear or see. Basic journalism standards also require this; a reporter must identify the person or the source of a quote. The double edged blade of technology has facilitated the recording of voices and images, making this process far more dynamic but it has also allowed for corruption. Lies aren’t new, just newly spread; fake photographs are easier to produce.The human mind requires closure; it completes thoughts, reaches conclusions and identifies patterns. Our behavior is the direct result of what we infer from images and statements; simply wave the tip of a large hunting knife at a friendly, sociable house cat, a six month old baby and then an adolescent for an obvious example of learned behavior from images the last of these three demonstrates.What behavior have we learned from the statements and images of our society? All of us have learned to look at a central authority to make decisions and enforce them. What decisions should be made and enforced by such general authority? All of them? Or none? Maybe somewhere in between?What is done with the value vouchers is the indicator of our choice; how the money is spread shows where the lines of authority are drawn. Most Americans contribute at least thirty percent and many give forty percent of the value they produce to central authorities. The greatest earners of value vouchers hand over much more, more than half in some cases, in the form of sales tax, excise tax, property tax, federal and state income tax and fees for compulsory services. These central authorities distribute more than is received. Interest is paid on the shortfall borrowed. Severe penalties are imposed for non-contribution. We have set up this system voluntarily. We have faith in it and consider it a good course, possibly the ideal course to follow. We must believe this, since we keep renewing it. We collectively like the images we see of our chosen system, its people, their decisions and the components of the system they create for us by our collective choosing. The stories and images we receive reinforce our belief in it, thus we do not change it. We propagate it.We are shown a regular flow of images of those people adversely affected by whatever malady has visited their life, just as do those societies from which our mortal enemies arise regularly see of us. We hear a steady flow of stories, accounts, points-of-view and episodes in the lives of our citizens also, just as similar tales are told about us in the societies of those killers. What stories do we choose to tell, to read and what images do we see of ourselves, broadcast to ourselves that influence our behavior and actions? What value vouchers do we give to whom and for what and why are one third, two fifths and sometimes half of them given over to the compulsory system we have organized? We must like it, since the system regularly gives out even more than we put in; we continue to do so. Does intervention into failing enterprises by the central authority we collectively prefer produce a better outcome right now versus staying out of it? Does the intervention produce a better result down the road? Do we have the ability and desire to re-organize our schools, prisons and spark plug manufacturers or the government that we’ve set up and that we propagate?What imagery do we see, want to see, prefer to see and what stories, pictures and impressions do we create from them? What faith do we have in what we create such that we continue to pursue it, just as former victims of Brazilian inflation pursued the dollar man? - 10 -Fatuity“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this Special NPB Network Presentation broadcast through your preferred station. My name is John Williamson and I’m live on set at the Alamo Convention Center in lovely, downtown San Antonio. We’re glad you’ve joined us and in just a few moments we expect to go directly to the floor to hear the introductions of tonight’s speaker. As the camera angle shows in the background, the audience is still coming in and we expect a full house this evening. Joining me now is my colleague and reporter, Brittney Chambers who will also come to you after the speech with analysis and questions from our network panel.”“Good evening John.”“And a good evening to you too, Brittney. What’s the expected theme for tonight’s speech?”“Well, John, we’ve been told to expect the presentation of new policy changes to Revival Plan and a status update on progress this year and to date. As is the custom with these speeches, the outline and specific content has been held close to the chest, so our expectation is taken from topics covered in prior presentations and indications of direction from specific previous comments.”“Thanks Brittney, what topics are expected based on those prior comments?”“John, we expect to hear about changes at certain companies involved in the Revival Plan as they relate to strategy; we also expect to hear some more detail about staff changes as those might involve the strategy, but that’s it. Nothing specific so far.”“Great Brittney, and with that let’s go to the live feed as it appears they’re preparing to start in just a moment.”The camera view swept across the main floor with about half the seats now taken and no more attendees arriving. The sound technicians were on stage adjusting the speaker’s pulpit and checking the teleprompter document reader, lights across the stage turned low. The higher seats around the perimeter of the hall were all but empty. The ushers moved in towards the remaining standing members of the audience and asked them to please take their seats, and to move closer together and free up as much space to the rear as might be needed. The main lights dimmed, the sound technicians left the stage in a hurry as a lone spotlight shone upon the center of the curtained stage. A deep, professional voice spoke over the sound system and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen of the press and the general public, many thanks for your attendance tonight at this most recent installment in this series of information sessions on the State of Progress. Without further ado, we welcome to the stage this evening’s speaker, Mrs. Alexa Reed of the United States Federal Treasury.”The spotlight moved to the left and Mrs. Reed emerged from between the curtains into the spotlight, which followed her to the center of the stage. The audience sat quietly as the speaker’s image was simultaneously projected onto two large screens on either side of the large stage, her face enlarged to fill half the screens, making it easy to see for any members of the audience that would be seated as far back and high up, if there were any. Alexa Reed opened the manila folder and took out the neatly typed speech, setting the several pages down neatly in front of her on the illuminated lectern. She looked up and turned to look left, then right and then stretched her right arm far out to tap both the microphones placed at angles to her position. A loud “thump, thump” sounded throughout the hall. John Williamson and Brittney Chambers looked at each other and smiled without a word, their camera light off, their facial expressions momentarily confined to their press broadcast booth at the mezzanine level of the hall. Behind them, three television screens showed the broadcast as it was being seen by viewers tuned in at home or wherever they were; the bottom of the screen showed the crowd as it had been herded forward and to the center; it gave the impression of a full hall.Mrs. Reed began, “Since the last quarterly update provided by the Federal Treasury, we’ve monitored the progress in different sectors of the economy to gain a better understanding into the developments that have arisen in those various sectors monitored. I am referring specifically to the Revival Plan and steps taken to improve performance at the agency companies included within its purview. The purpose of the plan had distinct objectives to be implemented and results continue to be monitored on a regular basis. The various executives at Federal Treasury given the responsibility to see to successful roll out have reported back to objectify the outcomes of their activities. The change in the employment sector when compared to prior period changes reflects an improving job retraining program with more enrollees than were expected under plan. Moreover, changes to the plan, the training plan that is, specifically, have, in our opinion improved the adaptability of the curricula to improve prospects for program graduates in their retrained chosen employment sectors. Saved jobs continues to be a high point as we see no further degradation in the trends, certifying the accuracy of strategies designed to achieve this goal. Employer requirements to advise our agency of impending layoffs continue to be a positive step in efforts. We’ve coordinated the intermittent tax rebate program with such notices and have been able to supplement payrolls on a matched basis, having as little an invasive effect as possible on those employers required to maintain staffing levels as they await those tax credit payments made to them from payroll withholding. Positive feedback from beneficiaries of this new coordination has demonstrated an expressed significant appreciation to the agency for the good effect this has had on their personal situation. Step no. 26 of The Plan has provided us with an especially daunting challenge, efforts to which we’ve studied to bring it to a successful conclusion. I refer of course to job posting requirements at the Federal Treasury website directed to the Secretary of Labor. We’ve noted an attrition effect not being replaced at similar pace and the newly opened positions not listed on the posting portion of that website. Initial investigation reveals promotion and transfer from within an organization to cover the loss of the employee, certainly very positive to see. We’re pleased to see existing staff provided with advancement opportunities, a real cornerstone of the American Dream but are concerned that less than prompt posting may deny the employer the opportunity to interview from a wider candidate pool thereby ensuring equality of outcome for as many as possible of the many candidates listed on the aforementioned website. The standard employment sanctions we’ve implemented might be required to be extended to late posters, just as has been done for foreign controlled corporate investment employment, new development hiring and dismissal for late employee documentation delivery in the case of workers without documents who have been afforded the opportunity to solicit background information from their country of origin under our generously funded plan to defray those costs and allow them to continue to work.Operational implementation of plan guidelines and procedural initiatives have been likewise afforded generous development lead time and indicate at this stage intended implementation in accordance with timelines established under initial directives.Capital investment discounting factors have shown movement that involves……………”* * *“Damned tuning button” the bus driver exclaimed “I programmed this thing to seek the stations I wanted and to skip some of ‘em!”.“You always listen to the radio when you drive?” asked the passenger in the front right bench.“I try to at certain times like now, but the damned bus company won’t replace this radio. I set it to the station so I skip over the ones I don’t want. It ain’t workin’ so good no more. Soon I got to get a new one.”“How old’s this bus?” asked the passenger.“Beats me” said the driver, “and that’s my problem; their repair priority ALWAYS has something they think’s more important.”“You could bring your own, maybe?” the passenger offered, as the bus rounded the corner and the driver let the large wheel slip through his hands as the bus straightened its course.“Sure, but I don’t know where I’d tie it down and to then take it out at the end of my shift. No matter, I ain’t found one that I can program to skip stations and tune to the ones I want. Music stations I don’t like much of none of ‘em, plus I can bring my own music. The other stations they usually have this National Public stuff, you know…”“Oh yes” agreed the passenger, “I heard about that; like, is that stuff on now?”“Yeah, it is” said the driver “and if anybody had a program schedule for it, it’d help me, but they ain’t never set one up.” “No?”“Heck no! Somebody told me ‘bout some deal in the Federal Communications that got the rules changed, they have to broadcast equal time and this public broadcasting thing gets its time by that rule.”“I ain’t never listened to any of that” said the passenger, “when does it come on?”“At the worst damned times, like now!” exclaimed the driver.”Forget about it, you don’t wanna listen to any of it anyway. Put you to sleep better than pills. Used to be a lotta good programs, but they cut ‘em back ‘cause they gotta put on equal time to match the shows I wanna listen to. Stations started cutting back, ‘cause no advertising money came in under that equal time. ‘Equal time ain’t got no shine’ that’s what I call it. Then when my show comes on, it’s half the time listening to commercials; at least the mute button on this bus radio ain’t broke yet. Like I said, I GOT to get a new radio in here.”* * *“Mommy!” the little girl shouted, “do you know what time The Bunny Brady Show comes on?”“No, I don’t,” her mother shouted back from across the house, “and I wish you wouldn’t shout across the house!”Thirteen year old Annie Acevedo nervously punched buttons on the remote control to the living room television set and finally pulled up the program guide. Eight o’clock, channel eleven, The Bunny Brady Show. She looked at the television screen clock; eight fourteen. “Darn it!” she thought, “I came home from school and went straight to the kitchen table to do my homework, so I’d be finished before dinner time and then not have to do anything after dinner until my favorite show. And now, THIS!”The screen showed a light brown haired lady wearing a gray suit talking on screen just like the news. Annie pounded the floor in frustration; what was this doing on the air? She ran through the house to the living room, then the kitchen and to her mother in the laundry room.“Mommy” she blurted out, “they put the news on instead of Bunny Brady. I checked the program guide; it says my show is supposed to be on right now. Can you call up and see what’s the matter?”“Just a moment, sweetheart, let me finish this and I’ll come have a look” her mother answered as she took damp, bunched up clothes from the washer and put them in the dryer. She walked out of the laundry room with the plastic laundry basket and put it on the kitchen table. She walked through the living room and then down the two steps to the sunken family room. Annie was sitting on the sofa reading through a magazine, expectantly waiting for her mother. “What show is it?” she asked Annie.“The Bunny Brady Show!”“This channel?” her mother asked as she pressed buttons on the remote.“Yes, Mom!” Annie insisted.The screen showed a live feed of a woman talking about plan developments and figures. “Yep, looks like the news, just like I thought” Mom thought to herself. Little Annie leaned forward eagerly. Mom folded her arms and watched for a moment. The woman was talking about saved jobs and something about employment. She clicked on the guide and sure enough, it said that The Bunny Brady Show was scheduled for this time slot. “Annie” she said, “I just don’t know, let me call them” she said, and with that picked up the phone, dialed directory assistance and asked for the satellite TV telephone number and waited to be connected.“So you never know in advance when the regular schedule will be interrupted?” Mrs. Acevedo spoke into the phone.“That’s right” said the customer service representative on the other end of the call.“Can you connect me to a supervisor?” she asked.“Certainly; please wait just a moment” said the customer rep who put Mom on hold. Annie sat back looking a little rejected and a little disappointed, holding little hope her mother would somehow magically restore the program she so much wanted to watch and couldn’t.“Mrs. Acevedo?” asked the voice on the other end of the call.“Yes, that’s correct.”“I understand from my customer rep you’d like an explanation for the program that was pre-empted this evening, is that right?”“Yes sir, that’s right. I understand how this can happen on news shows on the cable channels like MRMBC, Wolf News, DNN and so forth but this show is a regular broadcast on the old free channels. How does that happen?”“These are the programming modifications in accordance with the Fairness Coverage Information Directive of Communication, or FairDoc as it’s been nicknamed. This was the Congressional Act passed to ensure fairness and balance on the airwaves. Each station, be it television or radio, that broadcasts a news or opinion show deemed to be favorable to any one aspect of the political spectrum then incurs the obligation to provide equal time to a similar show with a different perspective, ma’am.”“I see” she said. “Who makes the decision to put what program on the air and when?”“We don’t know beyond the review committee that was set up as part of the FairDoc or Directive for Communication. A list is sent out the day prior with the changes for the next day. When we receive one, it spells out the next day’s programming changes.”“Why don’t they give any earlier notice? Maybe you could send automated e-mails to customers and at the very least, change your website and program guide; couldn’t you?”“Yes we could, but that’s not permitted under the rules” answered the supervisor.“I see” she said. “I wasn’t aware of any of this.”“We made sure we sent e-mails to as many subscribers as we could but suspect spam filters may have sent some messages to spam folders and then deleted them. We also included a notice on the monthly billings, but these are only done via e-mail for those customers with automatic monthly payment. We also placed ads in many regional newspapers and on their websites, but those were on a different section of the website; we couldn’t get our ad notices on the main pages of the newspaper websites.”“Why not?” Annie’s mother asked.“Station ads on newspaper websites were deemed a conflict of interest, so we had to put customers’ notices farther in, generally in the entertainment section”.“Mail?” she meekly inquired.“Separate mailings have been shown to be thrown away before being read or opened in more than ninety five percent of customers, ma’am. So we only included it in bill mailings to customers who don’t get them electronically. I’m guessing that’s the case with your account, you receive it electronically?” asked the manger.“Yes, we certainly do.” she replied.“Well, there we go. Anything further ma’am” asked the manager?“No, no thank you, and I appreciate the explanation.”Annie Acevedo’s mother called her out-of-town husband and told him the story. “Of course they don’t say in advance,” he explained. “If any advertiser thought there’d be a schedule of these shows, they’d intentionally place ads away from the time slots. Nobody wants to watch any of it. So they gamble with their ads and the FairDoc speech broadcasts appear not only at the last minute but also in random time slots. That’s the only way to make sure they’re watched by at least some of the people already tuning in for something else.”“Wow” said Annie Acevedo’s mom as she hung up the phone and walked back to the kitchen to put the handset back on the charging base. * * *Mrs. Alexa Reed droned on; “…the effect of long term interest rate trending, in a pattern seen previously wherein the long term securities rates, indicative of mortgages via thirty year maturity Treasury Securities or “long bond” rates has not correlated to short term rates, either held low for stimulus or allowed to rise in response to cost coverage requirements of federal lenders.Accordingly, liquidity injections intended for simulative effect have been scheduled pending developments of these factors and we will be watching and monitoring the release of these scheduled injections via member institutions.” The crowd shifted in its collective chair, and stared blankly at the stage. Now entering its forty sixth minute, the speech was no different from any given previously. Mrs. Reed continued;“Allow me to turn for a moment to management and assignments. In response to these capital needs shifts, I’ve been instructed that we discuss consideration of what we’re proposing for implementation in management, which is a paradigm reorganization that optimizes the most opportune methods in resource deployment. We’re enthusiastic about differing assignment tasks for the senior and middle level management in the way these will focus on objectives as set out in directives, reshuffling process management to focus more concentrated efforts on achievement.Accordingly, specific personnel assigned to the dis-involvement of process functions will turn towards reintegration of those asset bases onto treasury platforms set up for that purpose and review of operations, results and profitability vis-à-vis capital deployment will commence.The expectation of actuations arising from these modifications will be noted in subsequent audits, the results of which will be communicated to interested parties via this medium and presentation format.On behalf of the Federal Treasury, its sub-departments of Treasury and directed functions, Reserve Banks and economic management and all other related Federal functions related thereto, I would like to thank the members of the press corps, credentialed press agents, functionary representatives and viewers for their time and attention this evening.” Alexa Reed was about to conclude her speech, with but one sentence to go. She finished by saying “Thank you again and have a good evening.”The audience rose in near silence and shuffled out of the hall with no fanfare and barely a word spoken. Mrs. Reed gathered her neatly typed, note free speech, placed it back into the manila folder from which it came, left it on the lectern, turned towards her left and walked promptly off the stage. - 11 -Thermolysis Kathryn met with Mr. John Marcus, dark and early the following Monday morning. She’d climbed out of bed in the dark, peering out at the lights across the city and the pitch dark horizon that lay somewhere out there in the deep darkness. The stars above were invisible but still there; just as the reality and circumstance of her quest to quantify the company were out there somewhere, coming steadily closer like the arrival of the day.She’d gone to bed unsleeping and unsteady, waiting for the night to take over with no sensation of the relaxed, heavy head that usually forced her into bed. She slept lightly, aware of her sleep as it occurred, or so she thought when the alarm announced her time to get out of bed. She rolled to the side, thinking how she knew the night before she’d need her usual full night and was yet unable to will herself into bed fifteen minutes prior to eight hours before the alarm, anxious and eager and concerned she was about the following day.Out the door and into the chill, she wondered about John Marcus’ rise and trip into the city from whatever suburb he made home. To meet on time he’d leave that much earlier and she thought the train ride for him would provide the warm-up, preview and prelude to the day ahead she wished she’d be able to have. Riding in a car was but lost time for her, unable to see events and unable to concentrate, as she would look out the window and see what she’d seen many times before.The damp, medium cold air felt pleasant and awakening as she stepped out of the taxi with ID glasses in hand and entered the building. She slipped on the glasses and leaned her head forward into the retina scan reader, pushing the button. The magnetic coded card popped halfway from the dispenser as the female computer voice instructed her that the card would work for thirty seconds and then require resetting if not inserted into the access slot. In an instant she was alone in the elevator passing the thirtieth floor, then the fortieth and then stopping with no sensation of slowing, right at forty six. Only the night lights were on and the normal lights recessed into the ceiling started to come on as she walked towards her office. She opened the locked door with her passkey, waving it by the wall next to the door lever, entered and again the lights and lamps turned on automatically; she deposited her briefcase on her chair and walked over to the corner, turning on the automatic coffee & tea machine. As it emitted a faint electronic hum of efficiency, she pushed the automatic button behind the curtains and they quietly drew back, revealing the glass and the city beyond and below. With her overcoat still on, she folded her arms and looked down at the plaza below, its flagpoles standing sentry over the entrance. The trio of banners hung still, barely moving in the gentle air of the darkness, lit up by the recessed floodlights of the corners of the plaza aimed high at the sides of the company’s building. She looked out across the city, between the towers of the neighboring buildings out to the water beyond, still not able to be seen in the darkness. She regretted not eating something before leaving her apartment, only now thinking she should have. Her usual breakfast routine never even started; it occurred to her only now that she hadn’t even thought about it, preoccupied as she was to come to meet with John Marcus early. She walked quickly over to the closet to the left of the recessed bookcase and hung her coat inside. She adjusted her dark green suit jacket, straightened the knotted sash of her ecru blouse and walked back to the naked window. The drink machine obediently beeped the end of its cycle, she placed the teacup below the spigot and pressed the button; the green tea lattè flowed quickly, foaming up a little on the insides of the cup. She put the cup on a saucer, walked over to the window again, and put it down on the window sill; she lifted the teacup and took a sip. She turned her left wrist towards herself; six thirty five. Daylight would begin to creep towards the city soon. Her meeting would begin in twenty five minutes; time to review once again the reports and questions she had prepared over the weekend, but she knew deep down there was no need. This was a part of the project; she set the pace and produced the results. The questions were hers alone to ask and answer. Worried they’d be good but not up to expectations made her wonder yet again about who’d expect what about which outcome, the outcome that nobody knew was coming and hadn’t assigned. She sat down in the chair closest to the still naked window; this was the first time she’d opened and let stay open the long curtains that usually covered it. She put her knees together, looking at the teacup still on the windowsill. She thought about the bright, frothy green tea from the machine and remembered back to the spring grass of the same color, to the trace bits of yellow she noticed in the fabric of the furniture and to the young, bright dandelions waving against the grass and against the blue sky beyond. She felt a knot tighten in the pit of her stomach.* * *“Young lady!” her mother demanded, “you’ve done this before and we discussed your performance; you keep swimming halfway across the lake and swimming back out of fear! Do you understand me?!?!?!?” her mother shouted.She cowered in the chair, not daring to answer, staring straight at and through her mother, tightening her abdomen in the hope of avoiding an accident. It hadn’t happened to her in a long time, but she remembered its unpleasantness so clearly she’d lost track of the month and year; it was yesterday’s memory and it would always be. Today it was terror and today it would always be. She pulled her hands down hard and tight at her knees. Her mother glared furiously.“You can get a B, but you stop before you earn an A; WHY?!” her mother insisted. Kathryn stared, frozen out of speech. Her eyes locked open, her jaw shut tight, she thought furiously and got nowhere in silence.“Kathryn Elizabeth!!” her mother threatened, “don’t just sit and stare; WHY don’t you try just a little harder to get an A?”Kathryn thought she’d say she didn’t know; she always understood to tell the truth but knew that it would enrage her mother even more. What if she lied? Yeah, that might work; but she couldn’t think of a lie to tell. Her mind raced in search of some reason she could give to get her mother to calm down. Tell the truth and be a good girl; tell the truth and get in big trouble; the world according to grown-ups. “I……I did my best, Mommy!” she pleaded. “I tried hard; I followed the instructions and did the assignment.”“And you got a B!” her mother retorted.Kathryn stared down and her hands.“If you’d gotten a D, I’d understand not trying and I’d be much more angry!” her mother went on. Kathryn doubted this totally and considered getting a D just to show her mother the difference. “So why the B, young lady?” her mother finally said in a non-shouting tone.“I…I don’t know exactly why, the teacher didn’t tell me.”“Oh, wonderful” her mother moaned sarcastically, “and you didn’t think of asking? Oh no, not Kathryn Elizabeth Miller, no way, ask her teacher for some feedback?? Not on this planet…no way…not me! That’s for others, right?!” her mother barked.Little Aaron peered around the corner, their mother unaware he was watching. Kathryn saw him in the outside of her vision but dared not look right at him, for fear her mother would punish her for Aaron’s concern. His face looked worried, concerned and empathetic; she read his eyes and their wish to help, knowing she could only commit authoritarian suicide if she did anything, just as Aaron knew it. “Go straight to your room and don’t come out until I call you. When I do,” her mother instructed, “you’d better have a good explanation why you can get a B and can’t seem to make an A! Your father will be home and I want him to hear your story; do you understand me, young lady?”“Yuh…yuh..yes, yes I do” she stammered.“Then GO!” her mother shouted.Kathryn slowly got up, walked briskly to the stairs, grabbed the banister and nearly ran up the stairs to her room, closing the door fast and sure behind her, falling face down on her bed in disgusted relief, worried now even worse how she’d come up with a story about an A and her B before dinner. She heard a knock on the door, three short gentle taps. She got up and opened the door slowly; Aaron pushed his way in, hugged her and started crying.* * *Aaron took short, stiff steps across the bare, hardwood floor of his apartment in hot pursuit of the ringing phone he’d left in the kitchen. His girlfriend woke up too, he was sure, but she barely rolled over he thought, as he jumped out of bed. She might not have woken up all the way, but she would once he talked. He grabbed it and glanced at the screen, seeing CONS INDEM on the display as he pushed the button to answer. “Hello” he said in the dark, sure it was Kathryn but playing it safe, just in case.“It’s me” said Kathryn. “You ready?”“Of course not” he answered, “it’s what, like still dark out? You’re in the office in the middle of the night?”“It’s not the middle of the night, the sun’ll be up in a little while and yes, I’m at the office.”“Well, I’m not supposed to be there until four o’clock,” Aaron said.“I know” replied Kathryn, “what I mean is, are you prepared with the material I gave you?”“Sure. Why are you calling now? Something up?”“No, she said, “not yet. I scheduled a very early meeting to get to the bottom of some source stuff I want you to work on, and I used the pretext of many other meetings and scheduling to justify it. What I don’t want is the guy I’ve called in to be over here after nine o’clock in the morning. I have to assume he’ll tell everybody and so they’ll all be looking at him for feedback over in his department. He might just offer it up anyway, but I don’t really think so, he didn’t strike me as the type. I also have to assume he’ll leave the stuff I want to see in his department, and he’ll go get it before he comes here, so coming in and going out to a meeting after eight in the morning will get people to thinking.”“I think you’re paranoid” said Aaron, “and you still didn’t say why you called so early. What’s the matter?”“I’ve got a few minutes to kill. Since you’re coming in later, I wanted to make sure.”“Isn’t this guy going to send you electronic files? Who keeps that stuff on paper anyway? Paper’s a waste, trashes the environment, remember? Who set that rule and who’ve you been workin’ for since, what, a couple a years after you finished college?”“I know, I know” said Kathryn, “I don’t know what’s going to come out of all of this, and I don’t like it. When you audit an operation, what comes out is a complete audit; it says what it finds. Same thing with financial statements, they reflect what happened. I don’t know what’s going to come out of this and I don’t know what’s going to come out of not doing this” she said.“Oh” said Aaron slowly, “I got ya.”“Right” finished Kathryn.“Okay, Kath” said Aaron, “see you later and don’t kill anybody ‘till I get there.”“You either!” she retorted. “Bye”.“Bye” Aaron said back as he clicked off his BlueBerry in the dark kitchen, looked out the window over the sink at the bluish gray color beginning to wash over the outdoors just as it does at the beginning of every cold and cloudy day. He headed back to bed, now wide awake.“Your sister?” asked his girlfriend as he slipped under the covers in an attempt to fool himself out of guilt and not wake her up.“Yeah” he said.“She’s worried” offered up his girlfriend, “calling here at this hour.”“How do you know that?” Aaron asked inquisitively.“Your voice,” she said back, “because when your sister speaks to you, you broadcast her emotions in a way she never does. I didn’t notice it until I met her and had a chance to compare Aaron Miller to Aaron Miller. ”“Damn” said Aaron as he rolled over, sure he’d never fall back to sleep. He remembered Kathryn being nervous. That was a long time ago. Hadn’t seen it for longer than he could remember exactly; thought it was finished. Guess not.* * *The telephone rang with its electronic “bleep bleep” and Kathryn picked up; “Miller speaking” she said mechanically. “John Marcus calling; need your authorization for the reader and access card issuance.”“Right” said Kathryn, who hung up, the dialed staff authorizations, entered Marcus’ employee number and then her own authorization code. John Marcus was at her door in what seemed like an instant.“Thank you again for coming in to see me at this hour; I know it’s unusual, above and beyond what’s expected but my schedule can only be shuffled so much before it needs stretching.”John Marcus waived it off and told her not to worry about it. Kathryn asked herself if this cloak and daggers approach she’d cooked up in her mind was really necessary, after talking to her brother and thinking about it. She remembered back to Los Angeles and getting to the office early in the morning before the sun came up. Her justification to herself was to have the time to be able to call Chicago before it was too late in the morning central time zone. She remembered watching the sun rise from the office as it first lit up the tops of higher hills before the sunlight descended slowly down the hillsides to eventually light up the valleys below. She recalled the joyous sensation it caused when compared to the dark, dreary cold mornings of Chicago during winter. Home back in Cincinnati was a lot like that sometimes, but the wind off the lake added a dimension she wasn’t used to. None of that happened in Los Angeles. She also remembered the feeling of accomplishment she got when she’d get to the office early and plow through some project or set of messages, answering them all and getting a lot done early, imagining the compliment she’d get back from the client or from the head office for such good work, and also where they might notice how it was sent early in the morning. The imaginary compliment didn’t ever materialize but the feeling she got from it certainly did. In her nervousness she imagined this early start would hurdle her over the fear. Fear of what? She felt the uneasiness, no doubt. She couldn’t locate it; couldn’t place it, transfer it. This was a feeling as familiar as her soul; she only now remembered she hadn’t felt it in a long time, at least according to calendar time as we know it. It felt like just a few days ago, it did. John Marcus was innocuous. This concern, this light consternation, this worry…..what was it?“I assume no difficulty putting together any of the requested information?” she eagerly asked John Marcus.“None” he answered, “just a little time consuming. We don’t usually look at any of this stuff; it’s already been input at the local level and then it’s processed electronically. It took some digging to extract it, but here it is.” Marcus handed her a computer disk. She wondered why he hadn’t used the company’s electronic mail server, now that she thought about it. He did bring quite a few paper files with him so she expected that to be part of the explanation.“What do we have, in a nutshell?” Kathryn asked.“I’ve printed off summaries, which are in this folder” he said, “and the source documents are all contained on the disk, by country, company within, type of coverage, and then the claims data we were talking about,” he informed her. “You can look at them on the disk and then print as needed”.“Thank you” said Kathryn, “and can you run through the method again?”“Certainly” he responded. “Each period; be it a quarter of the year, half year, yearend or what have you, uses three figures; payments plus ending minus starting. That shows the claims for the period. The end of one period becomes the beginning of the next. When figures are received here in the original currency, they’re converted to dollars at the exchange rate that FASB 52 requires, and then financial statements are prepared in US currency.”“How do the claims get adjusted?” she asked.“The best estimate is put on the books when the claim is reported. As the claim is developed, meaning damage is repaired, or the lawsuit develops, or new equipment is ordered and so forth, each claim is adjusted up and down in the claims file. At the end of the quarter, we take the closing figure from the last quarter as our start, we add in the total new claims and then add the increase or subtract the decrease for the total of all of the claims already on file.”“Clear” said Kathryn, who then asked pointedly “who sets the additional amount for claims not yet reported?”“Actuaries” said John Marcus; “that amount is added based on whatever actuarial calculations they perform, to the new claims”.“Okay, many thanks John” she said. “I’ll call you with questions as I go through this, but you’ve done me a terrific favor. This is my first deep dive into foreign currency operations.”“You’re welcome, I look forward to the call” replied John, who then stood up, buttoned his suit jacket, turned and left the office. There was no briefcase in his hand. No overcoat, despite the chill. His office was in another building three blocks from this headquarters structure; obviously he went there first; somebody would see him return. Kathryn hadn’t asked him to keep this quiet but she also hadn’t asked him to broadcast that he was coming here. She thought it safe to assume he did. She looked at her watch; seven twenty five. Maybe nobody over there would notice.* * *She rushed down the stairs to the kitchen to have enough time to eat some breakfast before leaving for school. Grabbing a bowl, opening the cereal box, she quickly shook in the corn flakes, grabbed the milk from the refrigerator, poured too much too fast into the bowl, and began eating like mad. She looked at the bananas in the large bowl on the counter; nope, not enough time to slice one and eat it with the cereal, she’d grab it and eat at the bus stop. It’s all going the same place anyway, she thought.She looked across the kitchen towards the hall and her parents’ bedroom beyond. Her father long gone for work, she felt the quiet tension in the air. She knew her mother was in bed; she knew it unlikely her mother would get up but please, God no, not today. The air hung thick and tight, the silence suspended like a taught wire waiting for something or someone to trip over it and make it break, releasing the pressure and making the unpleasantness gush back out. The sun lit up bright rectangles of floor, table and wall in the kitchen. Aaron was still upstairs, quiet.Gulping down the last big mouthful of wet flakes, she tried to drink the milk and knew she’d spill it on her uniform and maybe even her buckled shoes; she poured it in the sink fast, looking back over her shoulder to make sure no mother approached this forbidden travesty. The morning air in the house always hung like this after her mother was angry. She felt like she needed to forgive her mother, and her mother also needed to forgive her. Fear and concern for school magnified, Kathryn felt like a huge magnifying glass hung over her, her mother peering through. It had ended as it always does, with her mother’s scornful face glaring at her as she was dismissed and sent to her room, not a word more said about it. Only two other kids besides her got a B in gym class; everybody else got an A, at least those who showed up. Her mother never cared. Why the hurt about this B, she pleaded with herself, why?!? Only two kids got an A in English, three others a B, herself making four and the rest of the class C’s and D’s. Why couldn’t that mean anything? Earth Science, an A; Geometry, and A; History; an A. She tried hard at everything, and thought her answers were good. She did better than most of the class. Why, why, why was the English grade such a problem?? She looked at the clock above the counter; seven twenty five. Oh no, gotta go.* * *“Aaron”, said Kathryn, “did my early call bother your girlfriend?”“Nope” he said, “she’s bothered by much more mundane stuff like eating, paying the rent and me graduating from law school,” he answered with a smile.“She really didn’t like this idea, did she?” Kathryn asked Aaron.“She likes the idea, here she is; actions versus words, right?” said Aaron. “She quit her job, I’m sure she’s waiting for the ring and the idea’s great but it isn’t secure enough for her; is it secure enough for any woman that wants to get married?”Not having seriously driven down the road to marriage, this was a curious statement to Kathryn’s ears.“What’s that mean?”“Nesting instinct” said Aaron. “Sure we’ve done the budget, checked the savings and we’ll be okay even if it takes a while for her to get a job. Which it will, since she isn’t going to serve green tea crappuccinos in high priced coffee huts, and prestigious, well paying jobs are scarce. Weren’t they always? Well, now even more. You know the drill, job market’s been like that for a while.”Kathryn thought back to her first job interviews, first on videophone and then in person. She got back to Ohio from Chicago and went back to her grad teaching volunteer work with high school kids not thinking much about them; it was not much different from college except everybody was dressed differently. It also didn’t seem that different than the college interviews had seemed to be a long time ago, except the college interview came after she’d received an acceptance letter in the mail, and all she had to do was talk to the freshman college counselors and arrange her courses of study. She knew getting hired hung on doing well in the interview in Chicago and of course, she tried her best; didn’t worry too much about it, knowing they’d make their decision and that would be it. She remembered studying about the company and asked questions about things her study didn’t explain. When she was given the opportunity to ask questions, she did. Years later she read this was a technique that job candidates should use. Who knew at the time? She’d read all about job losses and wondered like any person would what it was like to be one of those people; like watching a terrible car wreck, where lanes are closed and cars are bent and overturned, you pass the scene slowly, knowing it could be you. It’s not you and it hasn’t been so what’s it really like? What’s it like to look for employment, hunting for an opportunity and not finding it, seeing other people keep their job, and then seeing other people get jobs and you don’t. What do they have that you don’t? Just dumb luck or are you really inferior? Aaron’s girlfriend took a leap of faith or hope or desperation or all three; Kathryn didn’t know many women who would have done it and couldn’t for all the beans in Burma ever see herself doing it. Lots of men were dogs; many girls she knew in high school and college had problems with men and lots of them were divorced, the ones who’d gotten married and others were in a series of boyfriend roulette or boyfriend musical chairs, or with a steady boyfriend who never popped the question. She knew a bunch of them who had their indiscretions too, but were careful to keep things under wraps. Did women have an inherent advantage in this, since men were generally willing to try a no-string fling? Did men just get sloppy? Whatever….women she knew had difficulties and she knew Aaron was a good guy, she could understand his girlfriend’s reluctance to have him pack up for law school, knowing she’d never see this situation, like the car wreck that’d pass her by.* * *“Okay Aaron” she started, “crunch time. Here are summary reports, the disk with the source information. Here is your copy of the consulting contract we drew up, and the check payable to the consulting firm for the retainer fee and initial work estimate. I’m sure you’ll eat up this time and then some, so when a report’s ready, submit it along with a backing sheet with all hours expended and agreed expenses; got it?”“Yep” popped Aaron.“You’re playing lawyer now, kiddo,” she joked “but seriously, this is crucial, no matter what comes out of it. Make sure you do not make reference to me personally and that no copies come this way. I’ll have your reports reviewed and forwarded here after they’ve been looked at. This has to look arm’s length. These damned requirements that everything be bid out and evaluated sound really good but are ignorant of reality; nobody does business with companies, business is done between people and ideally with people you trust. Who the hell around here do I trust?” “A little testy today, are we?” joked Aaron. “What, we wake up too early?” “Oh, knock it off!” Kathryn counter-poked, “I don’t know the answer to any of this and I need to know what the deal is; I can’t take a sabbatical to study, let’s see, what’s the name of this book?” She pulled the large, medium thick dark blue textbook from the corner of her desk and looked at it; “Non-Marine Accounting, Insurance and Risk Transfer” was its name. She had a bookmark on chapter ten, page one eighty six. The chapter was entitled loss, claim and loss expense accounting, published by Reed, Goldsmith & Company, three forty five Noel Road, Islington, London in Association with the Chartered Institute for Insurance. Most intimidating. This chapter alone was fourteen pages of sleep aid, the rest of the book was a cure for insomnia in the western world, she thought. She held it up to Aaron.“Have a two second look” she said as she flipped through the pages. “I need results, answers, not another degree in accounting.” “Gotcha” he said. “I’m on it.”- 12 - Taxing HistoryWhat do we want in life? In a word, happiness. Its definitions are unlimited, and like good government, it is similarly difficult to evaluate. Yet one always recognizes it when one sees it.We grow up seeing that which surrounds us as normality; it’s our measuring stick. What composes our situation becomes our definition of normal. What’s different from it is different; what’s much different is odd, if we don’t like that difference. If we prefer it, then it’s an aspiration, a thing we seek to have and achieve. What then is abnormal? The drawing of an impartial line to be crossed, the far side of which all might agree qualifies as abnormality is equally difficult to do, but once passed, we concur universally. When does a ship reach the high seas? When it’s out of sight of land? As it sails farther from the coast, that land disappears gradually; at what exact point can the ship no longer be seen from the land’s edge or vice versa? In the case of lowlands, such as Florida, or mountains near the sea, such as California, do we - or should we - have different definitions based on locations? The increments are debatable; the absolutes generally are not.Think for a moment of the things you do not have that you would certainly like to have; then think for a moment of the things you do not have that you do not want. The former would lead us towards happiness; the latter, away from it.Aversion to unpleasantness can be seen in every human society, culture and civilization; it defines our interaction with all things around us.Attraction to our needs, preferences and likes is equally omnipresent; it is motivation.All humans are aware of themselves and the closely surrounding group of which they are a part, usually the immediate family. We are also aware of the larger groups that the several families form, such as neighborhoods, and the communities, towns and cities these groups of families and the ever larger groups of communities they create.The ability to identify with each group has increased with ever swifter communication; as it has become faster it’s also become less costly. It is now immediate and global, being commonplace to send instant written messages to any populated place and to also install that capability almost anywhere we want it. The emergence of the nation state as both a physically defined region and social compact of the people within it became feasible as the ability to communicate within the defined area improved. The Roman Empire with its infrastructure built around its interactions is a prime example. The larger a region and the greater the number of people within, or both, present ever larger challenges to organization but also greater benefits from a successful implementation. The level of communication required to define a nation was long ago surpassed; as a result almost no part of the earth is now considered outside the control of a recognized nation state, even vast parts not suitable for human settlements. Only Antarctica remains, by virtue of its separation across large expanses of ocean. Our ever faster and more voluminous communication has produced what effect? Families naturally organize around a leader, a central authority figure, and all groups of humans organize themselves in some manner, to some extent. Anthropology studies these often fascinating social interactions and history chronicles the results.The United States of America is a unique nation. Only two in the world have adopted a name that means one large group of smaller groups which have united voluntarily. The immediate proximity of the one, the USA, to the other, the United Mexican States, is the direct result of the similar history that immediately preceded the formation of both; prior invasion of the territory by Europeans, subjugation of native populations, diminished ability of the colonizers to continue to forcibly control the populations to extract wealth combined with increasingly stringent attempts to maintain and reassert such control. Unique to the USA is the abandonment by a large portion of a Mexican state to join up with and become a state within it, forever changing the destiny of the United States for the better. It is one of the two most significant historical events in the formation of the country as it exists today, the other being the switch from Dutch to English control in the former outpost of New Amsterdam, renamed New York by its new rulers. The separation of what became the Republic of Texas from Mexico was a large loss of land area and a huge gain for the United States once that new Republic became the State of Texas a decade later. In spite of vigorous expansion of US territory since then, today it still represents approximately seven and a half percent of the USA’s total land area; it is also now about eight percent of the nation’s population, and growing. Upon its independence, there were a scarce five thousand people in an even larger territory than what the state’s borders now encompass. The population has grown nearly five thousand fold and continues to do so at an ever higher rate; the state has, for several years running, been the largest relocation state within the country.The stark difference in organization between Mexico and its large neighbor to the north is the role of the state within; to the south the states are mainly geographical divisions similar to departments within a company. Central government authority is high; much of what occurs within a state and its government involves approval or coordination with a pre-approved national plan. In the USA, from the very outset of the nation, the founders lay out specific delineations for authority given to the government the states create, established absolute minimum rights for all citizens of any state, clearly and unequivocally limited the authority to only that which the several states collectively grant it, and no more. To this very day, the nation functions along these ever-shrinking lines. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as unalienable rights are the reasons the founders of the great nation declared its independence, and said as much in their statement to the oppressive rulers whose control they sought to cast off. Those same rulers bitterly opposed it and not just one but two bloody conflicts ensued to prevent it. The opposing forces were repelled and the new nation went forth. Over the course of the nineteenth century one single nation, Germany, contributed more than fifty five million of its citizens to the new nation, all of whom left Europe voluntarily. Today the USA admits more immigrants legally than all other nations of the world, combined; all do so for largely the same reasons immigrants have always come to the United States. Many more enter illegally, the majority from the USA’s immediate neighbor to the south. This no doubt is due to proximity, ease of entry and perceived higher levels of happiness to be had farther north. Recall the value vouchers of chapter nine; immigrants are attracted by the prospect of higher amounts of value vouchers to be received for their efforts. It’s a higher level of happiness. Separation from family, friends, loved ones and the immigrant’s formative culture are downsides, unpleasantness to be avoided. The cost this unpleasantness represents is not insurmountable for ever larger numbers of people; indeed many successfully lessen the effect by recreating pockets of the distant culture in their immediate surroundings, as has been the history of the USA.The source society and its organization have been less successful by comparison; the receiving society has been more so. There have been specific causes of this success. Individual and then collective actions produced the progress deemed attractive.Our individual happiness resulted from primarily our individual, then familial, then societal actions. Trends have developed that pursue general welfare more from a central authority and the solutions it attempts. Since family units interact in similar ways in all cultures, the differences in one society’s progress or development results from collective decisions made at a higher level, of the town, city, state or federal government of those states.Today many Americans pay out one third of annual earnings as taxes. Some pay less, those who escape federal or state taxes because their earnings fall below minimums. High earners pay half of their income in most cases. At least fifty percent of us work for at least one to two months to fund government activity, and the other fifty percent works three to six months to fund central authorities. The majority of these central authorities are bankrupt; they have significant debt and spend more than they collect every year, ever increasing the debt. The system is arbitrary and uneven; it rewards owners of their dwelling if they incur debt to buy it by allowing property tax and interest expenses to reduce income taxes. Those who pay rent to occupy a dwelling also pay property taxes and the owner’s debt interest, as these are calculated into the rent amounts but are not given the tax benefit. Tax rates also vary for different incomes; one tenth is required from some taxpayers and two fifths from others. States with the higher rates of taxation, be they property, sales, income and other taxes are generally in the worse fiscal shape. The state with the smallest government per person is the only one with employment growth, i.e. new jobs created. It has the highest exports and also enjoys the most people relocating to it; its housing prices are the most stable. This is no coincidence and begs the larger question, would a similar course produce similar results on a larger, national scale?We seek happiness in life and select a mate, raise our young, worship God and choose our friends in line with our hopes to be and become happy. We make choices and we reap the benefits or cry the sorrows of them. Mostly we see benefits. We have a national identity, a language and culture and enormous influence around the world, much of it an unintended by-product of our personal and collective success. We certainly take advantage of it and nearly always to the even greater success of any ally nation with whom we interact. We provide opportunity in ways and means available nowhere else and at no other time in the world’s documented history. For more than half of our country’s history, most taxes did not exist. Government involvement in many facets of our existence has multiplied beyond anything imaginable just a few generations ago. The description of our nation in the preceding paragraph is not the result of our government; individual initiative and personal resilience have produced it.That notwithstanding, we can certainly point to ingredients we have added to our national progress, many improvements that have resulted from the government taxation and its activity. Where is the limit? How high is up and how distant is too far? At what point do the central authorities we create cease to serve us, where we become the servants? For many of us in America, we’re sailing that way now and what awaits us over the horizon is a repulsive and collective step backwards. For many others, it is progress long overdue. Are we on the high seas yet? Most of all, will we be happier as a result?- 13 -VitrificationAaron shot out of the tunnel into the afternoon sunlight and kept driving straight along the patched concrete roadway that seemed to zoom forward to the long, black bridge ahead. Happy for the light traffic but unhappy to be leaving the city on a Sunday afternoon since it was because he went into the city on a Sunday afternoon, it seemed like no time before he was making the drawn out, steady descent off the long and sometimes high bridge he used to see in the reruns of the mob television series. All he could think of was how ironic it was how the immediate stretch of roadway after leaving the tunnel looked just like the same thing when exiting all five of the Manhattan’s car tunnels, and here it just fed into another tunnel and after that an iron bridge leading to more tall buildings in the distance. This they called the Garden State? “Ha ha” was all he could think to himself, and soon he was passing the old housing projects on his right and would soon be approaching his exit for the big highway that would take him west and out to his apartment. His old, trusty and clunky car did its job and he was very glad he resisted getting rid of it the many times that urge washed over him like a compulsion.Thinking back to the urge, he fondly recalled how he was so fascinated with the new Honday four door with the coupe styled roofline and its direct injected biofuel engine. The switch in jobs from satellite internet to electric car charge plans killed that purchase; the car finance company declined him for being too short a time in the new job. He protested but learned a valuable lesson there; arguing after being turned down never reverses the decision. The bigger the fit a baseball player used to throw, the more stubborn the umpire became, before they had camera review. He suspected it was his age, but knew they’d never say that. Age was only used to make younger people buy things that usually wouldn’t be bought. Too bad he didn’t wait to buy that car until after starting his next job; he would have been able to pay cash. The government disability coverage plan was a good sell, since so many customers were in the government health care fund already and got a discount for being there. Aaron wondered about this, really; hardly anybody was in that fund because they preferred it; they usually had no choice. Why were they giving discounts to the voluntary stuff? He was convinced they just added the discount to the price they wanted, for show. Retail government, what a concept, he thought. The commissions he was paid were nice, but of course the HHS agency did so well, they also gave out company owned cars to drive, and he never got around to buying the new car, just kept the older one and drove it only once a week. “Well,” he thought to himself as he turned onto the long ramp that fed onto the next highway, “it’s a good student type car and I don’t have to worry about attracting attention with it in the city”.Soon he was pulling into the narrow parking lot next to the apartment building, watching the sun descend over the still bare trees of very early spring. He got out and walked around to the passenger side of the car, and carefully lifted out the plastic milk crate with all the printed stacks of paper inside it. “Now I see why that ‘consulting contract’ your sister set you up with pays so well” Aaron’s girlfriend remarked as he lugged the green plastic crate through the door into their apartment. He dragged the box the last few feet across the tiled floor from the door to the kitchen table, and flopped down into one of the chairs next to her, as she looked up from her cup of tea and magazine.“What, because of the day of the week I’m going in to get it or because of how much it weighs?” he asked.“Both.”“Well, the ‘Day of Rest’ excuse doesn’t work with her” Aaron replied, “plus she takes days off when she feels the need; weekends are for others, the way she usually arranges her days.”Aaron lifted the several large stacks of paper held together by rubber bands and carefully set them on the table next to his girlfriend, who watched with disinterested interest.“You going to read over all that?” she inquired.“Yes, I think so”“What did law school say about it?” she said with an ironic smirk, lifting one eyebrow and then the other.“You know I’m going to have to fit it in, evenings, early mornings, weekends. The money’s real good, it isn’t hard stuff to do, just a lot of volume and note taking. Plus it’s my sister.”“Why you exactly?” she asked.“She’s worried about who to trust; the way to find out who you can trust is by exposing that trust and hoping it doesn’t get betrayed. The challenge here, for her I think, is all that work in Washington, DC; I imagine it’s more or less the same with lots of federal agency staff. The longer they’re working in that environment, the thicker the bubble grows around them, in that they grow accustomed to interaction with people like them and the procedures they all follow and grow to prefer I guess; one of those sacrosanct procedures is competitive bidding. You draw up your specs, whether it’s toilet paper or toothpaste and ask for prices. How do you quantify and objectively analyze trust? Not too easy, so they don’t. Even if there were a good system for it, they wouldn’t do it, because if it came out less than ideal, they’d be looked at as partial and not independent; biased and unfair. So they don’t do it. Problem here is Kathryn doesn’t know how to approach it that way without exposing the findings; she doesn’t know what she’ll find but she has a hunch it should be kept quiet and be provided to her bosses only.”“She can’t hold an outside accounting firm to secrecy?” asked Aaron’s girlfriend.“Sure, she could try. And as soon as word gets around inside that firm that something’s supposed to be kept quiet, that someone signed a non-disclosure agreement, then everybody will know about it, unofficially of course. What’s the point of signing a non-disclosure agreement unless it’s a one person operation? In order to make anybody who needs to know about it aware, they have to tell them, and now it’s starting to be disclosed. So if they don’t sign one, no paper trail will ever exist, but then everybody will believe everything everyone has to say. Since she doesn’t know what it will say…well, here I am.”“I thought she was worried about the stock price and shareholder backlash.” “She’s got a list of worries” answered Aaron, “you could wallpaper her office with.”“Wow. Oh well…” his girlfriend’s voice trailed off.* * *“Me escuta, Jo?o” (John, listen to me) said the office manager to his head of accounting. “Explica de novo o pedido que veio de Nova Iorque para as informa??es que você forneceu” (Explain again the request from New York for the information you provided).“Pois n?o, senhor, com prazer. ? uma mensagem pedindo a contabilidade b?sica do final do semestre que encerrou agora,” (Yes sir, glad to. It’s a message asking for base accounting from the quarter we just closed) said John.“Quanto tempo você leva aqui na companhia?” (How long have you worked here in the company) asked the office manager.“Eu acho, bom, dez anos, com uns quatro ou cinco meses, sempre aqui na área financeira,” (I think, like, ten years, and about four or five months, always here in the finance department) answered John. “Só o escritorio de Lisboa recebeu ou houve outro na Europa?” (Just the Lisbon office or was there any other in Europe?) asked the office manager.“Pelo que eu vi, eu acredito que todos receberam, na totalidade da regi?o, da lista de pessoas que foram incuidas. Eu n?o vi isso, a mensagem foi dirigida à secretaria auxiliar da àrea, mas quando a gente viu, ligamos para os outros chefes de finan?as p’ra conferir. Foi certo aquilo que eu pensei. Por n?o ter nunca recebido um pedido assim, do mesmo jeito que o senhor perguntou para mim,” (From what I could see, I believe they all got it, in the whole region, from the list of people included. I didn’t see that, the message was sent to the department’s assistant secretary, but when we saw it, we called all the other finance managers to check. What I thought was true. Since we never got one like it before, in the same way you sir asked me) answered John. “Quem mandou, qual pessoa de que área operativa?” (Who sent it, from which operating department?)“Bom, foi isso que eu achei esquisito do assunto, pois veio de uma empresa sem nome de pessoa específica. Parece que é uma consultoria de fora. Logo veio outra mensagem da nova diretora de ‘compliance’ a área que implantou o governo dos EEUU, aí dando instru??es de fornecer os dados solicitados à consultoria diretamente, sem copia-lo no ‘compliance’. Assim eu pensei que auditoria externa, n?o é? Só que aquilo que é sempre fornecido é a mesma coisa que contem o sistema aquí; n?o têm diferen?as; nunca teve.” (Well, that’s what I thought was strange about it, since it came from a company without a specific person’s name. Looked like an outside consultant. Then we got another message from the new director of compliance, the department put in by the US government, giving instructions to deliver that information directly, without copying ‘compliance’. So I thought external audit, right? Except what we always send is the same thing on our system here; there are no differences; never were.) “Vocês cumpriram com tudo, até o ponto final? (Did all of you follow instructions to the “T”?) “Sim, senhor, com tudo.” (Yes sir, everything)“Bem feito, deixa as copias da mensagem comigo, que as quero queimar. N?o fale nenhuma palavra desta conversa com mais ninguem, entendeu? Mais ninguem! (Well done, leave the copies of the message with me, I’m going to burn them. Don’t speak a word of this conversation with anybody, understood? Nobody!) * * *Aaron happily watched his girlfriend checking the top sheet, going down line-by-line through the summary lists on top of their kitchen dining room table. He fondly remembered the separate dining room with the curved arch openings to the living room and hallway in his parent’s house – his house, really – back in Ohio and knew he’d get a house with one like that for himself someday. Yeah, that’s what everyone thought, and one quick look at the prices of those houses now, in this part of this state, told the whole story. He looked out the sliding glass door next to the table at the white vinyl siding on the next building over, same black colonial style shutters as his building and every other one in this newer complex. Happy to be on the second floor of a two story building, so as not to hear the residents above, he wondered how much noise he was making; most of this place was carpeted including the dining room but of course not the kitchen. His girlfriend finished going over the page she was looking at and professionally flipped to the next one without missing a beat; Aaron thought all she needed was one of those old accountant style green plastic visors to block the glare. Too bad they didn’t make lights that caused that glare anymore.“Okay” she said, “I’ve checked all of the summary lists and can confirm” she said with a wry smile, “we have entries and base figures from one hundred and twenty six countries and all operating subsidiaries of each. Now I need to check that the in-country totals for the several entities within each one all total up properly; that hasn’t been done. Then I need to do some sampling of base figures to verify that the preliminary per unit totals in these summary sheets are correct.” Aaron listened carefully and looked on with admiration.“Where’d you pick up this corporate speak, darling?” he tenderly asked.“Why, straightening out your finances, of course, my dear. Where else?” she said with a chuckle.Aaron smiled. “Seriously” he asked, “you sound like all those yahoos my sister rubs her elbows up to the shoulders with all the time; very good!”“Thanks” she replied humbly, “I’m not sure, maybe from the finance courses I took in school. I didn’t see much of this when I studied civil engineering, zilch in the field and a little in the office.”“Well, you were a corporate drone in a past life, then,” he remarked “and who says reincarnation isn’t possible?”Aaron flipped through the bundled stacks of paper and took out the source documents for Indonesia; the company had 2 entities there, life business and general commercial. He looked up the exchange rate on his BlueBerry; the local unit, what was it called, the rupiah? It showed up as IDR in all the statements. Aaron flipped though some of the source documents; all of the currencies had three letter abbreviations. “Just like airports” he thought, “and that’s why it’s called currency” it suddenly dawned on him. “It’s always flowing all around in a current, like wind and water!” Smug and chuckling to himself at his little private informational epiphany, he looked closer into the data.The life insurance was simple; the only detail, and it couldn’t be called that, was in the benefits. They seemed to set up fixed amounts for expenses and then a round amount for ‘indemnity’ they called it; that must be the payout, he thought to himself. He saw lots of large figures, two million, three million, three and a half million. Boy, these people buy lots of life insurance he thought. He flipped over to the dollar conversions and after about ten minutes of looking, found the corresponding part. Now he understood why all this stuff was done by computers; imagine all this by hand? Well, there were banks and financial institutions long before computers so somebody did it that way. He wondered how much money computers saved over paying salaries to people or in a poorer country, or would it be the other way around? He matched up a few figures and then calculated the exchange rate; wow, a little over nine thousand of these rupiah for every dollar. “Damn”, he thought to himself. He took out his wallet and counted the cash in it; two hundred and seventeen dollars. He plugged two seventeen into the calculator and divided by the decimal exchange rate; wow. Almost two million! He fantasized about carrying a cool two million around in his wallet and spending that much in one might at a pub buying burgers and beer for himself and his buddies, and then coming home to see his girlfriend to proudly announce he and the boys had blown two million. He dreamed about asking the bartender, “hey can you break a million?” to which the barkeep would answer “sure pal, ten bills of a hundred thou okay?”He looked back at the column totals, the headings and notations and then realized these figures in the local money were shortened by three zeros. They were in thousands. The locals that bought two million really bought two billion. He calculated back into dollars and came up with two hundred twenty thousand. Now it started to make sense. Seemed like not much money though; he thought back to all the marketing studies he’d seen in his old jobs. They went into all sorts of detail about buyer disposal income and market penetration and how to increase it by exposing more people to the product or an enhanced product, how to send direct e-mail marketing and so forth. He wondered how many people actually bought life insurance there. He’d always read about having at least 10 times an annual salary face amount, and at least half of that for accidents. The annual income was twenty two thousand dollars? How much would that buy in Jakarta?Digging back into his reams of data, he couldn’t find reference numbers to match each line to the figures in dollars. If they were all done at the same time, they’d use the same rate, so that would do it. He stopped his girlfriend from what she was doing, which was totaling up a column of figures.“Are you finished with that column?” he asked.She held up her left hand and showed him the palm as if to say wait, as she kept her gaze fixed on the paper in front of her, punching figures into the calculator with her right hand and dropping the ruler down line by line as she finished plugging those numbers in and hitting the addition key.“There” she said, “the total adds up on the summary, “so the base figures in, what’s this money called, the ‘din are’?”“I think it’s ‘dean are’” said Aaron, “must be from a Mexican invasion they had over in, what country are you looking at, Iraq?” “Well, they all add up, and yes” she answered. “What’d you say, a Mexican invasion?” she jokingly asked.“Yeah, must have been that. Remember we went to Mexico and money’s called ‘dinero’?”“Uh huh…”“So the Mexican Army invaded, and introduced them to banking, so it became the ‘dean are’.”“Ha ha, so funny” she retorted. “Okay, now I’m going back to check on the conversions; look at all this stuff; I’ll see what I can match up.”“Cool, thanks a million, you’re really helping. I’m going to run a few errands and I’ll be right back.”“Right back as in about two hours, your usual ‘right back’?” she asked.“Yep” he answered with a smile as he stepped out the door and quickly pulled it closed behind him.* * *Kathryn stood up as the subway started to slow down for its approach to the next station. She grabbed the steel pole and balanced her weight as the train braked to a stop. The doors opened and she stepped out and looked at the ceramic tiles set into the wall which stated “fifty third street” in black, square figures. She followed the few sparse passengers down the platform as the train doors closed and started to pull out; she started up the stairs with the metal edged concrete steps and slowly emerged as the city above ground came into view as she rose from the depths of the tunnels.She enjoyed the city on weekends and especially Sunday afternoon with a lot less people around and no tension in the air. The buildings stood quiet and waiting, as if they were race cars dormant before the next event, their entrances locked and stores closed up for the weekend. Down the sidewalk and right at the next corner took her up to the gourmet coffee bar; she pushed the door and walked in, walking right up to the counter to order her tea.She noticed two of the print editions remaining on the stand of that day’s now not-so-heavy Sunday Edition. She remembered back to when the paper on Sunday was a big deal, back when she was a little girl and had no intention of ever reading it. They’d cut back to printing only two days a week now, and the Saturday edition was much thinner; not much advertising and still as expensive. This Sunday edition now cost more than a cup of this special creamy milk frothy green tea concoction, the reason there were still a few papers that still hadn’t sold, she thought. As she waited for her hot drink, she glanced at the headlines; “Treasury Official To Testify On Payments” and the by-line underneath said “Investigated Transfers To Now Be Explained”.She picked it up and quickly walked over to and sat down in a gray green upholstered chair, eagerly devouring the article which speculated on what questions would be asked during the upcoming questioning.“Green tea lattè, grande” announced the barista as the cup was set down on the service counter to the right of the register and counter. Kathryn continued engrossed in the article, unaware her order was ready. “Green tea; gron DAY!” the barista insisted again, looking around the sparsely populated coffee shop. Kathryn remained somewhat oblivious, her nose now deeper in the article on page two, the top section of the paper spread open on her lap. The barista lifted the hinged part of the counter, came out, picked up the paper cup and corrugated cardboard sleeve and approached Kathryn, who noticed nothing.“You want the paper also?” the server asked.Kathryn remained transfixed, legs crossed and eyes glued to the newsprint.“Ma’am” said the server in a louder voice, “MA’AM!”Kathryn abruptly looked up, noticed she’d forgotten the reason she came in, and stammered “uh…YES, yes thanks, and oh….uh….oh, the newspaper! Yes, I’d like it also” and began digging in her purse for her wallet.“No need to pay now” said the server, pleased to have regained Kathryn’s attention.”You can pay for the paper when you leave, or fold it back up and return it to the stand. Store policy, customer choice.”“Why, thank you” Kathryn answered with surprise, and then asked “people will pay full price for a paper that looks like it’s been read?”“Sure, doesn’t change the story, does it?” the barista joked, “and usually the few that pay for it, want to take it with them. Mostly people read their computers here; where all the news comes and goes anyway nowadays. That’s what I think they’re reading on their screens, the few that come in anymore.”Kathryn recalled stopping in a few times for coffee or tea, since this was close to her apartment, but didn’t recall it as looking very slow at all those couple of times she’d come in.“Few that come in?” she inquired.“Yeah, the store just about breaks even on Sunday, and some weekends not even. Usually only if the weather’s agreeable. I only work weekend afternoons. They tell me they make their money on weekday mornings only and on volume; not much of what you bought gets asked for anymore. Some, sure, but coffee used to be only half the sales, the rest in specialty teas, cakes and nuts, orders like yours. Now coffee is three quarters of it, easy.”“Oh, by the way, did you put in any sugar?” asked Kathryn.“No, we can’t. Zero calorie sweetener and only if you ask. Actually even that you have to add yourself; the new policy is like this because of the sweetener health issue; customers have to decide and add on their own. Otherwise could be adding to the problem, if there even is one.” “Actually, I prefer sugar” Kathryn added, “and my tea, it’s the only thing I put it in. So I don’t worry about it being fattening, since I don’t have very much.”“Well, sugar you can add, too, but that we also avoid doing that because of the sweet drink tax” said the server. “Just like any other sweet drink made that way. You know, childhood obesity and stuff.”Now Kathryn realized why the sugar was always by the counter; for drinks priced like this, she thought it would be basic service to mix it in but they just didn’t and she never asked. Made sense to her now. Just like salt shakers at restaurants, where they all had the warnings on them and also the flash inspection sampling from the city health department to make sure no salt was added during preparation.“Do you ever get inspectors or worse, fines if you add sugar or sweetener?” Kathryn asked.“Nope, but we think we get hidden inspectors. Like, even you could be one” the counter girl joked, “not that I’m saying you are, but if we did it in front of any inspector and the place gets flagged, we’re told we can be canned. Sure fat kids are a problem, but we never get fat kids in here.” “I see” said Kathryn and with that the barista ducked back under the counter to look after the next customer.Kathryn turned back to her newspaper and eagerly continued the article, quickly reaching the end. She was as glad as possible she’d followed the urge to pop into this place, she’d probably have missed the article, which would have disappeared into cyber heaven in two and a half days, like all news usually did, unless it was a celebrity drug and cheating scandal which dominated the news for weeks. She was thrilled to convince Aaron to come see her on Sunday and not have witnesses beyond security see her come and go, and was especially glad she was able to wheel the crate and papers out the front door as if she were taking them herself. He was good with directions and time; was right there on Pine Street near the corner of Nassau behind Federal Hall. Hopefully he’d calm her concern about not understanding this mess of financial consolidation and maybe also give her something good to pass up the line, in case he did run into a pattern she’d never have seen without some huge detailed amount of work and investigation on her part. She felt like she’d danced over a college assignment like she used to, like the ones that had all the step-by-step instructions she glanced at but didn’t really follow. Still she got good grades and wondered if straight A’s were in fact the result of doing textbook assignments as specified.Her green tea done, she fished the money for the paper out of her wallet, folded up the paper, paid and quickly rushed home to study the article for tomorrow’s Monday Morning at CIG.* * *“Aaron, is that you?” called his girlfriend from the bedroom. Silence followed. She was sure she heard him come in. She went back to the spread of frustrating papers on the table, and tried yet again to make sense of the figures, and could not. The historical exchange rate database showed what the rate was on each day of the entire three year period these figures covered. The entries had dates, and the US dollar figures had the same dates, but the US dollar figures didn’t match. She went from country to country, company to company within each and tried several times but couldn’t make the original figures and US dollar equivalents match up at the exchange rate for the dates. In frustration, she pushed it all aside and decided to wait for Aaron to get back to explain just as she heard his key in the door.“Miller speaking,” Kathryn said as she picked up the phone at her desk. The gold desk clock read eight fifteen.“Hey, it’s Aaron” he said over the phone, which she would have known from his voice even if he’d said ‘Tony’s Pizza’. “You always call people this early?” she needled.“Aw, come on” he chirped, “you, not at your desk on Monday morning by eight o’clock? Somebody would call the National Guard if that happened!” he joked back.“What’s up? You do quick work, you only picked up the stuff from me yesterday afternoon; the world’s issues are already solved?” she asked.“I’ve run into a quick roadblock” he explained “and it’s my girlfriend who hit it.”Your girlfriend?” Kathryn asked back curiously.“Yeah, to help her feel more connected to why we moved here, even though it’s law school but now that I’m doing a project for you, well, you know…..”“Yes” said Kathryn understandingly, “go on……”Aaron began with ‘well you know…..’ and then explained step-by-step just what his significant-other-to-be had explained to him after he came home from his pick-up-dry-cleaning-get-beer-and-take-out-Chinese-then-go-to-bookstore-to-read-boating-magazines errand the evening before. “I think we need to meet again on this, if you can get your accounting guy to sit in.”“Sure; you got class today?” asked Kathryn.“One in the afternoon, and I get out at two twenty. That’s it.”“Good” she answered. “Please be here at four o’clock. Can do?” “Can do,” he answered.“Let me give you the formula of what I’m looking for; I didn’t give you one, did I?” she asked.“No.”“Write this down” she said, and waited for him to get a pencil. “Prior period ending minus the total of payments plus new ending figure equals incurred. Those are the headings you should see.”“Got it; see you at four.”Aaron looked at his watch; two nineteen. His professor was just finishing up his discussion on interceding causation and Aaron was missing all of it in anticipation of getting the jump to his car. “So, please review this chapter in its entirety” said the professor, “and I mean in its entirety. To be discussed Q and A on Wednesday; clear?” The professor looked around the class and not a face twitched. “Very well” he said and with that Aaron was out the door and down the steps, trotting to his car. He planned to make it to the city by three twenty; he’d have to get to Penn Station in half an hour and even though the distance was only a little over four and a half miles, he’d probably make it faster on a bike than in his old car, so he was hustling to have time to find cheap street parking and not the super expensive lot. He cruised down South Orange Avenue and hit the lights just right, even as he passed the parkway where traffic usually got thicker and trickier. His mind ran around what he planned to show Kathryn and his driving was on autopilot. He was as intrigued as his ignorance of the entire affair would allow and eager to fill in the gaps, not just for her but for his own knowledge. His girlfriend had spent the morning going over his formula and she had found what they thought might explain the difference, but who knew how this added up; did it get fixed elsewhere or did it disappear? Before he knew it, the train was pulling into the World Trade Center station; his watch now showed three twenty two. “Good enough for government work” he thought to himself, which was who ran this train he was taking, the company where Kathryn worked and what seemed like everything else for more than a few years now.Kathryn would’ve been better off in the automobile business he thought, even though she probably would have preferred almost any other city besides Detroit. She’d probably also want to set up commuter ferries from Windsor he thought, damned be customs and immigration. He knew she’d prefer NOT to drive into downtown Detroit and after the second half of the drive he’s just taken to Penn Station, he could especially appreciate why. Too bad they didn’t need her to do a job in Dearborn but that company had escaped the government grip; not today they wouldn’t have. Investment regulation of automobile manufacturing hadn’t yet been passed so they couldn’t inject debt like they’d done with commercial banks, despite the complaints from lenders who didn’t want it, and as it turned out, really also didn’t need it forced on them. The luxury of a crowd, Aaron supposed, too bad we didn’t have 36 car manufacturers at the time, one of them could get lost in the crowd. Well, we had a few more now, but less cars, a sour memory he recalled from his Honday car loan rejection. Nice car but it was so expensive. They were all expensive now; he guessed that what’s they meant by inflation, prices go up but not your income. It was understandable, the imposed cost of building manufacturing capacity versus importing. It worked for a company that had the reputation to sustain sales and hold on to eventually gain enough market share after they’d built that factory. He remembered the promise of how guarantees from the Export Import Bank would make the financing viable; well yes, made it possible, at astronomic interest rates. The bailout money hadn’t been paid back and there was no other money to inject cheap; the taxpayers would scream what with the new excise tax on supplier and raw material sales. The manufacturers had no choice but to raise prices and the companies already manufacturing stateside raised prices also, but without the cost of a forced investment. Kept jobs in the USA, the whole point of the exercise, but the economic gain from the jobs never matched the size of the investment; never came close. Kathryn would have liked it, Aaron thought, all because she didn’t know about cars and wouldn’t need to, but where she was now, everybody could stick their nose into anything. Worse, nobody could claim inability to “handle the factory”; this place didn’t manufacture cars, it manufactured promises. What was there to fear about an office and lots of paper? That was Washington and that was CIG. So she was at a paper company with no ferry to Ontario and no lifeline anywhere, he was beginning to think.He spread out on the board room table the few sheets he thought best illustrated the problem, including the Indonesian entered companies and also the Iraq operation. Kathryn came into the office, and took an eager seat just to Aaron’s right. She looked over his set-up of papers and said, “so here we have a sneak preview of Aaron Miller, Esquire as he sets up his legal argument in court, do we?”“That’s a hoot” replied Aaron.“Well, you’ve got a case to make, right counselor?” Kathryn joked back.“Sorry I’m not in a suit and tie; shot right over here from class. I actually prefer not to drive that route wearing a suit; I could have taken off the jacket and tie and put ‘em on later, but without a mirror, I feel inept doing it.” Kathryn remembered Aaron as a five year old going off to school, and recalled now, with understanding, how superior a position she had then to be a multiple of his age. There’s not much difference between siblings fifty and a forty three years old but when the younger one is five, the older one twelve, that’s an eternity when you’re a kid. She understood the gender difference now also; she remembered feeling motherly watching him come out of the house all smartly dressed, his shirt buttoned up to the neck the way he liked it, his bright eyes, the tight black nappy hair all the more obvious because of the sharp crease of the part cut in to it. He worried about his appearance more than the typical kid seemed to at his young age, not excessively so, but she remembered it and so now understood why he’d prefer a mirror to put on his tie and his image.“What I’ve found is an answer and I think a deeper question to be answered after this one,” he said. “You understand this is the bulk of our payments, our principal cost here, the reason I’m so into this issue?” answered Kathryn.“Yep, I do” said Aaron, “and that’s what I can’t figure out.”“Shoot” she said.Aaron began; “I’ve looked at the preparation of the financial statements in dollars and the formula you gave me makes perfect sense and the dollar figures all work out. I plug the figures in and come up with consistency all the way through. I looked at original figures in local currency and then plugged those figures into the formula to calculate net claims incurred, all in the local currencies. It all works out there, too. ““Good, go on” said Kathryn.“I then looked up the exchange rates and did some calculating; at first I couldn’t make sense of it. I used the exchange rate for the date of the transaction entry up here in New York and got dollar figures that matched what was being used. This is key to understanding what I ran into; the figures locally were converted about a week after the end of the quarter, and used the exchange rate at the end of that quarter.When I started looking at the exchange rates I noticed some interesting things happening. The opening figure for the quarter, October 1st for the fourth quarter of any year, was converted using the exchange rate for a few days after the end of the quarter, in other words, about January 10th. The local currency dropped during that quarter. In some cases the local currency dropped as much as three or four percent, where there was annual inflation locally.”“How much,” inquired Kathryn, “in one year?”“In one case”, said Aaron, “they had about one and a half percent inflation per month. Banks were charging higher interest rates than that, and then there was intentional devaluation of the currency which ran ahead of the inflation, to make local goods competitive in dollars and keep exports up. They printed money pretty regularly but the inflation itself kept up with the growth of the money supply, so in that case it ended up, remembering compounding, being four and a half percent per quarter and almost twenty percent per year.”“You remember the FASB 52 rule?” Kathryn asked.“Yes.”“How does it apply?”“It applies just like it does to everything that requires foreign currency translation.”“Is it used properly and consistently here?” she asked.“Yes, but it doesn’t matter.”“Why not?” “The standard isn’t written for insurance; it doesn’t take into account the formula.”“So what happens?”“The ending figure was worth one thousand dollars at that time, three months ago. It’s the beginning figure for this period, starting three months ago. Except that one thousand is not worth one thousand at the end, it’s worth about four and a half percent less; nine fifty five. They do the calculation in local currency, fine. Nobody ever sees the local financial statement except the company guys there; stock analysts see the dollar profit and loss statement and the dollar balance sheet. Profit is shown in dollars; dividends, dollars, yada yada. They do the calculation at year end and use nine fifty five; the same figure was a thousand three months ago; the difference, forty five, disappears.”Kathryn could not believe what she’d just heard. She looked at Aaron, who looked back honestly and eagerly. The figures were being shown as far off as four and half percent? This was scary; she’d been through enough detailed operating reports on the bazillions of overseas operations this company has to know that four or five percent of tens of billions was a huge amount.“It disappears at the end though, doesn’t it?“What do you mean?” he asked.“The difference disappears at the end of the year?”“Why would it?” he asked.“Because they do the calculation for each quarter, using the quarterly figures. For the year, they start with the beginning of the year, during the entire year and year end, right?” Kathryn thought about her accounting studies and stretched her mind back into the detail of her early financial accounting courses; how did they teach yearend financial statements? She couldn’t remember exactly.“No” answered Aaron, “they just add up the four quarters. So if there’s a difference for the first quarter, and again for the second, the third and fourth, they all go up in smoke.”Kathryn looked at him and said nothing. She tried to act cool but knew her brother would see through her emotional mask; others didn’t but he would.“How much difference?” she blurted out.“For this operation,” he said, pulling the summary sheet of the operation he was discussing, “it looks like the total claims were understated by about eighteen percent for the last year.” “What’s that mean in US dollars?”“About five and a half million,” he answered, right to the point.What’s the overall effect, every year, for the last accounting year?”“That” he said, taking a breath and looking up seriously, “is going to take some time; I’ll have to go through every one of these countries and see how to write a brief spreadsheet macro to do the calculation. Could take two weeks.”“Okay” she said her voice trailing off, “get to work.”“You look worried” he said, and with that she knew he’d seen her concern but like always she was ready.“Look at this headline” she said, yanking out the front few pages from the coffee bar newspaper she’d bought the afternoon before. She fibbed and said she’d worried about it all night and didn’t get a lot of sleep. Worried she was a little but she’d slept fine.“What does this have to do with you?” Aaron inquired.“Nothing, yet,” she shot back.“What do you mean, ‘yet’?” he asked with a sarcastic tone.“When the higher ups see the results of this, I’ll be involved.“Oh shit” said Aaron, “bad, huh?”“Not necessarily, could be good even, for me anyway. Bad for other people, but I could come out looking good. Discovering where a septic tank’s broken ain’t pleasant but for the plumber, it’s a business booster, right?”“So” he grinned, “you want me to put on my plumber suit, get out my plumbing tools and get to work?”“Bingo” she answered.- 14 -Persiflage“Under the authority of the Speaker of the House and as ratified by the President, this committee does now convene this hearing, of and about the matter of Consolidated Indemnity Group, the holding company for and in pursuit of the interests of its subsidiaries, as set forth in the subpoena documents issued” declared the announcer. Mr. John Marcus, Kathryn Miller and William C. Krementz, of the Department of the Treasury, all shifted in their chairs. They sat in the pew immediately behind the wooden divider that separated the general public from the witness and guest tables, open floor area and the platform against the opposite side of the large room. On top of the platform was a long table with microphones where the House members would be seated during these hearings.Krementz knew for some time these hearings were coming but not when. He’d been with the Department of the Treasury for only a short time but it felt to him as if he had been there his entire working life. He’d watched the political developments that led to the appointment of the current Treasury Secretary without the slightest notion he’d fall into the mix at some point; he was pure observer as he consumed the news of it. If approached and told he’d be in the Treasury department and in a role with influence significant enough to be called to these hearings, the person telling him would certainly have to be mad, utterly mad to think such a possibility had even the most remote chance at reality. Welcome to madness.His tough, career launching achievement, the one that might have broken the career of many a young lawyer, came after a short five years or so on the job at O’Mahony & Sullivan in St. Louis. He was assigned to pursue a case against an auto insurer doing business in Missouri, whose obscure management offices were located in Hutchinson, Kansas. The state legislature mandated liability coverage for all commercial fleets. Few insurance companies were willing to do it for taxi fleets; they couldn’t ever charge enough to make a profit. One of them did, and used its out-of-state status to its nefarious advantage. It used to be that insurance was regulated state-by-state but in an effort to lower health insurance premiums by allowing competition, the limitation was lifted. The states objected but the change was imposed nonetheless. Since the restriction was lifted for health insurance, it had to be lifted for all insurance; state oversight, as a result, became advisory and in effect lost its teeth. The federal “oversight” was the only real vigilance and it let problems get out of hand; it looked at financial statements. Krementz was called in to be lead counsel on a case the law firm expected to flame out but for the fees to be earned; he’d personally get any bad publicity; the firm would see to it. The client was a consumer advocate group, one that would surely make every development of the case as newsworthy as possible. The taxi insurance business was profitable for the Hutchinson, Kansas insurer because they’d deny claims with the argument they could not contact their own policyholder and get both sides of the story. Since most cars weren’t worth even the legal fees a good law firm would need to earn to take cases like this, very few people sued. The insurance company only stepped up where there were injuries; if it were just bent automobiles, they denied liability almost all the time. The insurance regulators wouldn’t touch it; they knew the denials were bogus but since it was the legislature that mandated the coverage, any insurer providing this coverage could almost commit assault and get away with it; the insurance department would never enforce anything and risk the wrath of those elected officials.Krementz hired high school kids to visit as many auto body repair shops as possible to find out where the crooked insurance company had been involved; he’d never get their complete claims records just by asking and he’d never get other insurance companies to cooperate, either. One of the high schoolers found a car that’d been totaled by a taxi but the owner of the car had pictures that were taken less than a minute after the crash. The taxi had lost control at a corner after a heavy rain, spun and jumped the curb, sliding across ten yards of grass, knocking down a fence and going into a lot, hitting a parked car. The pictures were taken by an approaching motorist who saw the whole thing and stopped. Crooked Insurance, not yet knowing about the photos, used their standard approach, assuming the car owner was likely to have their own collision coverage. The vehicle was eight years old and in very good condition otherwise. Once Krementz made contact with the owner he discovered indeed the owner had recovered from his own policy; the amount involved wasn’t enough make that insurance company go after Crooked. Once Krementz dug into the case, he convinced the court to honor his demand for access to records on behalf of the class action the consumer group advocated. He became a star because of the case, and later a wealthy one. He thereafter enjoyed quite a career and when asked to join, he saw his work at Treasury as being noble; his public service and method of giving back to society in a small way. Sent to testify before a hearing because of his legal experience, he wondered where all that idealism had gone, the idealism of this job that held such attraction and goodwill such a short time ago. The feelings and emotions of being at Treasury his entire career despite a short tenure remained strong, apart from this assignment. His background study into the issue was extensive and yet he came to the hearing not knowing what to say; he knew the facts but what was the story supposed to be? What would they ask? How would he reply? Kathryn Miller shifted in her chair, straightened her skirt and suit jacket and thanked her lucky stars she didn’t come here to testify about loss and claim accounting. John Marcus’ attendance was mandated by the higher ups and Kathryn was glad for it, she took it as a sign he was associated with the government management of the company and not linked with her, as only she and he knew that he was to a certain extent.The committee members filed in, Representatives from the House in Congress all named to the committee from the list provided by the White House to the Majority Leader who acted as the conduit for the information. It was expected these committee members would take an almost prosecutorial approach. The committee as the mouthpiece for the Speaker had “invited” the Treasury Secretary after choosing to hold back from issuing a subpoena, as they understood this was being done purely for political appearances. They settled for these three people, one treasury audit executive seconded to the compliance job, a company accountant and an attorney who had joined Treasury at the request of the Secretary. The committee chair lamented the situation, insisting from the outset on the Secretary himself but later bowing to arguments that such a person didn’t and shouldn’t descend to this level of detail. Always the politician, he had sought to grill the Secretary and use the time honored expectation of a chief executive’s all-knowing persona against him. Now, it looked like this affair had been reduced to simple fact hearings. Undaunted, he remained determined to squeeze as much political juice from all of it as possible. The announcer mediator explained the procedure and asked all camerapersons and reporters to remain silent throughout. There were no women behind a camera. The announcer was male. He introduced the committee members and yielded the floor to the committee chairperson, who also was male. There were women on the committee. The chair spoke.“I want to thank you all for coming today” he began, with a natural ease of authority developed through decades of campaigning, debating and every type of public appearance connected to political office. “This committee is looking for answers and we’re confident this session will take us all a long way towards that goal; we are looking to protect taxpayer interests and as all of us know, the support the taxpayers have given this company is substantial and as we shall soon see, worrisome in both amount and nature.”Reporters in the press section typed silently and furiously as the chairman spoke. The three panelists, as Krementz, Miller and Marcus were referred to in the program, sat stoically and listened. Miller and Marcus stayed ready with notes and files to read to the committee the history of transactions, all made as obligations of business put on the books long before the “taxpayer interest” took place. Krementz sat and contemplated the direction the questions would take; what answers would he give and what road he’d follow as he answered the committee. Did he really wish to remain in this spot at the Treasury Department or was this his calling, his purpose for being here and once finished, would he move on? Would they congratulate him or ask him to leave or would he resign, either way, mission accomplished? “Mr. Krementz” began the chairperson, “you have been an official with the Treasury Dept since the beginning of the current administration?”“Yes sir” Krementz replied.“In your role, you have been involved in oversight of taxpayer interest by way of audit committee, correct?”“Yes sir” said Krementz again, recognizing the oldest technique ever, to never ask a question without knowing the answer.“You are here with two officials from CIG?”“Yes, that’s correct.”“Very well, let me move straight to the issue” the chair said, shocking the audience into gasps with the abruptness of his statement. “CIG effected payments of tens of billions to foreign banks, utilizing taxpayer money.”“No” contradicted Krementz, “it used its own funds. No checks were issued by the US Treasury that I’ve been able to determine.”“You should know what I mean,” parried the Chair, “funds put in by taxpayers.”“Shares sold to the US Treasury, specifically non-voting preferred shares?” inquired Krementz.“Yes, and please don’t play with semantics, the money put in to prevent a collapse of the company and the wider economy as a whole.”Krementz smiled to himself; the edge wasn’t lost. He’d managed to get his adversary to answer one of his questions and to switch roles, putting himself in the upper position after only a short exchange. He responded, “Yes, the proceeds from the sale of stock to the Treasury helped facilitate payments under guarantees sold to now previous customers of the company.”“Without that money” countered the Chair, “the company would have collapsed.”“It would have faced a choice to liquidate other assets to pay, pay less than full value or not pay at all. It’s true it might have become insolvent at some point, but it also had the option to delay. The counterparties making claims had no choice but to wait. Fortunately for them, they didn’t have to. They were paid nearly as quickly as if they’d been only one of two or three claimants.”“The company’s reputation would have been so badly tarnished, it would have lost all business and collapsed for that alone, don’t you agree?”“Yes, I agree capitalism is an excellent self correcting mechanism, similar to dangerously risky motorcycle riding; it’s an inherently self correcting process.”“That’s not exactly what I asked.”“Allow me to expand, Mr. Chairperson” Krementz offered. “The types of business the company insured were diverse. The obligations that threatened to bring it down were centered around a narrow band of bonds which defaulted. The guarantees in total overwhelmed the ability to pay; most of the company’s business was done by regulated subsidiaries. Those subsidiaries were not obligated, the collapse of their owner didn’t mean they’d be killed off. More likely they’d have been sold.”“How can you say that?”“History and experience, it’s what’s happened with other companies. It was just larger here.”“You mean to imply the collapse of the economy was not imminent?”“I’m not implying anything, sir; I’m saying the vast amount of business done by the firm was done by subsidiaries. These entities are owned by and thus controlled by the parent company. Certainly they could use assets to help the parent pay obligations but it would require approval by regulators, at least at that time. Now those regulators have been pushed aside by sweeping federal legislation that removed state oversight. You sir are in a position to help choose who those federal regulators might be and certainly to write the laws they would enforce. At the time, that was not the case. If a subsidiary company wanted to give money to a parent – pay a dividend – that would have required approval by the state insurance commissioner in the state of domicile of the subsidiary. That wasn’t done; instead, preferred shares were sold to Treasury.”“Well, the collapse would have been devastating and had to be avoided, don’t you agree?”“I don’t know enough to say with certainty, but I don’t believe so.”“Please repeat yourself, for the record and this committee’s understanding of exactly what you’re saying.”“Certainly” answered Krementz, “I am saying I don’t know with certainty if a wider spread economic collapse would have occurred but I don’t think it would have happened.”The room stared dumbstruck at Krementz. Marcus looked stony faced and stared down at his notepad. Kathryn Miller looked worried with eyes open like beacons, her mouth closed tight, lips stretched thin with tension.“What would have happened, had we let the company bump along?” the Chair asked in a terse, sarcastic tone.Krementz remained resolutely calm, staring straight at the committee members who remained motionless and silent on either side of the Chair.“The price of its stock would have dropped to, at its highest, total book values of subsidiaries. More than likely it would have then ridden the roller coaster up and down, as fear drove sales and buyers bet on a liquidation that might recoup greater value than the fear price, that is, the price driven by fear and not pragmatism.”“How is it possible to speak of pragmatism at a time of epic economic collapse of a company and the risk of sinking the entire economy?”“It’s not only possible, Mr. Chair, it’s necessary; in fact, it’s the only prudent route, as I see it. I disagree, respectfully, with the assertion that this represented the US economy near an epic collapse. I suspect your office has swallowed voluminous press material loaded with similar commentary and in that light, I see it as quite likely such conclusion could be reached. I however disagree it was likely at all. More probable than not is that what business couldn’t abandon CIG for greener-backed pastures would have been sold off as ordered by certain states’ commissioners. It’s possible such sell-off would already be initiated by competitors, who would seek to buy books of business and not the entire company.”“Buying books of business?” asked the Chair.“Assuming the obligations; stepping into the place of a CIG subsidiary and taking over; essentially de-boning the company.”“Who would prefer that?”“The policyholders, whose protection would go up in smoke otherwise. It’s the insurance commissioner’s job to protect policyholder interests as a priority.”“What about the effect across the economy?”“I don’t see how it would happen; the stockholders would take a hit, for sure. Stockholders have always taken a hit when a company collapses, and it’s happened many times before without causing permanent damage. Why now?”The Chair sat quietly and stared at Krementz, who looked back calmly. Kathryn allowed her eye sockets to return to normal, Marcus remained buried in his notepad.The Chair then spoke; “What if the obligations had gone unpaid; what if the guarantees were not honored? What would that do to business confidence?” he insisted.“Not much, if anything” Krementz answered right back, shocking the crowd anew. Kathryn could only imagine computer screens and television sets across the world watching this broadcast live, and wondered what her brother was thinking if he were also watching. If not in class, he probably was, since he knew she’d be here. Her parents were something she preferred not to even contemplate.“ ‘Not much’ you say?” stammered the Chair as he leaned forward, blinking into the microphone. “Please elaborate, may I insist?”“No insistence needed, happy to do so. Banks issued mortgages, bunched them up and sold bonds backed by the mortgages. When the mortgages defaulted, the bond interest couldn’t be paid, the value of the bond collapsed. The buyer of the bond bought it because it came with insurance. The insurance paid so the buyer of the bond came out in one piece. The market for this investment is gone. The market for this investment would have disappeared anyway. The mortgages defaulted because the prices of the houses were too high because it was too easy to get the money for a mortgage and the banks only made the mortgages in the first place for the fees and then they sold them off wrapped up in these bonds. The buyers of the bonds - the foreign banks that got paid billions – took bets on the US housing market. They should have been allowed to get hurt; speculation is held in check by speculators that get burned. In this case, the market for the credit default swaps, as these funny guarantees were called, made a bunch of people money until they had to perform. What’s amazing is that CIG didn’t track its accumulations.”“So in your infinite wisdom” asked the Chair to Krementz as the crowd winced at this biting sarcasm, “the company should not have been saved?”“My wisdom is simplistic, not infinite, and no, it should not have been propped up.”“You’re sure of this?”“Yes. I’ve never read a detailed analysis in any business publication that walks through the steps of a widespread, general economic collapse and outlines it in as much detail as necessary; where, who and why a collapse would have occurred. It would have been more like a bump.”“What should have been done?”“Nothing, essentially.”“And the foreign banks who received billions? Our reputation abroad?”“They made bad bets on the US housing market; they didn’t look. They wouldn’t have made the bets without a guarantee. As to reputation, they are thrilled the US government saw fit to take taxpayer money and prop up their business decision, a bad one as it turns out. Every casino winner bet too little and every loser bet too much. Wouldn’t we all love to lose a month’s pay in a casino and have someone wait at the door to top us back up?”“What do you mean to say, they did not look?” asked the Chair, curiously now, his tone of sarcasm and indignation fading.“Many banks and financial groups stood on the sidelines and avoided participating in these financial instruments. Did they stand aside because of ignorance or prudence? This committee could also invite those executives in to express themselves, but I will venture to say they’d simply say they believed the market to be limited and their entry would have driven prices down, and they preferred to stay out of a market in which they had little experience.”“You’re sure of that?”“Mr. Chairman” Krementz replied, “my profession as lawyer requires communications with clients be kept confidential and over a long career representing many large litigants, I generally found executive staff to be savvy, well informed and much more knowledgeable about an issue than would be stated publicly.“You know CIG continues to lose money, do you?” “Yes, it’s common knowledge.”“What do you propose be done about that?”“I respectfully decline to comment; I have little strategic knowledge in my oversight role and could only offer a broad suggestion which would be picked apart as missing facts and details.”“Let’s hear the broad suggestion, shall we?” said the Chair as he looked smiling around him at his fellow committee members, searching for dissenting facial expressions; none were forthcoming.“The money spent by taxpayers to pay off counterparties on the credit guarantees is likely to never be recovered. The best of unfavorable scenarios is for the company to be allowed to operate independently and for profit. Top executives will be allowed to be remunerated at what the market will bear. Profits will be paid to shareholders and the Treasury will be but another passive shareholder. Maybe the huge debt could be paid off in two or three decades, by which time all of us will have moved on with certainty and many of us up to Heaven. The company can’t continue to retain business simply because it’s materially cheaper and be expected to make money. Moreover, it will never be agile if at any given moment the Department of Treasury or Congress – such as is being done today – steps in to issue management directives and then steps back expecting results.”“Why?” asked the Chair, his head resting on his hand, his body language indicating acceptance of Krementz’ position. “The market is competitive, return on equity runs at only several percent, maybe five in a good year and sometimes less than two percent in a tough one. Big profits attract competition and that means prices get cut, like any business. If the company again achieves historical rates of return, generally a good deal better than the industry, it will be the result of agile and aggressive strategy, executed by top performers, who look for top pay. The policy of limiting salaries drives away the very talent required to do this.”Marcus now looked up and actively watched the interchange and Miller nervously wondered what would happen to Krementz after he stripped naked the short term political agenda that had been pursued. She wondered where she’d end up. “Thank you” said the Chair, and then asked “are there any further questions from the committee and also for the other two company people called here today?”The Chair’s committee colleagues gave no sign of a taker; the large group of reporters closed up their electronics, ready to fly out of the room. Krementz, Miller and Marcus sat patiently.“Then this committee hearing is adjourned and we wish to thank all present for their time and comments” said the Chair and with that the crowd began to flow out in a hurry.- 15 -Cephalization “Few Representatives in the House become Senators, and when does any Representative make a serious run at the White House? Earlier today we saw why.”“Yes sir.”“He went into the hearing with impressions, and didn’t bother to obtain too many facts in support of those impressions. He also let his target get away, and took the pinch hitters. He forgot that pinch hitter doesn’t just mean substitute.”“Yes sir.”“The Press Secretary’s staff will certainly be busy, maybe they can go give that committee chair some help with the press, what do you think?”“No sir, I don’t believe any Congressional aides will be sent to assist.”“Me, either.”“Are we ready to begin, sir?”“Yes, I’m just waiting for one more person to join us; a Marcus chap.”“Marcus?”“Yes, John Marcus, works at the financial reconciliation department in Consolidated Indemnity, was at that hearing.”“One of the panelists?”“Yep, to the left of Krementz from Treasury, on the other side of the brown haired broad between them.”“Since he was here in town for the hearing, you’ve asked him here?”“Other way around.”“Pardon me, sir?”“The press will follow him to the hotel, in fact they probably already did. Then he leaves the hotel for the train station, then boards at the ‘quiet car’ where reporters know they’ll get kicked off the train if they approach him. All Marcus does is wait until 5 minutes before departure, gets back off the train down at the end close to the locomotive, and the service brings him here. He doesn’t need a ticket to board, he’s already got one for the later train, just as the ticket was arranged for him to be in the quiet car at the front of the train. During the trip, any press jerks waiting for the first train to arrive in Newark or New York to ambush him will assume he got off in Baltimore or Philly; soon they forget about him.”“So Marcus’ presence at the hearing attracts attention because…….?”“The press thinks it’s the reason he’s here in DC.”“They won’t recognize him getting off the train right before departure?”“Service has got that all figured out; nope, nobody will. Pretty slick, huh? They figure my stuff out pretty well, I can say that for sure, so when say they’ll do this, I can’t find a reason to doubt them.”“Yes sir.”“That reminds me, before Marcus gets here, I want to tell you how I appreciate your presentation and all the work that was done, so please let me take this opportunity to do so; thank you very much for the investigation and presentation you prepared from it.”“You’re quite welcome.”“You recall our discussion on it from several weeks ago?”“Yes sir.”“One question; I reviewed your presentation and I’m clear on everything but one final point; let’s see if I’ve got that detail exactly right; the plan is to have CIG buy treasury securities and pay with preferred shares?”“No, not exactly. The shares are now held by the Federal Reserve, specifically the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, in the new 7/8 district, one of the eleven districts across the country. Unfortunately, you may remember too well the scandal that effectively closed down the Chicago district, the former Congressman’s involvement and the rest of it; with all due respect, I don’t wish to bring up old allegations or give the impression I believed any of them, they were never proven. I don’t know about the former Rep. I only mention it as the cause behind the consolidation.”“Worry not, no impression was taken. The Chief of Staff is history anyway. Go on.” “The shares were moved to St. Louis, with the elimination of the twelfth district, at least on paper. A convenient, temporary distraction as it turns out. The Department of the Treasury sells bonds at periodic auctions; they announce the date, hold the auction and then settlement takes place a few days later. The preferred shares of CIG will be used to pay for treasury bonds, notes and bills. This will take the shares out of the Federal Reserve Bank and put them into the Treasury. The bonds are negotiable; the Federal Reserve can sell them in secondary markets. Or do whatever they’d like, but selling is the likely route we’ll take.”“The shares?”“They stay with Treasury, mixed in with a number of assets. Effectively, they get lost. The Treasury isn’t the Federal Reserve…it collects taxes and it spends.”“Good, and this prepares us for the next phase.”“Yes it does, quite well.”* * *Aaron Miller had been burning a box of candles at both ends for a few weeks now and he was beginning to feel it, but it all seemed worth the effort. The consulting fees were nothing to sneeze at, something his girlfriend did not mind; what he was earning looked like it would cover tuition and all expenses for an entire year at law school, and that made his girlfriend happy. He also felt quite a sense of elation at seeing his big sister pleased with his work. He always wanted to please her and remembered his friends telling stories of how they looked up to or feared or just got in the way of their older brothers and sisters, but his case was a little different. He admired her poise and confidence; how she always seemed sure of herself to him. He’d read stories of adopted brothers and sisters and whether it had any effect, and were the siblings different because of it. He was sure there was none in his case, she was always his big sister; she was there since he could remember. The memory of other kids asking him why she looked different from him and his parents never faded and he never totally understood it then, it always sounded like somebody asking him why the leaves on one tree looked different from the leaves on the other tree right next to it. Yeah they did; so what? Adoption was a word for “other” people and since he could remember learning to read, remembered always being confused about the need to say it. He was satisfied his parents did not and could never know who gave him up. He also knew he wouldn’t be able to convince her if she could even be found. Kathryn never cared either, and said so. Nobody else really cared, his parents didn’t care and he and Kathryn never cared. So why did anyone? It reminded him of watching grownups pick up an ear of corn, pull it open and then put it back, like they were surprised to find kernels inside! Well, people must have cared because they asked, and he was proud to announce to everyone that his storks got switched, to which everybody would ask if he meant Kathryn’s storks and he said, yeah, hers too but he wasn’t sure about it, since she came before him. He didn’t understand the smiles and chuckles when he first said it, but his father told him to say it, so he did. He also remembered Mom objecting; but Aaron still said it anyway. Once old enough to understand, he was happy to have this to say, it still had good effect. He remembered the Junior High School music assembly where they brought in the kindergarten up to fourth grade students and the teacher asked a first grader in the front row where his Daddy was working. The six year old proudly announced “My Daddy’s working on the railroad!” The teacher turned red and the entire first and second rows of the band including Aaron busted out laughing. The first grader was so happy with everybody’s reaction even though he didn’t understand what he’d said. Too bad that kid would grow older, lose his innocence and the expression would lose its effect. But not for Aaron and Kathryn, they could always tell about the switched storks and get smiles. He wondered as a kid why the question never was asked when it was just him and one or both of his parents. The question only got asked when Kathryn came along. He grew older and then understood. People drew lines in their minds, automatically, without thinking much. He couldn’t draw those lines even if he tried. That explained a lot to him.So Aaron was happy Kathryn was coming to see him, she offered to take the train out and he was more than happy to meet her at the station; not much parking there usually but always plenty on the weekends. He got there early and she was right on time, and she mentioned her disappointment to pass a station called “Brick Church” but there wasn’t any steeple to be seen, certainly not that she could see. Aaron said he didn’t know, all he remembered was an appliance dealer by that name, so they must have had their main store there. The faded, painted advertisements still showed on the sides of some buildings, she said she’d have a look on the way back. Aaron offered to drive her instead, he’d thought maybe they could go out for dinner and he’d drive her straight home afterwards, there wouldn’t be much traffic. Kathryn happily said okay.“Hi Kathryn” said Aaron’s girlfriend as Aaron and Kathryn walked in the door. “Sorry I didn’t go over to the station to meet you, I spotted something at the last minute and wanted to look at it before the thought slipped away”“Oh, don’t worry” said Kathryn, “did you find what it was?”“No, unfortunately, but I’m going to keep looking. In fact, I’ll show you what I thought it was as I explain our conclusions.”“Great” Kathryn answered. “Aaron?”Aaron had gone to the bathroom and not said so, so his girlfriend offered to put some water on to make tea. Kathryn looked at his girlfriend’s long, straight blond hair; it was as different looking from hers as hers was from Aaron’s. Did she draw lines, too? She’d wondered at times if the looks she got with Aaron might have meant some people didn’t recognize them as brother and sister but something else. Aaron was a sharp cookie; did he notice? She’d never ask him, and was sure Aaron would never ask her. Did his girlfriend think she’d be uncomfortable at the general reaction to Aaron giving her a hug and a smile at the station? Another kryptonite question.“Okay there,” said Aaron eagerly as he emerged from the short hallway into the living dining area. “are we ready to get to this?”“Yes, absolutely” answered Kathryn “I didn’t ride the train here just to go out to dinner” and as Kathryn said these words, it flashed through her mind that Aaron’s girlfriend, through unspoken social compact, would have to be coming along to dinner before the ride back into Manhattan. Maybe the idea of lines being drawn was all in her own head, was she unfairly prejudging Aaron’s choice? After all, if the girl didn’t understand, would Aaron have invited her to move in with him? Did she now doubt his judgment that she’d always held in high regard? Maybe CIG was indeed having the expected paranoid effect on her also. The almost constant stream of professional, short and perfunctory answers to every inquiry she made, every question she asked, all of which had started from the very beginning of her assignment were wearing thin. Every other job before this had offered up challenges, to be sure, but also there was a teamwork component. Here it was a survival test at times, and she often let her mind drift back towards those goals and the esprit de corps she felt existed at previous jobs and team assignments. She’d heard a political commentator on television mention some time ago what the effect would be of sustained ten plus percent unemployment; it would mean that over a multi-year period more than one third of the people in the workforce would lose a job. This would mean everybody employed would have a close relative and also one well known friend fired for economic reasons. The effect would be a social scar on the greater society for many years to follow. How many people would doubt themselves and believe deep down they had done something wrong? Overanalyze everything they did or didn’t do before being canned? Would the decision makers take the time to explain it was only income and expenses? If they did, would employees then sue for wrongful termination because some knew the financial condition of the company did not support that argument, since the decision was made to avoid a bad financial situation, not because the employer was already in it? So did employers – the big cheese decision makers, not the human resource messengers – avoid the subject for this reason? Kathryn wondered how much of this was affecting the CIG staff she dealt with day to day. It suddenly occurred to her that most employees saw her as the corporate grim reaper in a business suit, her scythe disguised as a slick, expensive black leather briefcase. Aaron began; “Well big sis, there are one hundred twenty six different countries involved outside of the USA with different currencies; two overseas operations use the dollar, Ecuador and Panama, so those have no effect. Even if they did, it wouldn’t be material since the amounts involved are one quarter of one percent of the totals.We took the last eleven years quarter by quarter, in other words a total of forty four three-month periods by one hundred sixty seven operations; some countries have more than one company. That’s claim information for seven thousand three hundred and forty eight individual quarters.”“How long did this take?” asked Kathryn.“Weeks” said Aaron and his girlfriend together, in what seemed like rehearsed unison.“You still passing law school?” Kathryn joked.“Due to this fine lady!” exclaimed Aaron.“Bottom line?”“We believe profits were understated by a cumulative total of thirty eight point four six percent,” answered Aaron, “starting with the first year as a baseline. It’s been understated since the US dollar appreciated against the majority of world currencies, and that’s been happening for a lot longer than 11 years.”Kathryn stammered, “How much? Repeat that figure.”“Thirty eight point four six” answered Aaron’s girlfriend, “some years it was higher than one eleventh, obviously. This wasn’t a steady drop. For a few years, some other currencies appreciated against the dollar, mostly the euro before it was broken into Neuros and Seuros, the northern euros and southern euros, remember?”“It goes back how far?” Kathryn asked.“That we don’t know exactly. We do know the trend of exchange rates and we can extrapolate, but without the voluminous source figures we used here, we couldn’t calculate it with certainty. But we could estimate it, and it would be even worse I think.”“How did this happen?”“They used two exchange rates on the same figure, that’s how.”“They what?”“The first quarter starts with an outstanding balance, has activity and then has a closing balance. The accounting system converts to dollars using the exchange rate for the end of the first quarter, March 31st. That ending amount - in foreign currency - becomes the start for the second quarter. At the end of the second quarter they converted using the exchange rate in effect at the end of the second quarter, June 30th, converting the same figure twice, using different exchange rates. Where the value of foreign currency decreased in dollars, and it usually did, the total claims were under reported in dollars.” “How come this didn’t get caught be the auditors?” Kathryn asked.“I’m not an auditor, sis, so I can only assume, but I don’t think there was anything for the auditors to catch. The books get audited locally – in each country – and the preparation methods of financial statements that are followed in each country are not examined here. The financial statement preparation that’s done here, with converted figures gets audited here, but the conversion doesn’t get examined like this, like what we did here. The auditors look at the books for the year for which they’re doing the audit. The exchange rates go up and down over the year being examined, so it looks like compliance with the accounting standard. The accounting standard is written for converting foreign currency amounts in general, not just for commercial insurance. They don’t write one standard for heavy equipment, one for banks and so forth.”Kathryn’s college days and studying the Federal Accounting Standards Board’s many rules came back to her now. Aaron was onto something, and maybe through his innocence of accounting details, he did see the woods for the trees.“Have you done a summary yet?” she asked.“Yes, in rough draft form” answered Aaron’s girlfriend.“When will it be done and typed?”“Two days, maybe three.”“Great” replied Kathryn, “include your final invoice and expenses with it, including the cost to FedEx all source materials back to me.”“OK.”“Aaron!” she barked, “let’s skip dinner, can you please run me back to the city?”“Sh…sh….sure, if you want” Aaron stammered in surprise…”right now?” Aaron shot a quick glance at his girlfriend to whom Kathryn had turned her back for a moment. His girlfriend silently opened both eyes wide.“Yes, I’ve got to get to work on this…the implications are not small.”“OK, let’s go.”In what seemed like flash the car had flown into the sound chamber also known as the Holland Tunnel, the sound of tires and rushing air reflected back off the faded wall tiles, made to look more yellowed by the lights installed in the tunnel. Kathryn sat silently in the passenger seat, ears plugged by headphones listening to what Aaron assumed was music. Aaron’s girlfriend had wanted to go to dinner and had even made reservations where they expected to run into a crowd and a long wait for a table. The ride was pleasant in the new car his girlfriend had bought with her final pay package after resigning to move east with Aaron. Kathryn seemed to like it; she had her headphones plugged into the sound system and even though Aaron had seen her do this many times, he now wondered if this wasn’t just typical Kathryn who would withdraw into a mental shell when faced with a challenge. He remembered seeing it when they were kids, when he couldn’t help his tears at her getting a yelling, where she’d just clam up and travel away into her mind. Her face looked content but serious, but that also was typical and didn’t say much. Oh well.“Does Aaron really worry about me or does his sister trump everything?” his girlfriend thought to herself as she pushed the redial button to call and cancel dinner reservations. Yes, the work he was doing paid well but it was coming to an end, but it was a windfall, not what they’d expected at all and Aaron had been keeping up at school, reasonably so. He could catch up, she was sure. It was early on in law school, she hoped this wouldn’t happen again. In a way, glad it was over. She understood from a technical point-of-view how Kathryn’s ability to dominate his attention bothered her, but that was just like understanding a broken bone; it still hurt and took time to heal. She recognized in herself the female reaction to another one’s influence over her man, even though it was his sister, and really, what was she supposed to do, make the sister go away? Still she didn’t like it and maybe now there’d be less of it. Aaron had mentioned how she’d set her own work schedule, she remembered, and that any semblance of a nine to five Monday through Friday existence was for others; he wasn’t kidding was he? Well, now there was a summary of her findings to finish and she had to be realistic; he’d be back home soon and spending the evening alone with her, not that she minded Kathryn’s visit, since it was her house and her control somewhat. Sending them in her car gave a sense of satisfaction and perverse remote control?* * *The telephone beeped and the light illuminated. “Excuse me, sir” said the visitor as he slid over on the sofa, pulling his computer power cable out of his host’s way, who stepped over it and went to answer the telephone at his desk.“Yes, Mrs. Sturdivant?”“Mr. Marcus will be here in five minutes, the car is at the gates I’ve been advised.”“Thank you, please just bring him in when he arrives, no need to buzz me or knock.”“Yes, Mr. President.”The chief executive returned to his spot on the twin sofas closer to the office’s fireplace with his visitor and picked up the file he was reading quietly. His visitor continued to work on his laptop computer momentarily, waiting for their guest, Mr. Marcus, to arrive.The door leading in from Mrs. Sturdivant’s office opened and she entered with John Marcus following right behind, still wearing his raincoat and carrying his bags.“John Marcus, thanks for coming over” said the president as he quickly rose to greet Marcus and shake his hand gregariously.“It’s an honor sir, and no need to thank me. I rather see it as a request that could not be refused.”“Why, did the agents insist a little too strenuously?”“No, sir, not at all, they were very polite and made it as convenient as possible; they met me inside the train, knew who I was and even had a car waiting right past the tracks that lead away from the station.”“You could have left your bags in the car; I’ve asked them to take you back as soon as we’re done. By the way, Mrs. Sturdivant has another ticket for you.”“Oh, thank you very much and the bags were no bother, I only brought enough for one night, not heavy at all.”“Excellent. Now allow me to introduce you to my visitor, Bill Wozniak from Commerce. Bill, this is John Marcus from Consolidated Indemnity. You may have recognized him from the televised hearing earlier today.”“Indeed I do, indeed I do” answered Wozniak.Marcus, Wozniak and the president sat down. The president began.“Gentlemen, the reason I’ve asked you, John, to meet us here quickly is that I often have to depend on summarized information that flows up through whatever channels are used to make a request. The fact that the White House wants it is impossible to keep out of it, so it’s usually prepared with a level of formality that, while impressive in the way it reflects the serious and conscientious job so many staffers do, it slows things down at times. In this case, we’re going to make a request for some detail that ideally should not be delayed or filtered in the usual way. What makes it important is a strategic shift that will require some review. I’ve asked some financial officials for organization recommendations, and they told me the recently created office of compliance at CIG could indicate some names. That’s where yours came up, and when I was told you’d be in town anyway, on another matter, I thought it best we just ask you directly. I know it’s not typical, and please don’t feel you must keep your visit here quiet; to the contrary, tell anyone at home or work; this is as transparent as it gets. I’m only doing this to speed things up. I don’t have the time to go everywhere I sometimes think I need to go but really appreciate the face time as I like to call it. The service the agents around here provide is amazing, as you’ve seen. So thanks very much.”Buttered up like popcorn, Marcus began to relax, but wondered why Kathryn Miller had put up his name, or maybe several names and was it really a coincidence since he was here for the hearing or was that hearing being watched so closely that this meeting was really about that?“You’re welcome, sir,” is all John Marcus managed to reply.“I’m going to ask Mr. Wozniak to summarize things for you. Bill?”“Thank you, Mr. President” Wozniak responded and turned to Marcus.“We are told you work in the financial reporting area of CIG’s foreign operations consolidation. Is that right?”“Yes, exactly correct,” answered Marcus.“Overall and day-to-day, that involves what?”“Review of both financial and operating reports from all overseas operations, preparation of monthly operational reports, quarterly and annual financial statements and audit.”“Audit of?”“Financials. We do not perform operational audits, those are conducted by individual outside audit firms in each country and are sent to Administrative Planning and Control.”“Good to have that clear, and by now you’re wondering how this involves the White House.”“Yes, I have been wondering just that since the moment the Secret Service asked me to come here. In fact, I’ve been concerned. I knew it wasn’t anything bad; I’d be taken elsewhere for that. Drunk drivers aren’t usually taken to see the Chief of Police or the Mayor. I know I haven’t done anything wrong but cannot imagine what you Mr. President could want from me.”“John,” the president began with his most mellifluous voice possible, “I apologize for causing concern; I’m sorry. I live in a bubble in this joint. The necessary layers of organization and protection around here become familiar, and most of us interact with it all day, every day and get used to it. Some things mean I have to act quickly and I forget the effect it has sometimes; I certainly did this time. No need for concern.”“Thank you, sir” Marcus sheepishly answered, somewhat more content but not yet at ease.“Go ahead, Bill” he said.“Thank you, sir” said Wozniak, who continued, “we’re entering into a phase of negotiation with the many, many foreign operations of CIG and because of the profile of the company and its association with the United States, this involves the State Department; as it has to. The challenge for us is that few diplomats and their staff are business executive experienced to a point where they can quickly step in and manage the process. Accordingly I’ve asked the Secretary of State to appoint a Special Envoy from outside the department. I also want to ensure that the Special Envoy’s staff has direct access to the type of information they’ll require to quickly and properly value overseas operations. We expect that regulators in each country, from Argentina to Zealand, as in New, will use whatever financial statements are filed locally. Those will not be consistent with generally accepted accounting principles as we apply them. Our analyst valuations – that is, analysts at US based institutions – will need to make consistent comparisons between those several and diverse overseas subsidiaries.”“It sounds like they’re being sold off; is that right?” asked Marcus.The president smiled, clapping his hands gently and exclaiming “Give the man a cigar” as he went back to the Resolute desk and opened the top left drawer, extracting and opening a large, beautifully varnished cigar box and offering one up. John Marcus smiled and as he looked into the box, said he was worried something would happen to the cigar between here and his back porch ashtray at home. “You’re not the first to worry about that” said the president, who took out a stiff plastic tube into which one of the fine cigars would slide perfectly, handing it over to Marcus. Wozniak smiled.“Yes, divestiture” said Bill Wozniak, “the term investment bankers like. In spite of the heavy foreign bank involvement with the credit default swaps, the local operations were not involved in any of it. The ownership by our government is causing a distraction. The president has asked me to begin the process of preparing sales, hence the Commerce Department becoming involved. Treasury as owner/regulator and State as diplomatic negotiator become conflicted with their usual stated mission if they take on a strategic plan for divestiture. State’s Special Envoy will need immediate access to foreign information. Courts have called it a conflict of interests; we could call it a conflict of missions. We were told you would be a good person to spearhead this and we’re going to ask for you to be temporarily transferred away from your current responsibilities but remain where you are. You’ll be there to examine valuations and offers we receive for the several overseas operations; you’ll be in an ideal position to make comparisons of all figures involved. Before that’s done, we wanted you to know about it. We expect that as these operations are sold, you’ll be able to return to previous duties.”“If most of or all foreign operations are sold, there won’t be any more previous duties for me to resume” retorted John Marcus.“What I mean” said Wozniak as he quickly recovered, “you will be able to unplug from this special project, returning to a more normal and steady set of responsibilities. Trust me; there will be ample opportunity as reward for your work. I wouldn’t make such a statement in front of the president if it weren’t real.”Marcus remained quiet for a moment then asked intuitively, “do I stay with CIG?”“Yes, if you prefer. You are free to accept any opportunity we offer. This isn’t a command.”“Maybe not,” accepted Marcus, “but it’s still the White House gentlemen, and with all due respect, Mr. President, this administration has to make large decisions, not people decisions as a priority.”“You’re right, John” the president interjected “but people are what this country is, and all big decisions, like big buildings, are the sum total of a lot of single bricks and a lot of individuals. We don’t intend to cast aside the bricks that hold the main doorway in place and we don’t intend to ignore good performance. Now,” he said as he tapped his watch, “I have taken far too much of your time after having you abruptly yanked off your train. Pack up that cigar, and let me get Mrs. Sturdivant get your train ticket and you back to the dark suits and their cool black cars, who will have you on that train!” he eagerly said with a smile and in what seemed like seconds, hands were shook, smiles exchanged and John Marcus was soon on his way out of the West Wing and off to Union Station.“Think he bought it?” the president asked Bill Wozniak.“As much as we need him to; the depth of his belief isn’t our concern. It’s his breadth of performance, which I believe will be excellent, beliefs notwithstanding” said Wozniak as he stepped back to the sofa to pack up his things. The president returned to his desk, took the printed messages from his “in” tray and began to review them. Wozniak took out his BlueBerry communicator and began to scan the messages that had arrived since his last look. He peered closer to its screen, thumbed quickly and stared intently, almost transfixed by the small screen. He stared and stared. He looked up at the president and gulped. The president didn’t notice, his own gaze set into the papers on his desk. Wozniak peered back at the small screen, without moving. “Mr. President,” he said quietly, almost meekly, “we may have to rethink our strategy.”“After all the planning?” answered the president as he looked up from is desk, his mind refocusing away from his desk and back to CIG.“Selling off regulated subsidiaries to create enough cash flow and eventual background distraction for the bonds and shares swap would only work with normal, ongoing operations.”“And you’re going to tell me about a new variable, a new abnormality, is that right?”“Uh…yes sir, exactly that” said Wozniak with a deep, dissatisfied tone. “This one isn’t going to vary much, either. It’s significant. Material, maybe.” - 16 -Acts of ActionImagine for a moment that currently illegal drugs had never been outlawed. Would production take place around the world much the same as it now does for any other medicine, food or dietary supplement where consumption is relatively unregulated? What effects would there be on our society? What would change for the better, for the worse or remain unaffected?We need not look far; outcomes can be inferred from our experience with alcoholic beverages and firearms, two other products about which there has been contentious debate.The right to own and carry around firearms (“keep and bear” says the Constitution) predates the formation of our nation by many centuries. The majority opinion in the Supreme Court decision of DC vs. Heller is an excellent treatise on the history of this right. Firearms were expensive in the Eighteenth Century and essentially custom made, piece by piece. Metallurgy, chemistry and advancements in manufacturing have made firearms far safer, reliable and less expensive over the more than two centuries since the Bill of Rights took effect. Severe restrictions and outright bans on possession and ownership occurred relatively late in our nation’s history. Numerous federal and state laws regulate firearms, and in a few portions of our nation, this constitutional right is suspended. The rate of misuse of firearms is extremely low; so low as to be statistically insignificant. The number of undesirable incidents involving firearms versus the number of working firearms in existence can, from a statistical perspective, be considered as close to perfection as possible. When compared with undesirable incidents involving household cleaners, motor vehicles, food and virtually any identifiable activity or substance, firearms rank at or near the bottom. Individual citizens licensed to carry a firearm for protection have been consistently shown to be more law abiding than even police officers, and this is for all laws, not just those applicable to firearms.The objective of prohibitions on firearms is logical, but the results unconvincing. No material restriction on firearms has produced a commensurate reduction in misuse. To the contrary, where severe restrictions or outright bans on firearms have been enacted is where the misuse of firearms has been the highest, and for consistently long periods. Peer nations with similar demographic profiles that have banned firearms have seen no reduction in gun involved crime; in fact, increases have been the norm in the wake of prohibitions. High firearm ownership rates have decreased violent crime rates but it must be considered that violent crime rates across the United States have traditionally been low in general, so room for significant improvements is small. Where violent crime rates have been higher, firearm ownership has not generally been expanded, if at all.The story of the Volstead Act, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, is well known in American history. Formally entitled the National Prohibition Act and named for the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at the time of its passage in 1919, Andrew Volstead, it essentially made the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages illegal. It was repealed by the Twenty First Amendment, the Blaine Act, in December of 1933. Prior to its passage, alcoholic beverages were deemed to be consumed in excess, thus bringing about the need for “Prohibition” as the episode is known in American History. During the intervening thirteen years of illegality, it isn’t known with certainty what reduction in consumption was achieved. Domestic manufacture of alcoholic beverages was certainly reduced but fortunes were made by gangster importers and distributors. Upon its repeal, consumption rapidly returned to pre-prohibition levels, and it can be inferred that little reduction in consumption was actually achieved during the period the Eighteenth Amendment was in force. The consequences were far reaching, the greatest and worst legacy being the eruption of organized crime. Illicit activity profited enormously and used the ill gotten gains to buy influence, law enforcement and the best lawyers. The repeal of prohibition didn’t eliminate organized crime; rather it grew into syndicates which extended their tentacles for many decades into large scale theft, prostitution, labor corruption, gambling and narcotics trafficking, to name several examples. Nine decades later the remnants remain of the Prohibition-born crime syndicates. To anyone reading this chapter who has lost a family member or friend to an intoxicated driver, I offer you my condolences and my sympathies. Two bans would eliminate the main ingredients of drunk driving. For the one, a failed thirteen year experiment, unpopular from the outset, widely recognized as both ineffective and producing significant unintended, negative consequences, ensures we won’t re-visit Prohibition. For the other ingredient, I cannot foresee a prohibition on motor vehicles. Injuries, some serious and deaths are the direct consequences we tolerate for the utility cars provide. A fair portion of vehicular injury and death results from intoxicated motorists. We educate drivers, impose stiff penalties on infractions but remain willing to tolerate some bad outcome.What about drugs? From the inhalation of glue and paint vapors to simply smoking the dried leaves and stems of naturally growing plants – hemp – humans have found increasingly diverse substances to ingest and cause distorted mental function, generally known as being “high”. Virtually all produce side effects, usually bad and often long term. Chemistry has made it possible to produce highly concentrated mixtures of previously mild forms of organically derived drugs, such as crack cocaine from coca leaves. The stronger substances usually correlate with strength of addiction.Simple possession of just small amounts of unprocessed hallucinogens, such as marijuana, can result in criminal sanctions; the penalties for commercial activity, such as transport, importation, manufacture and distribution carry more stringent penalties.Regulations and prohibitions on drugs came about in the latter 19th Century and throughout the 20th. Requirements for education about the dangers of addiction, initially related to opium, were enacted in virtually every state by the beginning of the 20th Century. These steps caused a significant drop in addiction.As technology has improved, it has become easier for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute drug law violators. The increased risk has caused the retail price of drugs to increase dramatically; the unfortunate side effect is that high profits attract a steady flow of new bad actors. What also results is vicious crime, both between distributors for the competition’s territory and customers and also that perpetrated by addicted users, whose abuse of drugs requires supplemental or replacement income to pay the aforementioned high prices. Addiction is an overwhelming motivator.There is no known shortage of production or other bottleneck that causes high prices; it is entirely due to laws against drugs and vigorous enforcement.How much money is directly spent on enforcing drug laws? It’s significant, starting with an entire federal agency devoted to this one activity, a part of one of our Armed Forces and a portion of almost every law enforcement agency in the country, from small municipal police to state troopers and every sheriff in between. The Drug Enforcement Agency proudly announces in its recruitment literature that it “offers rewarding opportunities for those interested in contributing to the well-being of the American public and the world population.”There is no solace in telling a shooting victim’s family that the instrument used by the criminal is protected by a Constitutional Right, just as there is no pleasure informing a car accident victim’s family that the unintentional killer consumed an excess amount of a legal product and then was using another legal product to create the incident. Reality is that firearms, alcoholic beverages and automobiles are not going to be restricted across the board.There is also no comfort to be given to a drug user’s family as they watch a loved one deteriorate nor is there a comforting word to be said to the family of the innocent victim of drug turf violence; yet it is the attempt to eliminate drugs that is a key ingredient leading to the violence. Kingpins traffic in drugs for money and only money, and will enforce continued profits with mass murder if so required. If the profits were not so attractive, would anything escalate to the level reached in countries like Colombia and Mexico? US drug policy, in its noble attempts, has not contributed, as an example, to the well being of that portion of the world’s population living in and around the cities of Juarez and Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. Roy Olmstead was convicted of conspiring to violate the aforementioned Volstead Act and his case was heard by the Supreme Court in 1928. Key evidence included illegal wiretaps of telephone conversations, prohibited by State of Washington law. His arguments were that his rights under the Fourth Amendment were violated by the commission of illegal acts to produce the evidence against him, and then his own words were used to make him a witness against himself, in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights. Olmstead’s conviction was upheld 5-4 in spite of the Constitutional violations. Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in dissent: “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”It is entirely possible Justice Brandeis was referring to the entire mess of Prohibition and not just Roy Olmstead’s case. Have alcoholic beverages caused the United States to stagnate? Did they do so prior to Prohibition taking effect in 1920? Has alcohol arrested national development since the repeal? The evidence is clear that the massive intervention did not produce the intended beneficial effect - at all - but rather widespread, much larger new problems.Let’s return to the question asked in the first paragraph of this chapter: what would drug legalization improve, damage or leave unaffected? For just a moment let us consider the transfer of all funding for drug interdiction to the purchase and distribution of currently illegal drugs, possibly even cultivation and production. In addition to being less expensive, it would eliminate layers of violent intermediaries. The drugs could then be distributed free to any addict, but in a controlled environment. In addition to a great reduction in expense, it would eliminate significant amounts of crime; virtually every police agency in the USA sees significant drug related crime on a regular basis. Opponents would decry the immorality of using taxpayer funds to give drugs away, a response to which would be to then allow the drug users to buy the drugs themselves. This would return some crime and kingpins of distribution, but much less so, at the lower prices a free, unconstrained marketplace would create. Would the lowered price and legal availability increase consumption and addiction? Impossible to know for certain, but it could. Some law enforcement would happily shift resources away from direct drug activity and lowered crime; other agencies, especially the federal agency directed exclusively at drugs would not welcome this change at all, as their existence could become unnecessary.Could legal sale to adults be controlled? To an extent yes, but anyone that really wants something will get it, as the illegal drug markets currently attest. There are an infinite number of substances that can be ingested and that will cause harm, most of them legal. Same goes for countless activities; anyone who chooses can smoke cigarettes, drink laundry bleach, eat rat poison, jump off bridges, swallow an entire bottle of prescription medication, ski into the Grand Canyon during a snowstorm or consume alcoholic beverages in excess. Some of these things are done regularly; others almost never. What law or rule prohibits eating too much of the wrong type of food? How would such rule be enforced? Will a spike in bridge suicides bring about a prohibition of bridges? Will a series of chainsaw murders cause new laws to be passed for chainsaw purchases? Will axes be purchased instead? If axes are restricted, will hatchets be used? Will bicycle suicides cause a suspension of bike sales? How about we leave bike sales alone, and just regulate bike chains? No bike works without one. This is the argument used to suggest bans on ammunition, which sound logical to many. An easy explanation would be that bikes don’t kill people, to which I would counter that bicycle accidents kill many more people – especially children - than firearm accidents, year after year.How much of what’s perceived to ail society can be legislated into rightness, goodness and the happy way forward? Is progress as easy as “enlightened” rejection of the icky and a simple click of the drop down menu on the website of happiness? Do we draft up the procedures for universal contentment as we know it can be, with all the right rules, and then proudly, smugly pass them into law, knowing that in the event of a tricky, unpleasant future circumstance, we’ll fix it yet again with another amendment? - 17 -Vermiculation“Yes, this is John Carter, John F. Carter, yes Fitzgerald, from AM & M, Anderson Marwick and Mitchell, Certified Public Accountants.”“Pardon me, Mr. Carter, I confused your name with a Mr. Cartwell, who’s also named John; my apologies,” said the receptionist at CIG’s Foreign Life & General Accounting. “None required, it’s quite all right” John Carter answered pleasantly.“Do you know your way or should I call someone to take you in?”“It’s my first visit, so yes, a guide would be ideal, if you could do that, yes.” “Right away” answered the receptionist and with that she picked up the phone and called office services to send a mailroom boy out to take Mr. Carter in to see John Marcus.John Carter had flown in from the Denver, Colorado office of Anderson Marwick and Mitchell with the job of evaluating the offer to buy CIG’s southern European offices, un-elegantly nicknamed the pigs, for Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. It was certainly an offensive name, one he suspected had been given as a nickname by British critics who, with certain justification, had smugly observed the split of European currencies in the wake of defaults on their debts by the nations concentrated in the non-Northern portion of Europe. Perhaps an unfair name it was, as Spain had not so grossly overspent and simultaneously misled its continental peers about its deficits and metastasizing debt; it had simply valued real estate into the stratosphere. When the air got too thin, the descent had much the same effect as reckless spending and borrowing elsewhere. So the land of Ferdinand and Isabella became that more closely wed to its peninsular stable mate Portugal and its peers across the Mediterranean. John’s stint as an exchange student in Mexico in the 1970s had often paid off in most unexpected ways; the Spanish he’d learned became Italian and French and a smattering of other languages. His ability to read local financial statements earned him the punishment and accolades such assignments in foreign languages and finance customs incurred. The offers to buy out the operations in these four countries most curiously came from non-Southern European interests and Carter suspected there were British interests mixed in, however he was not made privy to these identities. He understood buyer reluctance to have identities made public until a deal was announced but the circumstances here didn’t make sense for that, in his view. He was also sensitive to the histories of hypocritical transparency that clouded the defunct, revamped medical law and especially the financial overhaul bill. This had to be done carefully; the appearance of a hidden process would undermine the progress it was supposed to achieve, as he saw it. “Mr. Carter, good to have you come in” said John Marcus as he extended a friendly handshake to his visitor.“It’s a real honor to be here” replied Carter. “Call me Jack, the formal name ‘John’ is something my mother must have decided to tack on at the last minute to dress up my middle name. Dad called me Jack since I can remember.”“OK, Jack” replied Marcus.“It’s a real honor to meet a man called before a House Committee to testify on this whole situation, I must say. Quite an experience, wasn’t it?”“Yes, it was but not for the hearing, interestingly enough.”“How could that not have been interesting? I know you escaped any direct questions, but just being there and hearing Krementz live and seeing the faces of the committee simultaneously; I wish I could have been there.”“It became pretty apparent to me, I was there as filler; sure I was supposed to be ready and I did a lot of work to prepare, but looking back on it now, they wanted to get the Money Czar up there, not the three of us.”“So what was interesting?”“I got called to the White House to get this assignment.”Carter whistled in admiration; “Pennsylvania Avenue, huh?”“Yep. Because of the initiative to sell off foreign operations, they prepared a strategy through Commerce, not State or Treasury, to avoid conflicts both financially and diplomatically. I wouldn’t have thought of it but it made sense. The president was meeting with the Commerce guy the day of the hearing and it turns out I’d been recommended for the job we’re doing now. He wanted to tell me personally, since I was in town.”“What was it like?”“The White House looks just like all the pictures, but more so in person.”“I meant meeting the President.”“We met in his office. Lots of paperwork he was doing and you know the tidy photos where he’s always in a suit jacket, and the desk is spotless but for the phone and a few flags and stuff? Well, they weren’t taking any of those photos THAT day.”“Hah” chuckled Carter.“Yeah, but he was nice about it, and the paperwork gave me impression of a regular guy, which of course he isn’t. I can see how he managed to win over support with his manner, early on. Uses the personable stuff very well, and seems to translate it to speeches and appearances without trying.”“I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”“No, but he made those shoes, did everything he could to get into them and so, there he is. What I can’t figure out any better after being there is his priority, true belief in his plan or political survival; in other words, will he sacrifice one for the other if he has to make a choice? Like dangling from a rope bridge that’s collapsing; do you save your mother or your kids and if you don’t make a decision, they all die,” Marcus offered.“I don’t think the administration sees it like that; they approach each issue like hilltops. Once they get over one, they just advance to the next one. The last one stays where it is. Could be an error,” responded Carter.“Error if you choose political survival over implementation of your ideology” countered Marcus; “if he’s ready to sacrifice his political future to get what he wants?”“Politicians who sacrifice their political future for the success of their agenda lose both, certainly in this country,” Jack Carter stated flatly.“You think?”“Ever heard of a quarterback willing to end his football career to win the SuperBowl? President of a company ready to lose his job and his career to cut a merger deal? Both things would come un-done. That’s what I don’t see here, which way the guy’s going. Sometimes it seems like a noble attempt to truly pursue an idea and then he stands down on it. One thing voters dislike, it’s being wishy-washy. Lots of ‘em see their vote as their guy is going for what they want, and when he doesn’t, they turn away.”“He should have been an accountant” smiled Marcus, “a balance sheet guy. This yes, an asset, that no, a liability.” “Damn right” said Carter “but what does that have to do with the price of wheat in Kansas?”“Or the net present value and future earnings projection of CIG Italia SpA?” retorted Marcus.With that comment, the two men entered the corner meeting room where the file folders were neatly arranged and set about the task of reviewing the offer to buy the business from Consolidated Indemnity’s Rome domiciled subsidiary.* * *“First of all, allow me to thank you for your recommendation” Wozniak started in his telephone conversation, “John Marcus has indeed done a good job and I hope his absence from previous responsibilities has not had a negative effect on your operation.”“No, it hasn’t, not all” answered Kathryn. She was able to say this with the straight voice of certainty a person can easily project when one knows it to be absolutely true. What Wozniak didn’t know was how helpful John Marcus had been with the supply of data she’d needed to understand the claims figures, that sixty plus percent of the money flowing out of the company. Since Marcus had been taken away from her charge - a brilliant strategic move on her part she thought - she knew that if he were to be questioned about his role, if at all, he could easily say he had been the supplier of information and nothing more. This new job distracted him; it removed him, and the hassle of negotiating sales drew attention away. Or it would, once she’d opened the parachute and the undervaluation began the slow descent from altitude, dropping ever closer and coming into clear focus. Issuing a report and watching it acted upon was insightful; who would act on this information? She recognized in herself the missing trepidation that most people would feel when letting a cat this big out of a bag this large; she’d done her reports well in the past and when asked, retraced the steps and findings easily, ignorant of the choices made to establish what she’d found and more importantly, knowing she’d be a casual observer of the repercussions. This experience, like all experience, was a teacher and she’d learned to anticipate types of decisions from types of situations and knew there would be pressure to act on the information. She wouldn’t be called on to make those decisions; she was Compliance. She would certify, verify and execute.“Please, if you can” said Wozniak, “tell me what we can do about these offers. We’ve intended to sell operations and instead of receiving an offer to buy, we’ve gotten an offer to assume business. The bidders are making projections as to development of claims already on the books in addition to forward looking assumptions based on actual experience.”“They don’t want to buy the subsidiary?”“No, they are concerned with lawsuits, distractions, image, dealing with the US government and similar issues. They want to assume the premium and the claims, buying all the policies in effect now.”“De-bone the subsidiary?”“Yes.”“What can I do?” asked Kathryn.“How do we know their actuarial assumptions are not excessively skewed in their favor?”Kathryn was certainly experienced enough at this; here the government experience she had was valuable. A profit making company would sell because it believed exiting the business segment would free up capital to be deployed elsewhere, and that would be a lot cheaper than borrowing. They couldn’t make the operation to be sold look too bad or too good, and on the one hand kill the deal or on the other, get too little money. Government agencies don’t work this way, she knew instinctively. Instead they revalue; the taxpayers take the hits. They don’t react like shareholders, they can’t. Their elected officials would have to do that and they don’t. There’s zero incentive. Shareholders in general were pretty resigned to fate now anyway, what with fifteen plus percent interest rates, really, who would buy stock? Nobody could afford to pay the interest to buy on margin. The stock would not return enough, either through dividends or by price appreciation, to pay such borrowing costs. Buying stock was now a cash deal pretty much, but nobody was interested. Bond interest did a far better job of keeping pace with inflation. Taxpayers wouldn’t notice. Since income tax rates were actually cut in a smoke and mirrors deal to obfuscate true, overall tax increases with the valued added tax, the government succeeded in blaming increased prices on inflation, without recognition it was their own value added tax that helped cause the inflation alongside of which they claimed solidarity in victimhood with the taxpayer.Now was the moment, she thought to herself. She knew she could demonstrate the subsidiary as being more valuable, specifically the business to be sold off as being worth more; she knew the profits were higher in dollars than shown. God bless Aaron. Now she’d drop her package, in small bundles, country by country and avoid the saber toothed tiger she feared would devour everything around it once released. A kitten attack would do far less damage, and could even look cute. Arguing for a better selling price for CIG Italia SpA would not cause anyone any heartburn; it would be happily received. She was sure.“We’ll have a look at our financial information up here, and put a valuation on what we have,” said Kathryn; she continued, “for which offers?”“For now, for the Italian operation only.” Wozniak knew the buyers were one and the same consortium of participants and that they’d low ball the price for each individual country’s operation and then reduce that even more for a volume discount, and then lower that more, for negotiation. Kathryn Miller could never know this. Wozniak relished the thought of creating even more background noise; healthy haggling over the price would do just that. The fight over outright sale versus a sell-off of the book of business would also cause a lot of “typewriter chatter” as he liked to refer to it, conjuring up the image in his mind of those black and white movies where reporters were spread around a newsroom banging out newscopy on manual typewriters with the fury of jackhammers. “Very good, can you estimate when you would have this?” he asked.“One week; in other words, five working days,” answered Kathryn Miller.“Excellent, outstanding if we can get it by then.”“Of that I’m confident” answered Kathryn, bringing the conversation to a close and knowing she already had the Italian figures and inflation revaluation ready, unbeknownst to anyone inside CIG. She wouldn’t need an actuarial review. Brace for impact, she thought.* * * “Any effect of which we’re aware?”“No, none; I expected the Congressional Board of Inquiry to have queried things by now and since they have not, I expect the probability to already be low and dropping. I don’t expect they’d be in a hurry to peel a pineapple like this anyway; your Reserve Czar created the Board and let the House go through the motions of ratifying it. The House doesn’t care, they don’t run anything and the Reserve Czar knows who butters which side of the bread.”“No separate announcement?” “Only a small mention in the semi-annual report, by way of the changed balance sheet item.”“Slow and steady.”“Yes, we’ll take credit for the reduction and mix it all in by explaining the subsidiaries and the sell-off.”“That will be when?”“We should time it for one month before Election Day, sir.”“Done.”* * *The telephone at the other end of the line had rung on for at least a minute; Bill Wozniak was determined to get someone live. He’d called every direct line he could, guessing at numbers after the two he had from visitors’ business cards both dropped into voice mail after just a few rings. The switchboard number ended in fifty six hundred, so there had to be a fifty six zero two, zero three, and so forth. No dice. The incessant short, double tone buzz was getting irritating, but he conceded it was less irritating than the usual long, single ring he heard on most calls. He looked at his watch, nine in the morning; it was three in the afternoon there. What, was everybody still out to lunch? They couldn’t afford to pay a receptionist to answer the telephones? They had enough money to handle a purchase of assets like this but no receptionist? With the rate of unemployment, he was sure they’d get eighty five qualified applicants for any job they’d care to advertise. Anytime Commerce wanted to hire, the applications flooded in.He remembered an experience from earlier in his career; they’d advertised in the now defunct daily paper, which at the time only had a print edition. He recalled print papers fondly from his paper route days such a long, long time ago and imagined the folded newspaper held by the dull, red rubber band being picked up at the door of the house an hour after he’d expertly tossed it from his bicycle as he rode past. The college student he imagined reading it would flip to the want ads and see their entry, just as he had done himself so many years before. They were looking for candidates for three intern positions and set out a two week deadline for receipt of applications; any sent in after that date would be discarded. They waited three business days after the close and asked a personnel assistant to bring over a file with all the resumes that came in on time; into his office came a secretary who asked him to go see the personnel manager in the conference room. Two thick manila folders were sitting on the table; he opened one without saying a word and the manager explained that these were the ones received.“How many did we get after the cut-off date?” asked younger Wozniak.“A good twenty more and counting; they’re still coming in.”“How many are in here?”“We haven’t counted exactly, but about two hundred.”“Two hundred?” exclaimed Wozniak in almost disbelief. “Every one with a cover letter and resume as was specified in the ad?”“Yes, we checked for that as each one came in; we threw away those that didn’t have both, obviously. Any internship applicant that doesn’t follow that simple a direction…….” and the personnel manager’s voice trailed off.“Wow. Have any been reviewed?”“No, sir; from here it could take one person a week, full time, just to comb through and look for basic disqualifications, before we can start setting up interviews.”“One week just to decide who to contact?” replied Bill Wozniak in disbelief.“Yes; these college interns don’t have any experience so we can’t set certain job function criteria and exclude those that don’t meet it. We have to look at grade point average, college courses, extracurricular activity, and all that takes some time; it’s five hundred pages to be reviewed, at least.”“Then we won’t have any candidates ready for a second round of interviews for a month!” said an exasperated Wozniak.“Highly likely.”“Can you call one of your personnel specialists in and let me ask one of them how they’d approach this? I feel the sudden urge to get some na?ve advice,” smiled Wozniak, as the personnel manager picked up the meeting room telephone and dialed a four digit extension. “Please ask Cynthia to come to the human resources meeting room; thanks” said the manager, who then turned to Wozniak and warned, “by the way, we can’t say to the younger staff ‘personnel’; they all call it “human resources” now; H-R for short.”“H-R, X-R, whatever,” said Bill.Cynthia the new hire, now approaching one year on the job, promptly appeared at the doorway. Wozniak explained his situation and asked the “H-R” manager to explain to her the size of the job.Then he asked “What would you do? I don’t think it makes sense for you to waste an entire week just putting together a list of whom to interview, can’t that be done more quickly?” The manager leaned back, arms folded and out of the line of sight between Wozniak and young Cynthia.Cynthia replied, “this is going to sound really crude, but the only way to be fair is to sit at a desk, grab a big handful – as many as you can – and throw them up in the air; the ones that land on the desk get reviewed. The ones that hit the floor, go in the trash.” Wozniak smiled and said nothing. The department manager sat forward, unfolded her arms and put her them down on her thighs, hands over her knees, and stared in surprise.“Done” said Wozniak, and as he turned to leave, he finished with “please call me when we’ve set up ten interviews, by the end of this week. Good suggestion.’ ” * * *He hung up the telephone, and turned to read the latest financial news and wait. After digesting a few articles, he hit the redial button and waited for the blasted switchboard to ring again, …….buzz buzz…..buzz buzz……and then as a shock, the call was answered and a clipped voice said, “Worthington and Company Limited, how may I direct your call?”“Finally” exclaimed an exasperated Wozniak, “I’ve been calling every number I could even guess at and no voice mail and no answer; what time is it there now?”“It’s nearly half three” came the answer.“What are the normal hours for the switchboard?”“Nine until half five.”“Wow” was all he could say. “Okay then, can you transfer me, Simon Worthington please?”“Certainly, please hold the line” and with that another buzz buzz came back through the telephone.“Mr. Worthington’s office.”“Yes, Bill Wozniak, finally, United States Department of Commerce. Is Simon in?”“He’s engaged at the moment; may I ask him to ring you back, mister,… I’m sorry, please repeat your name, sir?” asked the new and also pleasant voice that also could not get Worthington on the telephone.“Woz nee ack; Bill. You ess commerce. He has my number, please ask him to call before he leaves for the day, is that possible?”“Yes, I’ll pass the message to Mr. Worthington straight away.”“Thank you” said a frustrated Wozniak and hung up the telephone. Three hours later, his telephone still had not rung.* * *Aaron Miller raced to his gate, dodging walking passengers as he looked left out of the twenty foot high patchwork of windows. The sign ahead indicated gates sixty to eighty five; he looked again at his boarding pass, stuck in his breast pocket, printed side towards him, as he trotted. Gate seventy one.In the distance beyond the airport he saw trucks passing by, buildings to the other side of the highway and large, blue cargo cranes behind them and the hills beyond. The tops of the towers of the Verazzano Bridge poked above those hilltops in the distance.Just past the windows, he turned diagonally left and started down the right moving walkway, the outside view now gone. Just in front of him another view more than made up for the outside view; the last person was an attractive woman, walking slowly down the gently inclined rubberized moving walkway, her pace set by the line of people just in front of her. He couldn’t see her face, not yet, but as he slowed his pace to match, he admired the elegantly sexy walk and confident placement of shoes, whose heels were just the size and height to properly complement her legs, both in length and size. Send her shoe salesman a bonus, he thought. Her hair hung casually down her back, gently wavy and falling just over her shoulders to frame the view and finish it off nicely. Her shoes matched her blouse in color, and set off nicely the white slacks that hugged her beautiful derrière just snugly enough to give a good preview of the beauty within without crossing the line into a formal announcement. He waited patiently and wondered what flight she might be taking; he stood just a few feet from her now as the moving walkway neared the end of its run, and the passengers resumed their walk to their gates. The beautiful white slacks stood patiently, her weight resting on her left leg as her right leg extended just a few inches ahead of the left, the toe pointed exactly to the right to reinforce the stance of self assuredness. The walkway ended, she stepped off and walked straight ahead, drifting slowly to the right as she walked; Aaron gently increased his pace and walked a little bit left to catch up with her and have a glimpse from the side and maybe the front. As he pulled even, he noticed the now even more attractive profile she cut, beautiful, rounded breasts in what he thought to be perfect proportion to her attractive, female figure, her clothes beautifully accented by the multi-patterned scarf tied around her neck and cascading down the front of her closed blouse, hidden from behind by her hair. Dark beige button earrings adorned her earlobes, thin, elegant gold hoops hung on both wrists and he now noticed a leather briefcase hung on her left shoulder. A light jacket rested folded over her right arm, and in her right hand she clutched her boarding pass. Her face was as beautiful and as well made up as he’d thought, in that gentle, easy way that does not look much like make-up yet accents the eyes and cheekbones and frames the lips beautifully. Aaron saw his gate approach in the distance, and this beautiful woman continued her walk straight down the middle of the terminal walkway towards whatever gate bore her destiny. She suddenly turned diagonally right towards a kiosk, switching her boarding pass to the other hand and trying to open her handbag hanging on the same shoulder, next to the small briefcase on the outside; in the process, she dropped the jacket. Aaron instantly and instinctively stopped to pick it up, and as the woman extracted her purse from the handbag, she noticed what she’d dropped, which Aaron handed to her gently smiling. “Why, thank you” came the answer as the woman smiled back, her beautiful white teeth that much more attractive and almost glowing in their beauty. Her eyes looked confident and almost penetrating in an easy, non invasive way, her high cheekbones radiant as she turned back to her kiosk and whatever trinket on it that held her interest.Aaron continued on to his gate, wondering what was it that he found so attractive about the woman whose beauty he’d had the pleasure of drinking in for all of maybe ninety seconds. He fondly remembered back to the time he’d seen his girlfriend and how she had evoked these same feelings in him, and occasionally still did. He thought of the saying he’d heard many times, that familiarity breeds contempt. Did this beautiful woman with the beautiful derrière have a boyfriend? A husband? A girlfriend? All of the above? What relationship troubles had visited her life, if any? Children? Did her familiarity with a mate lead to the erosion of the relationship? Would that soon happen to him?He didn’t note any immediate intimate attraction, but had no doubt it would be there in large quantities for any man so fortunate as to make the more social acquaintance of this lovely woman. What made her so attractive without thinking about it? He remembered once he’d been told that men were different from women in many ways and it started young; what a boy found beautiful would always be beautiful to him. He remembered a silver Corvette with a black leather interior he saw one evening on a car lot when he was kid. It had chrome rings on the wheels and red stripes on the tires and the numbers ‘427’ on both sides of the bulge in the middle of the hood. It was already a classic when he saw it; it would always be, for him. Did this woman in the white slacks remind him of a woman from his youth? Did she evoke a subconscious memory specific to him? Or was it just that human beings are hard wired to instinctively recognize attractiveness when it appears, without knowing why? As quickly as predators instantly recognize prey, did the sight of her remind him of a love in a past life, blocked from consciousness? As he approached gate seventy one, he thought all that might be true but then realized the distraction happened because his mind was looking for it. He was going through the motions of flying to Washington, DC and abruptly realized, even though he didn’t know why, that he didn’t want to go.* * *Kathryn waited anxiously at the limousine driver pick up location, just off to the left of the drivers gathered there holding name signs for their target passengers. She knew Aaron would look that way as he exited and he would see her. Just a few moments after arriving, he came walking out with the crowd of passengers and she spotted him just as he did her.“Hey there, kiddo” she said with a weak smile as he approached and hugged her in complete surprise to which he blurted out, “what are you doing here?”“I came to meet you to talk to you before we get to Commerce, I’m afraid to even call you and thought the only way would be now, in a cab.”“In a cab?” asked Aaron with a puzzled face. “How did you get to the airport?”“I took the hotel shuttle here, it’s free and runs every 30 minutes.”“We’re taking a cab?” he responded.“Yes, a plain Jane taxicab, right from the cab stand.”“Huh?” he said as he looked at her with wide open eyes.“Let’s hurry, I’ll tell you in a minute,” as she grabbed him by the arm and walked him on through the terminal. Aaron felt like a little boy again, his big sister pulling him inside the house after he’d gotten off new red bike when she’d come outside to holler at him to come in for dinner, telling him how angry Mom might be that he wasn’t home in time. He knew now she wasn’t angry at him at the time, she was annoyed at being barked at by their mother and he could see it. It felt exactly the same now, she was bothered by something and he wasn’t the cause.They walked briskly through the airport and stepped outside through the automatic doors and walked down the passenger pick up area towards the cab stand….six people were on line in front of them. Aaron and Kathryn silently waited their turn after Kathryn had lifted her index finger to her lips and gently touched them as she looked at Aaron after letting go of his arm.“Where to?” asked the taxi dispatcher, when their turn came.“Fourteenth Street Northwest, just north of Constitution Avenue” Kathryn answered.“Right” said the driver and off they went, pulling gently away from the curb.Kathryn kept quiet until they were crossing over the Potomac River, past the golf course to the right, going over the next bridge into DC proper. She grabbed Aaron’s hand and clutched it.“You remember the hearing with the Treasury attorney, where I went with the accounting guy from CIG? The one broadcast on TV? Where I didn’t say anything?”“Sure” he said.“I thought it was a show hearing to be honest, and it was. But there was more going on than I thought.”“Oh, like what?” he asked back.“I didn’t ask you to come here.”“Sure you did,” he answered. “I was told to ask you to come here and not to tell you that.”Aaron sat quietly and looked straight ahead. The taxi moved along normally, the driver relaxed and probably thinking about getting back to Reagan National to pick up another fare. Slowly Aaron turned to Kathryn; he looked at her for a second and said slowly, “who told you not to tell me?”“My boss.”“When?” “Yesterday afternoon when I got here.”“You didn’t fly down yesterday morning like you said?”“No, I rented a car.”“Why?”“I don’t know” she answered, “something hit me, the urge to drive so I could leave and get back when I wanted to. There’s a rental car place on seventy seventh street in Manhattan, middle of the block on the south side of the street, I walk past it every once in a while. It’s across the street from a firehouse. Makes me feel secure, knowing there are firemen nearby. The idea of picking up the car right there and driving straight here seemed so easy, so liberating. No taxi or subway ride to the train station or the airport, no looking through my shoes, my luggage, nothing. Like when I used to drive home from Chicago.”Aaron knew something made her feel uneasy and that was quite a worry; she’d lived here for years and seemed quite happy and content the entire time. She hardly ever used the car she had here in DC, he remembered her calling home to ask about a dead battery. She must have let it sit for months for that to happen. Now suddenly the urge to leave as soon as she could? To go back to New York, of all places?“Why am I really here then and who wanted me to come?” Aaron asked. “You’re here to talk about the work done into the loss accounting and conversion to dollars, the whole deal I asked you to do.”“Right; so?”“I don’t think that’s it, or not all of it” said Kathryn.“Who wanted me here?” asked Aaron.“I don’t know and I’m afraid to know.”“Why are you afraid to know? WHY?” Aaron insisted.Kathryn leaned forward, slid open the plexiglass barrier between the back passenger compartment and the front seat of the cab, and asked the driver to pull over.“We’re not at Constitution Avenue yet; we’re only coming up to Independence,” answered the cabbie.“I know” said Kathryn, “I know. Doesn’t matter, please make a right and drop us down the block, across from the Smithsonian. The car turned right and headed down the street as Kathryn fished for the money in her purse; Aaron pulled out the cash and paid the driver before she could. They both climbed out on the right side and the cabbie popped open the trunk from the driver’s seat. Out came Aaron’s bag and so did Kathryn’s. The taxi pulled away. They stood on the sidewalk for a second, and Aaron looked at her and her small suitcase and asked, “if you checked out of the hotel, where’s the rental car?”Kathryn answered, “it’s still at the hotel, the Radisson on Route 1 by the airport.”“What the hell’s the matter?” he nearly shouted as looked at down at her.Her face drew back, her eyes opened wide and she looked up at him the same way he had seen a long, long time ago that now seemed like just yesterday afternoon. Her forehead large, her eyes wide open and her lips quivering; she crossed her arms in front and stepped back and turned her head sideways a little and looked down. She crossed her legs once as she stepped back again slowly and pulled her arms tighter around herself, inhaled deeply and looked up. Her eyes glazed over and she pulled her lips back in tight towards her teeth. * * *Aaron Miller sat on the steps looking through the railing down at the living room of the house; his parents’ backs were turned to him. Kathryn sat there fidgeting, her toes turned in towards each other as her father asked her questions and her mother stood with legs planted in a defiant stance. Her mother cut her father off and shouted at Kathryn about not trying hard enough in school. Aaron worried that he’d be unable to try hard enough once he’d left kindergarten and looked at his sister; she glanced furtively at Aaron, his eyes open and pleading, her eyes glazed over and her lips pulled back tight towards her teeth.* * *“Aaron” said Kathryn, yanking his attention back to Independence Avenue, Washington, DC, “you have to leave here, you can’t go there, I’m sure they’re waiting for us at the Commerce Department and we may not be able to leave right away. I’m not going there and you’re going right back, right now.”What’s the matter, what’s going to happen?” Aaron pleaded.“We go back up the street and get on the Metro at the Smithsonian station, take the train to L’Enfant and then change for the airport” said Kathryn, her voice cracking with worry.“Where are we going?”“To get the airport shuttle I took, back to the hotel and we’re getting in the car.”“Why’d we come here then?” Aaron fairly demanded.“I don’t know, going through the motions, being loyal, but I got a strong, not-so-good feeling about this all of a sudden.”“How can you just not show up?”“I’m quitting but I don’t care about that!” she half shouted and then she started to sob, putting her face in her right hand, holding her right elbow with her left hand. Aaron stepped closer and put his arms around his big sister and she cried for a second and then fought to regain control of herself, saying suddenly “Aaron, we have to get out of here, in as little as half an hour, forty five minutes at the most, somebody’s going to get worried and angry and come looking for us, for me and for YOU.”They rushed across the eight lanes wide boulevard and down the sidewalk to the station; once inside Kathryn bought tickets with cash and they headed down to the platform. In no time a train came along, and in one stop they were at L’Enfant; they left the train and rushed to the next platform, following the signs for the yellow line and Reagan National Airport. Once on their way, Aaron turned to his sister and said calmly and firmly, “Kathryn, what’s going on?”“We have to be in the car and on the road as soon as we can, the moment they can’t find us they’ll start checking airplanes, trains, everything. I’m sure we’re already on the security camera inside the train stations and they’ll look there soon, too. If we go into that meeting and say what we investigated, we may not get out for a few days!” she exclaimed.“Who is going to look for us?” Aaron insisted.“Whoever they want to send!” she retorted, almost shouting. “This is Washington, DC; they can send any of a number of people after us, Treasury agents, Federal Police, intelligence, military police, hell they could send the damned FBI if they want to!”“Who’s ‘they’?” “Whoever is behind this sell-off. They’re trying to sell off some of the European subsidiaries and I recommended the guy who was sent with me to the hearing, to be a good person to help with the negotiation. He helped get me the information you and your girlfriend analyzed.”“Okay” said Aaron. “Why’s that important?”“He told me he’d been visited by a guy named John Cartwell, working for an accounting and consulting firm in England called Worthington. The Commerce department hired AMM to do this for CIG and there were visits from them. Why in the world would the buyer’s accountant visit our offices? AMM was hired to audit and certify numbers and the English outfit would do the same at the other end, in other words, over in Italy.”“How’d you find out about this?”“Complete coincidence; I was in line to pick up my train ticket to Philadelphia, you know, where you give them your credit card and then sign it for the reserved train, the one that eventually comes here to DC, the last stop. Well, I heard the guy say his name, Cartwell, John and then he paid and signed. The only reason I remember it was because of the clipped accent, very British, and because I saw him again at the coffee shop where I sometimes go in the morning to buy a cup to take with me in the taxi to work.”“You recognized him just from that?”“After the train station, I saw him again in the coffee shop, he was sitting down, reading the paper. I saw him there a few times, in fact.”“Your guy John Marcus saw this ‘Cartwell’ fellow?”“Yes, but no, didn’t see him physically. Marcus told me they’d had a visit from a Cartwell that he never saw, whose name showed up on a file sign out card, a file he Marcus was using. Marcus was the only one using those hard copy files, for years. They get shredded after one year, after being backed up both in original electronic form and scanned hard copy printouts. The two should match, and when they do, it certifies accurate source documents. Then they’re shredded after the financial statements are certified. The sign out card lasts for years before it gets filled up.”“Why does Marcus sign them out?” asked Aaron.“Standard audit procedure; outside auditors only examine information as provided; they can’t search for things as if they were staff; compromises impartiality; you get the idea.”“Kathryn, maybe you’re reaching; you’re paranoid.”“Am I?” she said. “And if I’m wrong?”“You’re sure?”“I see a guy at the coffee shop, but I only remember him because I see him again at the train station and hear his name and then I see him again at the coffee shop, a couple of times. Always there before I go in, and stays there after I leave. Then he shows up visiting CIG signing out files, but my guy, the only one who ever looks at those files, never sees him either.”“You’re right, the coincidence of the century.”“Then I present my report on all of your good work, and we show a long term undervaluation of the company, the operations are probably worth a lot more than we thought. I think this is a good thing for two reasons; higher profits in the past mean higher taxes, now overdue that were inadvertently not paid, so when we revalue, the overdue taxes increase the debt payable back to Treasury; maybe the stock should be worth more now also, that’s good for everybody AND the icing on the cake means they can sell off the foreign subsidiaries for more money, right?”“Maybe not” said Aaron, “what if they make accusations of bad accounting?”“The accounting standard was followed, we just found a hole in it, is all,” answered Kathryn. “They suddenly wanted me to explain how I’d come up with the figures I had and I explained the whole thing, front to back. They got really ticked off that I’d hired an outside consultant – which was you – to look into it. I told them I needed a quick and independent voice and I couldn’t afford the three quarters of a million dollars some outside firm would charge; my budget didn’t have that in it, and almost nobody would touch the company anyway. Even if I’d gone through their three month competitive bid process, which I didn’t have time for. Every big accounting firm had been involved in some way and would take another month just to finish asking questions to make sure they weren’t getting into a conflict.”“When was this, when they got angry?” Aaron asked.“Just two weeks ago.” Kathryn looked outside the train. “We’re here, airport. Let’s go.” The train rolled to a stop, the doors opened and the Miller siblings stepped quickly out of the train and off to the rest of their lives.* * *“Goddammit, Worthington” said an exasperated Bill Wozniak, “do you folks answer telephones?”“Now, now” responded Simon Worthington calmly, “did we have a bad morning commute or what? Why the urgency?”“Cut the crap, I try calling your ‘moe, bile’ and your office, too, and it’s double buzz heaven, that’s what it is.”“The idea behind the mobile phones” answered Worthington, “is that I can be reached during usual working hours outside the office, presuming I’m not in a dead zone or otherwise engaged, which does happen. What’s the urgency at your end?”“I’ve got real heat on my ass, and need to know, where’s your man Cartwell?”“In London, I presume.”“Where’s he hiding, right now?” demanded Wozniak.“I doubt he’s hiding anywhere, I’m sure he’s either home or somewhere here in or near the office. What’s the urgency I ask again, old boy?” said Simon Worthington.“I need him to tell me if he knows about any files and information on Consolidated Indemnity being taken from the offices by staff or consultants hired by staff, and I need to know pronto!”“Right; I’ll find him straight away and revert” clipped Worthington as Wozniak, somewhat less agitated but not yet near the realm of calm, thanked him and hung up. * * *“Wozniak, I have to tell Treasury and State something, and I need more background noise.”“Understood, sir.”“The sale and negotiation were going fine, weren’t they? Now we have to restate results for how many years?”“Just as I said sir, more than ten.”“Shit. We can’t un-offer to sell, now, can we?”“I don’t suppose so, no, that can’t be done.”“Sure it can be done, just photoshop a horse’s butt onto my portrait.”“No sir, I don’t think so.”“I can’t blame previous administrations for this; and if I can’t lay the blame off, I have to eat it. What the hell is this ‘increase repayments for higher taxes’ shit? It doesn’t matter what we get for selling off these piss ant operations, it’s supposed to be background noise; I have to get this albatross off my neck. I should have cut the operation off as soon as I could and blamed the previous administration right then and there. What with the national debt, income and value added taxes and other crap we’re in the middle of right now, I needed this thing to go away. Who popped the lid on this problem?”“Kathryn Miller, Compliance.”“Where’d she come from?”“Treasury. Assigned by your Money Czar.”“Fire the bitch, now.”“She quit, apparently.”“Quit ‘apparently’? We don’t know? How the hell does somebody quit but we don’t know?”“She maintained a visit office at Treasury but didn’t keep anything in it, so there was nothing to take or clean out. Her office at the Consolidated Indemnity Building in New York was just left as is, but no personal items. Her secretary, administrative assistant, a Ms. Sullivan, said Miller didn’t have much in there anyway; a nice wood mounted gold pen and pencil set, family pictures, paperweights, a small bagful of stuff, at most. The forty sixth floor there, where that office is, it’s secure but they don’t search what look like large handbags, especially not of people they know, like her.”“Why do we think she quit?”“There was a hand written note on the desk, with just two words on it; ‘good luck’.”“Okay, prosecute her, for something.”“We don’t know where she is; we believe she’s at her parents’ house in Ohio. I’m sure we could find her, but we can’t approach her. Have to assume she’ll be hostile. What do we do, arrest her? We need something to make it stick.”“We need more background noise and we should put the heat on her. Years ago I represented a community organization and they had a payroll company screw-up. Somebody inside the payroll contractor stole from the payroll itself; the thieves were in cahoots with a bank employee and also somebody inside my client, the community group. The thieves set up accounts for fictitious employees; they even sprayed some money into a real but inactive account from some innocent guy, who had nothing to do with it, just to knock ‘em off the scent. The payroll company paid it all back, of course, they had to. Not only would they lose my client as a customer, if word got around, they’d lose who knows how many other customers, so we all went after the innocent guy, blamed him for everything. Whoever said the law is a shield? Sharpen up the edges of that shield and it makes a good sword. We sued the innocent guy, who had no idea where the money came from, we never gave him a chance to return the money and we never explained what happened; we planted his name in the paper saying false things about him, the works. Even got him fired from his job. It worked beautifully. Let’s do it to her.”“Yes sir, do we bring a civil suit against her for malfeasance?”“Yes, accuse her of abusing her authority, disregard for procedure, anything you think will stick. Sue her for her salary back. Is she rich?”“No sir, I don’t believe so. Local gal from around Cincinnati, middle class family, adopted. Hired her brother to do some very good work uncovering the whole mess.”“Nail him, too, if we can. Sue him for the fees back, call it nepotistic conflict of interest, whatever.”“Yes sir, but there’s one consideration I haven’t mentioned.”“Which is?”“They’re adopted children, parents on in years now, and they’re different colors.”“The two of them, brother and sister?” “Yes, from each other.”“How tender, nice white folk adopt a black and a white baby.”“The parents aren’t white, Mr. President.”Part II- 18 -To The President:Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. At times of challenge human nature seeks out inspiration. As you know well, we find ourselves in a time of great challenge as I write this.Human history has always presented challenges that can be addressed in some way; if nothing practical can be done, it is still possible to at least lament them and chronicle the effects. It runs counter to our American culture to face a challenge with indifference and passive acceptance. We have achieved much in our history, as you know so well, with the confidence that we are not victims of circumstance, we are masters of our way. We understand there may be bumps in the road, however we identify, fix, prevent and learn to avoid future bumps to the best of our abilities.I ask you, as our leader, at what point have we gone too far in our efforts to make things good for all? We accept that we cannot detect, prevent or lessen the force of powerful hurricanes or volcanic eruptions. When our well intended efforts go awry, do our reactions show we’ve permanently turned away from the idea that perfection isn’t possible? That a rare, unfortunate failure was inevitable? Will we always reflexively criticize well planned initiatives that turn out badly? Focus only on the less advantaged few and disregard the relatively well many? Zoom in on liabilities as if no assets they represent?By trying to provide for the remaining few, we have created mediocrity for all. I know I don’t speak alone as I direct these thoughts to you, Madam, that many of my fellow citizens share them; we have forgotten that an ideal, a principle and the concepts upon which they stand are our destiny. We will always journey towards ever broader understanding of our ideals, accepting the reality of imperfections.Uncertainty and even calamity will follow us and we can carry strength, faith and belief in ourselves and our Creator as defenses. Your belief in us, in yourself and in the goodness of our principles have given us true hope in this time of great challenge, one we on Earth have created and out of which we as Americans will overcome. Very truly yours,A Majority - 19 -Urburbia“Honey, I have to get going in about forty five minutes or I’m going to be off schedule. I have to make it to Little Rock by tonight, there could be traffic going through Memphis.” “Why are you leaving so early?” asked Kathryn, as she turned her head back towards the hallway where her husband was starting up the stairs.“I wanna have dinner early, get some work done and get to bed at a decent hour before I start out for Fort Worth tomorrow morning,” he answered.“What time do you need to get to the plant?” asked Kathryn.Silence was the answer. Christopher was already upstairs; he didn’t hear her.Kathryn turned back to the magazine she was reading and looked over at young Chris Jr. in his high chair, happily playing with his spoon as he watched cartoons on the wall mounted flat screen. She shifted in her chair as she flipped the page to the next article. The headline boldly asked, “Should you conceive again before your baby’s two?” Kathryn skimmed the article’s first few paragraphs; is it better to have the next baby before the Terrible Two’s set in? Or afterwards? How will the baby react? If one’s a boy and then a girl….if your husband becomes irritated……if the house is a mess……and so on and so on.Kathryn thought back to a time before hers when such an article would never show up in a magazine like this; in fact, back then, in such a magazine, there would never be an article about when to get pregnant. Homemaking only, no baby making. How many babies were born within two years of their older sibling during the boom? She knew plenty of baby boomers and never heard of successive births one and a half to two years apart being a problem for kids at that time; so she was sure there isn’t. If there were a problem, nowadays it would have been bisected and dissected to death and somebody would have developed a medication for it, that’s for sure. Christopher came back down the stairs, the steps squeaking just before he reached the lowest landing; she heard him drop his luggage on the floor and come towards the kitchen. “Honey” she asked, “what do you think we can do about the squeak on the stairs?”“Call the landlord.”“I did that, he says he’ll try to get to it, but can’t promise anything. He won’t do anything about it, I’m sure; he’s probably just saying that.”“Yeah, you’re right, it does squeak sometimes, now that you mention it.”“Now that I mention it?” Kathryn answered with an ironic smile, “you have ears; you can walk. You don’t hear it squeak every time you go upstairs and every time you come downstairs?”“Well, yeah” said Christopher in a muffled grunt as he stuffed a half a piece of toast and a fried egg into his mouth at the same time.“Didn’t do that when we looked at the house. Why did this start now?”“Sweetheart” he answered, his voice now clearer, having swallowed his mouthful of food, “these townhouses were built in the late 1940s; I bet that staircase is mostly original and it’s been rebuilt a few times, and the last time it was done with straight nails; has to be screwed together to avoid the rubbing.”“Can’t you do that?”“What, put in screws?”“Yes” she answered firmly.Uh,…probably but it’s gonna take some work; the carpeting has to be pulled up and I have no idea how to install carpet, or worse, reinstall carpet, and I don’t know how to take it up without damaging it.”“We get new carpet, then?” smiled Kathryn, who went on, “yeah I know, we can’t afford it.” She looked down, suddenly sad. Chris Jr. continued to play happily and watch his cartoons; Christopher husband grabbed his glass of juice and came over to sit next to his wife.“Even if we did, would we be throwing away the money if we moved in a few years?”“The carpet’s tired looking, it would be a nice cheery thing to replace it,” she offered.“Yes, but what can we expect in a rented house? I guess there’s a leased house somewhere where everything looks nearly new,” her husband stated, “but what do they cost? I guess those tenants would probably buy, if they can get a mortgage.”“I know honey, it’s just that I’d like to pretend everything was great with us and great with the world. It’s my nesting instinct I guess; I heard that it’s stronger in older mothers; younger mothers have strong mothering feelings, my age bracket is also about the abode.”Christopher gulped the last of his juice, put down his glass and leaned closer to flip over Kathryn’s magazine to the cover. He gave an approving look and said “your domestic wisdom, comes from this fine publication?”“Oh, knock it off!” she exclaimed. “Yeah, sometimes they have articles like that, but it’s not what I read, it’s how I really feel about it.”“We’ll have some nice carpeting in a real nice house soon, but nobody can predict when, dear. You know we need to save everything we can.”“Yes, of course. Speaking of saving, you didn’t hear me ask you a question when you were, I guess, upstairs, did you?”“No” he said. “What question?”“At what time do you have to be at the Fort Worth plant tomorrow?”“Two o’clock.”“You couldn’t fly? They have a big airport there, you know; ever hear of it? DFW? Do you really have to save GM the difference between the airfare and a couple of tanks of gas to drive there and back?”“Yes, I do. Plus we’re instructed to take the free hotel van from the airport to the hotel, check in and then the plant sends a fleet van to get the five of us at the hotel. So for 4 days, we’re stuck unless we can get that van after work, and I don’t know if we can. The plant’s in podunkville, like every assembly plant, and the hotel has almost nothing around it. Honey, it’s a company car I drive, so I don’t care about mileage; the plane ticket costs triple the gas.”“I know the new shareholders are real tightwads, but you’re losing almost your entire Sunday, plus half of Saturday on the way back and this isn’t the first time,” she answered.“Honey, they really do care about expense savings; they did a bold thing buying out the federal government, and it’ll work out very well for the smart shareholders that hung on. Until they turn several more consistent years of profit it’s a political tightrope. They are walking on eggs with the union mess after they moved so much manufacturing to a non-union jurisdiction, and they have to show that the profit they’ve made wouldn’t have happened if they’d stayed in union compulsory territory with those union expenses. For now, tightness is the word of the day.”“How long’s the drive from Little Rock?” “Six hours, maybe less if we make it through the border checkpoint quickly. I want to leave early so I want to get to Little Rock as soon as I can. It’s two thirds of the trip.”“I see, I see,” Kathryn answered glumly. “I miss you when you’re away; it’s nice when we put Chris to sleep and then sit in bed to watch TV.”“Yes sweetheart, I miss it too, but think of the alternative. Plus, look at the health insurance we have; look how many health insurance companies went under, despite most of that law finally being thrown out. Think of how much money here little Chris would have cost us; having a baby is an elective procedure now? Well having an abortion is pretty much elective, since pregnancy is pretty much elective, there we go. At least there’s some consistency….thank God I have an employer with a Texas domicile that can qualify its employees in the US.”“Yes, I know. Any chance we’d be moved there?”“Hard to say; the local situation is interesting, talking to the plant staff. They never have an applicant problem. After they forced illegals out of the shadows, between citizens and applicants from the US, they always get plenty of candidates. Maybe if we offered to move at our own expense…but I dunno. Since they moved all the big cheeses there along with the headquarters, I think that’s the end of relocation packages, pretty much. You really want me to look into it?”“Is it nice there?”“Nice as anywhere, and it snows a lot less.”“Keep your eyes open, I’m sure your spot here can be filled by someone. Can we come back even if we became citizens there?”“I’m sure; have you heard of it being a problem?”“No, that’s why I was wondering. Oh dear,” said Kathryn as she tapped her watch, “you’re getting closer to your forty five minutes; time to go!” and with that she stood up, picked up his glass and went to the kitchen counter. She put it down next to the sink and switched to the all weather television station; Chris Jr. seemed to have forgotten all about his cartoons. Cities flipped onto the screen five at a time in alphabetical order; she watched and waited. “Honey!” she shouted. Silence. “Honey!!!” she shouted louder. Silence.Kathryn ran out the front door just in time to see Christopher close the trunk and walk to the driver’s door. She trotted up to him, and gave him a kiss and said, “weather forecast is sunny for Dallas and Fort Worth tomorrow, just like it’s supposed to be here.”“Great” he said. “You didn’t have to come outside in the cold without a jacket; I was just coming back in to say good bye. Thanks for telling me; I don’t like long drives in the rain unless I’m coming home; still not fun but more to look forward to,” he said smiling before he gave her a kiss back and climbed into his white four door Chevrolet and started the engine. Kathryn stood back at the curb as the car pulled away, waving good bye to her husband in the early morning light that filtered through almost bare branches and cast long shadows across the street and made the day look promising and full of hope.Back in the kitchen a moment later, the television weather host was giving a rundown of the weather expected across the continent. She lifted little Chris Jr. from his high chair and gently put him down. He immediately started his crawl across the floor; Kathryn thought how she’d be a millionaire if she could invent politicians as reliable as that kid, that would move forward instantly every time the way he did when he got to the floor. She looked back up at the television screen.“Across the central US, south through Kansas and Oklahoma, high pressure will dominate all day with sunny skies. The same also for most of Texas, a repeat of the beautiful weather there yesterday for the President’s visit, her first there after meeting with several delegations which have previously visited Washington DC. Farther west, low pressure approaches from the Pacific, and rain associated with that system could begin to affect California as early as….” Kathryn flipped through channels as Chris Jr. made another lap around the legs of the kitchen table. DNN, always showing good video, was about to re-broadcast portions of the speech just mentioned by the weather host; she stayed on that channel. The news hosts were discussing the re-broadcast about to come on. The screen filled with the expanding image of the female host from the left, her colleague disappearing as she spoke:“The President made her first official visit yesterday, meeting in Austin with both Senators and House members in addition to the Governor General. DNN’s own Bill Mathewson was there to speak to legislators with whom the president met. Let’s go to Bill’s questions with one senator.”The screen switched to a local camera angle outdoors, with the light rose colored stone of the capitol building in the background. Bill Mathewson turned to his guest. The on-screen banner below showed the guest’s name and title; Patrick Daniels, Senator.“Senator, many thanks for your time. Your represent what district?”“Thank you for having me” replied Daniels. “My district is a good portion of Houston, mostly on the western and southern parts of the city and metro area.”“Mr. Senator, we understand you participated in all previous delegations that visited Washington DC; what significance do you give to today’s visit and speech?”“We take it as recognition of our status as an independent sovereign territory in a way that didn’t exist at the same level previously. We’ve gotten the impression that certain elements in Washington DC have and will always consider us politically parochial and in more recent times, renegade. That perspective papers over the very significant reasons – of which there were many – that independence was initiated. Our previous delegations were functional in purpose, to work out day-to-day details involving commerce, trade, migration and so forth. The significance today is these are largely recognized as a result, culminating in this visit.”“I see, Senator. Do you believe any reasons remain unresolved? The reasons for which secession was first discussed?”“Largely, no but there do remain a few. Incidentally, we prefer to say ‘independence’; secession is a correct technical word but it has the connotation of rejection. We sought and declared our independence for our benefit, not to push away but rather to stop corrosive and damaging interference. To underline this, please allow me a very brief mention of our guiding principles: people before politics; fiscal accountability; limited government, free market principles, protect borders, strong defense; protect life, support strong families and uphold Judeo-Christian beliefs that underpin our founding. We’ve resolved our issues with these to a great extent but there remain details with borders.”“Thank you Senator, what details might those be?”“Illegals tried to walk in from New Mexico after we pretty much closed off the entire Rio Grande; our deterrence efforts, which have been effective, along the twenty miles or so of western border going north from El Paso towards Las Cruces, New Mexico and the northern border from there running east to the Guadalupe Mountains, haven’t, well, let’s say, those deterrence measures haven’t been well received in New Mexico. We understand this; the solution would be for New Mexico and the other states to secure their own borders, which still isn’t done effectively. This is an issue where Washington DC could resolve New Mexico’s unhappiness with our border control, which we would reduce where we could. Washington DC’s serious consideration of a state’s position has simply not existed for many years. Ironically, it’s one of the issues Washington, DC willfully ignored, which contributed to our move for independence.”“Interesting, Senator, thank you. You mentioned “illegals” and for the record, what does that mean, exactly?”“Entry into the Republic without permission. US and Canadian citizens, and all residents and legal visitors of any nationality to both, may enter with identification, as can nearly anyone else, with permission. Our interdiction efforts detain almost no one from these groups. Our deterrence is effective and the invasion rate is very low, even if our methods look unpleasant to our western neighbor.”“Did this subject come up during discussions with the visiting president?”“No, it did not; we don’t believe it’s a productive subject for us to mention, not any more. It was brought up many times prior to independence initiatives and fell on some truly deaf ears; we don’t see what practical benefit there will be to discuss this now. The visiting president didn’t mention it; we prefer to focus on much more pressing priorities.”Thank you Senator, we appreciate your time.”“You’re quite welcome.”- 20 –Far but ClosingKathryn ran down the stairs to grab the telephone; it had already rung four times and she knew the answering machine would catch it at six. “Hello?” she said loudly.“Hi honey!” said Christopher. “You didn’t recognize the number? You always know it’s me from caller ID!” he exclaimed.“No, I didn’t look very closely. Hang on”. Kathryn held the handset out and looked carefully at the small display, area code eight one seven. “I wouldn’t have recognized that anyway; you usually call from your celphone, wherever you are.”“You’re right, didn’t occur to me. Celphone’s charging so I used the hotel phone.”“You didn’t bring your car charger?”“No, it wasn’t in my briefcase. Wall charger was there, I’m using it now. I talked a lot in the car, ran down the battery.”“You don’t like to talk on the telephone in the car.”“No, that’s right but when ‘bidniss’ calls, I answer. Like how some people say ‘bidniss’?”“They really say that?”“Sure do; like the ‘awl bidniss’, ‘gubmint bidniss’ they say interesting things here.”“Is it warm?”“Little warmer as I went south, but clear and sunny, just like you told me. Nice and pleasant.”“Did you make it to your meeting on time?”“Got to the plant at one thirty, way ahead of time.”“You have a happy set of colleagues, since you took your car?”“Sure do. Nobody likes the van if we can take a car. Some guys prefer the designated driver arrangement in my car, and it’s usually me, since I’ll only drink one or two beers. Nobody wants to be in a wreck in the company van, since it’s assigned to the plant.”“How’s things going there?”“Great guns; the expansion plan is going to be executed right on schedule and what’s interesting, what I didn’t know, is that it will involve a new distribution center for parts and components. We all thought it would just be an expansion of manufacturing capacity, another assembly train. It will, but they decided that since so many components are both made here and brought here for assembly, it would make a lot more sense for spare parts inventory – the stuff that supplies dealers – to be located here also.”“Don’t you think there could be a punitive import tariff imposed?” Kathryn asked.“What, for the parts sent into the US? Of course, it’s possible, but remember Honda of America?” Christopher answered.“Sure, my father did a lot of interesting work with that plant, I remember when he drove to Marysville all the time when I was in high school, he’d be gone for a few days sometimes.”“Remember how they went after them, like all of the ‘foreign’ manufacturers who’d set up big facilities in the USA, started imposing enormous duties on both components coming into Ohio from the Far East and even export duties for finished cars and motorcycles being exported?”“No, not really, but that was around the time I was having fun with CIG, wasn’t it?”“Yes”, answered Christopher, “that was when. They decided companies with foreign headquarters, all of which had big assembly in the US, had to be subject to all those tariffs and duties since they couldn’t show enough US shareholders. Protectionism. You know what happened to those operations, right?”“So”, said Kathryn, “you don’t think they’ll try it again?”“No, I don’t, they can’t afford to have a move like that blow up in their face; car owners are keeping them a lot longer now, our parts sales are a lot higher than they ever were traditionally and if they make another move like that last stupid set of decisions, it’ll be more blood on the tracks. Fortunately, the White House would now oppose that, and I don’t think there’s the ability to override it. It’s a gamble to some degree, but these guys here are confident. They know for how long the complaints were gushing like an oil well about sending money to countries that don’t like the US very much, so when the shareholders, the sovereign wealth funds – and doesn’t everybody knows where that money came from – made the GM investment and got the federal government out of that part of the auto business, the stupid complaints stopped.” “How about us; any chance we would move there with the expansion?” Kathryn asked hopefully.“I have no idea, darling, it’s always possible. Nobody knows what human resource changes will be made, not yet.”I know it’s a long way off, but little Chris Jr., can you imagine him going to Southern Methodist or Baylor? Oh, that would be so wonderful; Aaron speaks really well of those schools, you know he went to UT.”“UT?” asked Christopher.“University of Texas, you know…..”“Oh yeah, the Longhorns! Ooops…that’s the short name, UT?”“Yes. Just think about Chris Jr., of the SMU Mustangs. What if he became a basketball player? I know you like Mustangs, even though they’re a Ford, ha ha, but still how nice would that be? Or the Baylor Bears?”“You’ve been looking into this, I see” said Christopher to his wife with a smile she could almost see over the telephone.“Yeah, I have……it’s sad to see what’s happened all around, and I don’t just mean us, I mean people like my parents. Losing their health insurance after that stupid law that, thank God was thrown out, but now they don’t have any. My father’s retirement savings cut in half to pay for his treatments. It’s so depressing, none of it had to happen. I hope if we can go someplace where those things aren’t so likely to happen, where we can have a chance like we don’t have now as much as people did in the 50s, 60s all the way until the debt blow-up. Someplace where that won’t happen.”“Yeah, that would be nice, it sure would, “said Christopher. “Okay, I’ll keep my ear to the ground and look for signs of opportunities. Maybe we’ll be lucky. Here we could even buy a house, I think.”“Oh please!” said Kathryn with a bright hope and joy in her voice, “I’ll go to St. Ann’s and even pray for this to happen for us!”“Okay sweetheart, you do that. By the way, isn’t that where you went to elementary school? Well, I don’t know where a church is around here, but I’ll try to do the same before I leave Friday morning.”“Yes, it is, I’ve never been back to visit; I love you, sweetheart,” said Kathryn. “Next week is a short one, you only work three days, right? You get Friday off?”“I love you, too darling. And yes and yes. Talk to you tomorrow if I get back from dinner with the crew at a decent hour. Bye.”“Okay, bye” said Kathryn and hung up happily. - 21 -YupurbiaAaron hopped down the steps, forgetting for a second about his wife, still asleep, taking advantage of her day off. He immediately hoped his running shoes would not make much noise going back up, enough that might wake her up. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and listened; nothing from upstairs. Good. He made a mental note to write a stick-it note and put it at the top of the staircase to remind him not to do that, after he took his running shoes from the upstairs hall closet.He walked to the kitchen and loaded the machine with a filter and two teaspoons of ground coffee and filled it with water, put in the carafe and hit the start button. It would be done in five minutes and he’d be back from his run in fifteen, and the brewed coffee would sit for ten minutes. He walked quickly to the front door, quietly stepped out and carefully closed the door shut behind him, pulling until he heard the ‘click’ of the latch. He bent over and reached for his toes, pulling himself down to stretch just once before running, just like he’d done before coming downstairs. He adjusted his sweatpants, stood back up and folded back the ends of the sleeves on his burnt orange sweatshirt. He hopped down the stoop and turned left, off on his run.He approached the corner and turned left; he thought of other runners or joggers he’d see with earphones and wondered why running was so boring they needed to listen to something, probably music. Didn’t this running time give them complete mental silence? Nobody but nobody could interrupt you while running; if you picked your route, you’d avoid a lot of cars but even so, driving was tougher than a jog and if you could do that, which almost everybody did on autopilot, you could concentrate.Aaron thought of his first hearing tomorrow before the medical review board; he’d told his client that it was a formality since it was non-binding, and no matter what the outcome, they could still proceed with the case. He believed his client wasn’t being very reasonable and should accept the settlement; unfortunately this guy, like more than a few people, didn’t believe in good faith. Settlement offers to him were a sign of weakness and when one was made, it meant they’d settle for more and to push harder. Aaron tried to impress upon the client that he could lose everything and the client complained Aaron was only telling him that in order to make sure Aaron got paid something, even if the client got less.Some things never change, he thought, how do you show you’re trying to give good advice?He admired the idea of the review board, and despite hysterical opposition, it was hotly debated and where voted into law, it worked. Would Ohio have to leave the US to get this law, he thought to himself. Since the doctors were assured they’d be paid their same averaged prior income for their appearance time, that they’d be excused in a patient emergency while serving and were allowed to schedule their two week board service up to one year in advance, there was never a shortage of willing physicians. Good attitudes meant good decisions and the number of lawsuits dropped by half. Aaron hoped this concept would catch on but was worried that its non-binding arbitration approach here wouldn’t work. It had to be compulsory for plaintiffs who intended to sue on medical cases, which is probably what made it successful; it was a medical malpractice grand jury. Aaron wondered about the irony of it all, the opposition to such compulsory legal procedures from the same groups of people who loved compulsory programs and taxes. Oh well.He rounded the corner and picked up the pace a bit, his quick run now moving along nicely……coffee waiting. What a shift from law school dreams of taking municipal suits for big contingent fees, police abuse cases and all that. Making big bucks for a service badly needed, he remembered thinking, but now he represented mostly clients who still wanted to cash in from an injury, and still thought doctors were all rich and all had huge insurance policies. Well, like business, not every deal you work hard on comes through but if you don’t swing at them, you never hit one. He’d hit on enough and was doing okay; he worried somewhat about his profession; the effect of turning courts into the enforcers of change, or drivers of change, amendments that couldn’t make it as legislation, all worried him; the precedent had been set for this over quite some time. The parties arguing couldn’t modify or negotiate them and would that have a good effect? The sovereign wealth funds that abruptly abandoned energy investments to buy out General Motors were sure called a bunch of kooks at the time, but the return on investment was handsome now and the move out of reach of union expenses made an enormous difference. What a smart gamble.He came up to the next and last right turn before the last block back to his house, and picked up the pace as fast as he could for this last stretch; Kathryn’s husband was really lucky to get on with them and what a risk they took; could importation of cars into the forty nine states have been shut down in retaliation? The medical case review board worked really well there; predictable medical costs, low taxes, more efficient operations, all produced savings that more than offset the cost of the move. Lucky Christopher and good for Kathryn, he thought. The ordeal they tried to put her through after she quit was disgraceful, and he couldn’t help think Christopher was a little more famous and admired for it; the GM brass in Fort Worth sure admired it. If only Kathryn could have seen that coming at the time; how bad she’d felt, how crushed, how rejected. Exactly the way they wanted her to feel, even though there was nothing to get out of it. All she did was find the hole and they threw her in it, or at least tried to; Aaron wished he’d not gotten involved but how would he have known? What a happy mother she was now.The Johnson’s cat sat tense under the last car before Aaron’s front door; it readied itself behind the back tire, staring at Aaron fast approaching. A gust of cool air blew leaves across the street. Aaron stared straight at the cat, just knowing it understood he was looking; it shot out across the street as Aaron waved his arms and growled. The cat disappeared under a car on the other side of the street. Aaron passed his imaginary, self imposed finish line and slowed his pace quickly to a walk and after ten steps or so, turned right around to walk back, crossing slowly to the other side of the street, hands on hips, chest lifting and falling with long heavy breaths. Mrs. Johnson stood on her stoop, holding a broom, staring at Aaron as he came closer.“You whippersnapper, you!” she said. “Tough guy scaring cats like that! You ran good today?”“Yes, Mrs. Johnson” said Aaron, “and if you think your cat got scared, just ask the last bird it took care of.”“My kitty wouldn’t go after no bird, not possible.”“Not possible for you to see, but I’m sure it has. Like saying a kid hasn’t eaten any candy; not that you might see.”“You youngsters know it all. Speaking of knowing it all, you lovely wife tells me you’re doing some of that new medical review stuff in your work, is that right?” she asked.“Yes I am, Mrs. Johnson” said Aaron as he stopped and stood there to chat for second, beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead.“I heard quite a bit about it, not getting any younger myself. You think it’s a good idea?”“Yes, probably. Court complaints all have to be treated evenly but some of the medical claims are just a money adventure. This looks like it might separate the adventures from the rest.”“They did it way down south, didn’t they?” asked Mrs. Johnson. “They have good medical insurance there now I heard.”“Yep, got a good system; my sister’s covered under a one of their plans; her husband was lucky, GM moved its headquarters and he got included.”“Oh yeah, I remember that; the Michigan people, especially that Detroit city council, boy was they screamin’ over it. We movin’ any more of our Ohio plants down there?”“No ma’am, I don’t think so, not anytime soon. Pardon my rush, but I’ve got coffee cookin’ and it’ll go bitter on me; I gotta go,” said Aaron as he drew a deep breath and got ready to cross the street.“All right, you go git your java, young man, and watch out for wild cats!” she said, as she turned back to her sweeping, removing the leaves that had blown onto the porch overnight, getting it ready for the next set that would blow onto that porch for her to sweep off tomorrow.“Thank you Mrs. Johnson, see you later” said Aaron as he trotted across the street and into his house and kitchen. Aaron poured a cup and set it on the counter; he leaned over and untied his double knotted running shoes, remembering not to dump them right there but to put them by the kitchen doorway to remind him to take them back to the upstairs closet. He walked over to the kitchen table with his coffee, sat down and clicked on the television. He took a sip of coffee.His wife came downstairs in her red polka dot pajamas, white puff slippers, her blond hair held in a bunch behind her head with one of those alligator clips, as Aaron called them.The television was showing a re-broadcast of the previous Sunday’s news show, Meet the Nation. The second half of the show was just set to begin; longtime host Bob Shaffner was introducing the guests. Aaron and his wife sat to watch.“Welcome to the second half of this morning’s edition of Meet the Nation, ladies and gentlemen, we’re fortunate to have with us this morning two distinguished guests, William C. Krementz, formerly of the Federal Treasury and now, the Prato Institute and State Representative Jodi Westheimer from California, Chair of the Ways and Means Committee of the California House. Ms. Westheimer and Mr. Krementz, welcome to the program.”“Good to be here” answered Westheimer.“Thank you for inviting us” said Krementz.“Let me begin with you, Mr. Krementz” said Shaffner, “your experience at the Federal Treasury in oversight of the now defunct Consolidated Indemnity Group probably gives you a more unique insight into the implications of current budget situation in Washington, would you agree with that statement?”“Yes sir, I would.”“You Ms. Westheimer,” said Shaffner as her turned to the California state legislator, “are on the record in your state saying that it was a grave error that a value added tax was repealed shortly after approval and prior to implementation, in contrast to Mr. Krementz, who has stated it was a bad idea from the beginning and the time spent on it was wasted, should have been spent on other issues. Can you expand on your position?”“Certainly. It was tragic enough that there was a default on the national debt, but it was clear that there was a perception of money creation to solve the debt crisis, and because we could no longer borrow, due to the current president’s oppositionist policies to approval of a higher debt ceiling, we had no other choice. It’s unfair to Americans to pay off investors but deny benefits to hard working taxpayers to do so. The VAT would have solved this, I believe.”Shaffner tuned to Krementz; “your response?” he said eagerly.“Tax policy has become confiscatory; in fact it’s been that way for a long time. California’s own default on its massive state debt begs the question of how much tax can be paid; that state was the most heavily taxed in the nation and yet still couldn’t live within its means. The president clearly saw that a national value added tax, when added to the already rampant inflation, would drive prices so high that the gains in tax revenue would never be realized and the practical effect would have been corrosive, expanding irresponsibly on the problem created in California. Fortunately, she vetoed the narrowly passed legislation and there isn’t the will to elect enough tax loving representatives to override it.”“I don’t know what you propose to solve the issue then, Mr. Krementz” retorted Westheimer. “If we don’t take in more money, we’ll never get back to prosperity.”“Quite the opposite” responded Krementz, “the taxes cause the deterioration of prosperity. As a clear example, examine the now independent former state. Have any of you ever visited the capitol building there?”“I haven’t” replied Westheimer.“I have” said Shaffner, “a magnificent structure. Your point however?”“The terrazzo floor directly beneath the rotunda was installed decades after joining the USA yet says ‘Republic’. Through a dozen more decades of statehood, it proudly remained. Today we must ask why, what did they know and understand, even then, that seems to have been lost on the USA?”Westheimer kept quiet and listened closely to Krementz.“The total amount of business income taxes, personal income taxes and excise taxes that were paid to Washington DC from the former state far exceeded the amounts returned to it, for various programs and direct state aid. By retaining those funds, the new Income Tax became far less than the combined total of social security, income and Medicare/Medicaid taxes previously paid to Washington DC. They were also able to lower sales tax rates by one third and yet total revenue to the treasury there increased significantly, so much so that nearly all direct and indirect benefits previously provided by federally controlled programs were able to be replaced. Some weren’t since they didn’t want or need, for example, education subsidies and unemployment benefits, all of which were already funded without Washington assistance. All prior social security and Medicare/Medicaid benefits due from Washington have been honored and furthermore, the voluntary benefit programs created to replace them currently charge premiums lower by a half than prior compulsory payroll taxes; and they’re voluntary. The projections for the run-off are, at this early stage in the projected ten year plan, already ahead of schedule. I would have thought it a great accomplishment to just keep up. Most importantly, income taxes are more fairly distributed; the progressive tax rates there are flatter than they ever were during the entire history of income taxes in the US. Total taxes are limited to twenty percent of incomes, and that includes sales taxes and property taxes. Only the first ten thousand in income is exempt and more than ninety five percent of voters pay the same ten percent rate. Waste and fraud in those medical programs have been reduced enormously; managing that function among twenty five million is far easier than among three hundred, and the improvement there demonstrates that.Businesses have been flocking there in droves and the upturns in housing starts, and everything related to migration in has been healthy and profitable. The illegal alien prison population, which was almost one third of inmates, has been reduced to a fraction of that. Most incarcerated felons were deported back to their nations of origin, aside from those having committed violent offenses such as rape, homicide and attempted, and most aggravated assaults. It was understood as not positive for a new ally nation to suddenly get back three thousand bad guys in a month. Nevertheless, this had an immediate, material reduction in state expense for corrections. Illegal aliens were given a ninety day reporting period and if they had no criminal record beyond illegal entry, they were allowed stay with a one hundred fifty dollar per month fine for two years, with review of status. That’s three thousand six hundred, and these fines more than covered the costs of the program, to verify addresses, employment and other tracking programs for the twenty four months, with individual review at the end. It was made clear that no permanent residence or citizenship was possible unless the alien voluntarily departed after registration and full payment of the fines, and then got on line. Sending money out is subject to a further twenty percent as part of the penalty. With the borders secured, illegals were forced out of the shadows and compelled to obtain temporary driver permits, liability insurance and pay their fair tax share. In short, it worked.What was most particularly objected to there was the internationalizing, as it was, of attempts to curtail constitutional rights. These were the treaties signed with other nations on firearms, under the guise of controlling illegal weapons trafficking. Hasn’t it always been borders and customs enforcement that would bear that responsibility? The objections put up by residents there were more than legitimate; modification of the US Constitution required three quarters of the states to ratify. No such process was undertaken, just a treaty was signed. That was supposed to have the effect of not just a law but nullification of the Bill of Rights? Such procedure was, and will always be, the province of a dictator. The treaties have since been abrogated, but what constraint has been placed on executive authority to prevent such action in the future? None that I have seen.Pardon me, Mr. Shaffner, I could go on and on, so let me conclude the thought; we at the institute have long stood in support of certain and specific principles for the USA and those were and are still regularly derided as wrong; because Washington DC simply invaded state’s rights at an ever faster rate, I think the collective assumption was that it always could. Nobody in a serious policy position stopped to think deeply that at some point, a segment of the population would consider a sacred line to have been crossed. Political leaders that sought increasing size of the government, without calling it that or thinking it was their objective, on a regular basis took their cues from a compliant press that, inside their own political sound chamber, repeated the idea that opposition was a shrill fringe, marginal and not to be taken seriously.”Westheimer jumped in to add her opinion; “the damage to the economy from the tax strike was selfish and helped precipitate the crisis from which we just don’t know when we’ll able to emerge. It was unpatriotic and closed minded and did enormous damage. I don’t believe I’ll understand such self centered behavior, ever.”Krementz responded, “You do understand employment, personal income, standard of living and economic growth, don’t you? All of these things were better at that moment, have since improved and the gap is increasing even now. The current and former Republic took far less than it gave; when the federal government started trying to bail states out of their own messes, that was the line crossed. Either it’s accomplished by printing money, which has a terrible devaluation and inflationary effect, and for that former state, which was already the largest in exports, such money printing caused a large negative effect; or, it’s done by direct subsidies to the financially strapped states, which by definition, have to come from other states. Why does a state that lives below its means and runs a surplus need to subsidize others that consistently live above theirs?” Krementz lowered his hands to the table, crossed his fingers, sat back and looked eagerly at both his fellow guest and at the host.Shaffner interceded; “quite a discussion, quite a discussion.” He turned to his female guest and asked with a curious look, “Ms. Westheimer?”“Yes,” she responded. “We in California have had fiscal difficulties, to be sure, and I agree generally self created.”Krementz cut her off; “‘self-inflicted’ might be a more honest description”.Westheimer shot back an ironic and cold stare but didn’t respond. Instead she continued, “the stunt they pulled by placing all federal taxes in specific escrow accounts and then telling the federal government those funds would not be sent unless certain issues were addressed amounted to blackmail, to coercion and were un-American.”Krementz smiled, “it’s no longer part of the US, so I agree with you on that point. Remember, a founding principle of the USA is that a government only derives its authority from the consent of the governed. What mechanism do you propose for withdrawing that consent, if not the one used? It was peaceful yet effective.”Westheimer responded, “there was no need to do this; it did damage to the nation and achieved no progress.”Krementz counter-jabbed; “Even Thomas Jefferson wrote that to compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. He also wrote that the tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots. That was nearly two and half centuries ago. This time, no blood was spilled in the independence which was undertaken specifically to escape the misuse of taxes, the product of labor, for ineffective and deleterious means. The British Crown clearly believed its colonies in North America had no need to declare and then fight for independence at that time. I don’t however believe that point of view was widely shared in those former colonies, and I can assure you from several visits there, there is little sympathy for the idea that the independence wasn’t necessary. Anyone opposed had ample opportunity to leave and certainly some did so, most of whom regret it. I would again refer you back to employment, investment, economic growth, population growth and all indicators for the above, compared to itself both before independence and now to any state of similar size, or group of states. When viewed in that light, your contention that it did damage and produced no progress simply doesn’t hold up.”Westheimer kept quiet for a moment. Bob Shaffner asked her for a comment.She replied, “I must say Mr. Krementz is correct, things have improved for them with their independence. That’s irrefutable.”Krementz concluded, “The Prato Institute has long argued for reforms along the lines of those implemented in Austin and, in fact, we believe many of our initiatives were used as the basis for current policy there. The results speak for themselves.”Westheimer responded, “selfish behavior was not the answer to the problem, it made things worse, plain and simple.”Krementz fired back, “Made things worse for the states that put themselves in a vulnerable position through a long series of willful, voluntary decisions. I won’t re-hash the points I’ve already made, just allow me to conclude, since I know our allotted time for the segment is ending and I’ve taken more than my healthy share of it, to say that committing suicide in solidarity doesn’t turn it into something other than suicide. At some point, if one is to survive, one must act in one’s own best interests to achieve survival, even if that implies a detrimental effect elsewhere. Is collective destruction any consolation to us as we arrive at the Pearly Gates of national finance?”Bob Shaffner turned to his other guest and asked, “Ms. Westheimer, any concluding thoughts?”“No, nothing further” she said with a forced, weak smile and so the host spoke in conclusion; “Then with that, we here at Meet the Nation wish to extend out thanks to you both for appearing today and for the lively discussion.”“It was an honor” said Jodi Westheimer.“A pleasure to appear” answered Krementz, and with that Aaron switched channels to This Old House to see the latest in renovation. His wife looked at him and asked, “Kathryn wants to move there, doesn’t she?”“Yes, she does” said Aaron. “You’ve been back there many times, haven’t you?” she asked.Aaron smiled and looked at his college ring. “Yes” he answered, I drove down to visit my college buddies all the time. Great place. Friendly. Hurts to think it isn’t US territory anymore.”“You think they see it that way?”“It’s got to be painful, no doubt, but it’s different. I knew it was college and I’d be leaving most likely afterwards but I grew to like the place a lot. Maybe I would have grown to like anyplace I’d gone to college, but still there’s something unique about it. You’d like it there. Anybody would. They were fed up, no doubt. I remember the old governor giving a speech, he was talking about the federal government trying to stuff federal money into the state government to create an unemployment fund for part time, hourly wage workers. They refused it for one reason; after the first year, Texas alone would pay for it, no more federal subsidy. The old governor said, ‘we’re tired of bureaucrats from Washington coming down to Texas telling Texans how to run Texas!’ Can you imagine a governor from any other state saying that?”“No” said his wife. “I guess that’s why it isn’t a state anymore.” - 22 -Hit Men“They are weak now.”“I agree, they are weak now but we have waited too long; was it not better to strike during a time of distraction rather than just weakness?”“No; we have been patient with this Satan, as we have always. You remember his counter-attack, the one we did not expect? Distraction can lead them to focus; a loud noise from a deep sleep, they focus on the noise and what danger is there. They are not like us. To our big noise they responded; because they could. They are less able to respond now, and maybe less willing? They have squandered resources on material distractions and now they struggle to pay for it all; they have forced themselves into a position to pay debt before security, protection once strong which they disassembled before their crisis.”“Why attack them now? We should have done it before, when it was not so expected. There was some sympathy; they looked hard to find goodness in the fools who came to us believing they could go back there, do the job and then escape. It was not believed such fools were a danger. That was the time to act.”“No. Had we acted they would have reacted again. Now they will not react, because they will not know where to strike back. Their intelligence is weak. There will be no evidence, no trail to follow. Our plan is good.”“So you say we act soon?”“Yes, the plan is examined many times and is ready. It will not be difficult to execute.”“When do we act?”“The infidels there begin a shopping season on the last Friday of their November month, which is for more than four weeks. If we wait later in this period, the economic effect will be less, much less. If we strike on that day, we can make it last through the entire period. We must strike each target location at the same moment in two places, and effect a follow up hit at the first three of the six. They will be timed ten minutes apart. News will travel quickly about New York and Philadelphia and attention will be focused there.”“Then what?”“Number three at twenty minutes from number one, in Fort Lauderdale.” “Not Miami?”“No, too many people there, whose loyalty is not strong, will blame the US and not feel part of the Great Satan. They have become a part, by going to participate in this corrupt system and take in its material goods. Fort Lauderdale will not feel this way as much; it will be seen as more like the remaining targets.”“Where are targets four, five and six?” “North central and West.”“Not south?”“No, the south effect will not be strong. Before a large economic damage might have been in the break-away territory, not now. They will not react as other target places; our ability to strike there again will not be strong. They will take up arms, identify potential agents, remove them and prohibit more; fear will subside. In other places the fear will stay strong; they will not take up arms; they will stop themselves, they believe it wrong in those cities. There are some places where the reaction will be similar to the rogue republic, but the economic damage would be much less, so we can forget them. The target cities will retreat in fear; that will hurt the infidels most.” “Very good, so it is done.”“God is Great.”* * *“Mr. Miller, please step into the office; right this way,” said the assistant who held the door for him. “Chad Jones asked me to apologize, but of course he will also, but he knew your appointment to see him was at nine o’clock; his telephone rang and he could not get off the call.”“That’s quite all right, I’m just heading back to Cincinnati after this, so I’m not pressed for time right now.”“Good, but he still will apologize; he’s all about being on time.”“Well, I’ll calm him down” Miller joked. The assistant smiled and led him to Chad Jones’ open office door. As soon as they appeared, Jones, who was on the telephone, held his hand over the mouthpiece, smiled and waved Miller in. He thanked the assistant and took a seat at the large platform desk, across from Chad Jones, who listened on the telephone for a moment, smiled at his guest and listened again patiently. A moment later he explained to his caller that he was late for a nine o’clock meeting and would call him back for more details, and hung up. Chad Jones stood right up and extended his hand to his visitor gregariously and smiled broadly as he said “Robert Miller, Chad Jones. Glad to meet you and my apologies for that call; associate of mine who’s just at the Cook County Courthouse now; he’s attending a motion to dismiss and the plaintiff put up quite an argument; judge is still listening but says he won’t rule on the motion until after lunch. That was the argument summary I was getting; I apologize but if the client calls me for an update, which was what I needed to know.”“Sounds touchy, I know you can’t give me details, but good luck with the client. Courthouse is open today, too?”“Yes, they have to with the caseload and ever leaner staff. And sure I can give you details; it’s a public case. It’s a medical malpractice claim and while we certainly don’t doubt that the plaintiff is unhappy and had a bad outcome, our entire client did was consult with him and explain options, and potential consequences. No treatment or care was administered. So we’ve moved to dismiss the case; his counsel is arguing the other way. I might get a call from the medical association’s general counsel, since they know the motion hearing was this morning, so I wanted to be up to the minute.” “What about the doctors that treated him?”“One got sued, turns out it was his fifth time, so he left the HMO and returned to Canada. The other one, of two neurologists involved, he turned in his medical license and retired. Treatment was two years ago. There’s only one of them left, and if anybody’s the target, it’s him, not our client. Plaintiff, like all plaintiffs, is following the money.”“Some things never change, do they?”“No, they don’t, but it’s still a part of our business,” Chad Jones answered.“So,” Robert Miller said, “what can I do for you?”“First of all,” Chad Jones began, “allow me to again offer my profound thanks for coming to see us today, what being the day after Thanksgiving. We hope you’ll be able to get going on this Monday, just in case we get a Notice of Examination without much lead time, a pretty low tactic even we’ve used.” “Now,” he continued, “we understand you did quite a bit of work for the auto industry as a tax attorney, before retiring.”“That’s right.”“You read our proposal and I presume you’ve come here to get those last details and possibly take the assignment. By the way, what time is your return flight?”“No flight, too much hassle to fly. I drove yesterday afternoon.”“Oh, my goodness, on Thanksgiving? You what?!? That was not necessary. How long did it take?”“Not long, four and a half hours. I came through Gary and into the city after what would normally be rush hour; stayed near here. As soon as I’m done here, I drive back,” answered Miller.“Excellent and thanks for saving us the cost of the airfare,” said Jones. “You missed your entire holiday, dinner with family maybe, oh no.”“In these times, we all have to economize where possible, and I didn’t miss much.”“The wear and tear on your car, you gave up a day like that, wow, let me tell you, that’s a first. It’s, what, nine hours of driving, at least.”“It’s an older car, I got it before retirement and the crisis, didn’t use it much in my last years on the job, so the mileage isn’t high. Still looks good and so I’ll keep it for a while. No reason not to use it, it’s not brand new, a few pebble dings aren’t going to get me worried. About yesterday, I didn’t need to be at the kids’ house anyway, and the drive these two days will be with almost no traffic.”“Well, thank you,” said Jones. “There was no need to do that, but it’s genuinely appreciated. Here’s what we need; we’ve prepared a packet of background information we’ll need looked at, which you can take with you. It’s all copies and as you are a former attorney, you know it can’t be disclosed without client approval, but you can just destroy it after your depositions and testimony are finished, no need to worry about returning any of it.”“Very good,” answered Miller.“Looks like you’re not so retired any more, I’m afraid to say” said Jones with a smile.“Well, no and not that I was looking to get back to work,” Miller lied, “but this will be entertaining.”“We don’t yet have a firm idea of what tactical approach the defense will use; our pretrial meetings have all been one sided; they simply state that the case is without merit and the evidence is shaky. Your expert testimony about it may cause them to reconsider this position, we believe.”“I’ll say what I think, based on what I review” answered Miller.“Travel to Michigan, or maybe Cleveland for depositions won’t be a problem? We will arrange plane tickets, assuming you accept.”“No, not a problem at all. My wife passed away some time ago and the kids are grown and gone for some time now. I’m usually there for yesterday, but at my age, without her, one yearly family event is enough and they make a bigger deal than anyone could want for my birthday, plus Christmas. My daughter’s husband works for GM, they live near me and my son, who also lives in the city. So I see them enough. He’s an attorney, my son is, does medical case prep for the medical review board. Tough work.”“Wow, and your son-in-law works for GM? Likes it?”“A lot. I’m afraid he’ll be taking my daughter to the new republic at some point; which is a long trip to see my grandson, but that’ll be very good for them.”“How did your son get into medical review work?”“Went to law school hoping to do contingent fee cases; it was really all he could find, by the time he graduated.”“No chance he’d follow in your footsteps?”“I doubt it; the whole tax subject is so, what’s a good word, acrimonious now. Plus he’d need an accounting degree, and that’s not in the budget. Studied history and business as an undergrad, waited almost decade before law school, so I don’t think he’d want to do that either, pursue a business type job, what of it there is. I suspect he wants to leave, find his way back to where he went to college, that ‘new republic’ I mentioned. Doesn’t everybody want to go there?”“Seems that way; if your daughter goes, does she lose a job?”“No, not at all” Miller smiled. “Housewife, now, happy homemaker. She worked in Washington for the prior administration in Treasury, was a CPA like me. Last job was CIG in New York. She quit and never went back to work”.“To have a family?”“No, that came later. Met her husband after leaving, he’s an Ohio kid, like her.”“That wouldn’t be ‘the’ Kathryn Miller, now would it?”“One and the same.”“You must be a very proud father, then” said Jones. “I’m sure it was a bit tough.”“Yes, I think it may have been the reason my wife passed away. She took the whole thing very hard; she always had high standards for Kathryn and the idea that Kathryn would intentionally defraud the government was too much for her to swallow.”“I’m sorry to hear that, really. Must have been bittersweet, her vindication.”“Certainly; I knew she was a well intentioned kid, since she was little. We adopted her, you know. We saw it in her even as a baby.”“I assumed she was adopted, being as she doesn’t look like you at all.”“No, and that’s right!” Miller joked. “There are no white kids running around anywhere calling me their biological Daddy, not happening!”Chad Jones smiled and said “well then, I believe the auto parts importation case you are going to review will be resolved without getting in front of a judge, once you’re deposed. The retainer check for your service is ready for you now; it’ll be in the information packet. Any other questions I can answer?”“No, not for now,” answered Miller.“Thank you” Jones answered and with that, Robert Miller rose, picked up his information and much needed retainer check and made his way out of the law offices of Jones, McLean & Epstein at the corner of Dearborn and West Wacker Drive to head towards the Chicago Skyway and eventually home to Cincinnati.Heading south on Interstate 65 just past Gary, Indiana he called his daughter Kathryn.“Hello, beautiful, I’m on my way home now” he confidently stated. “How’s things there?”“Good Daddy, Christopher left early last Friday from Fort Worth, got home early last Saturday afternoon. So how did it go for you?” Kathryn asked.“Very well; I was expecting an interview but it was actually just a formality; they’d already decided to retain me and even had a check for the fee right there!”“Fantastic Daddy, fantastic. I knew they’d want you to so this work, but you doubted them, didn’t you?”“No, not exactly like that. Experience has taught me to count chickens I can grab.”“Are you going to be able to settle the old medical bill? Avoid getting cut off?”“I think so; I just hope the next time around I don’t get put into the cash first group.”“There’s not going to be a next time, you got over that problem, the treatment was good. Please Daddy!” Kathryn exclaimed.“Sweetheart” he explained, “nobody knows that. You’re probably right; if this case here drags, maybe I’ll get some witness fees if I have to take the stand and that could be a good medical fund for me.“OK, Daddy, fingers crossed.” Kathryn spotted little Chris Jr. heading for the open front door, the screen door to which wasn’t latched, or she wasn’t sure; she told her father, “wait a minute while I rescue this motion machine from himself.” She dropped the telephone handset on the sofa and passed the kid on the way to the front door and pulled the screen doorknob to make sure the old, rickety latch had caught, and sure enough it had. She turned to go back to the sofa and wondered what they’d do when the kid got big enough to unlock it. She passed the TV set on her way back to the sofa; the show she was watching when her father called wasn’t on anymore; the screen was announcing breaking news. She stopped and looked for a few seconds; she held her hand to her open mouth, clasped the other hand over it and started to weep….she ran to the sofa and grabbed the phone and said desperately, shouting “Daddy, Daddy! Turn on the car radio, to the news, turn on the car radio!”“What’s the matter?” he worriedly demanded.“Oh my God, my God, my God!” said Kathryn as she stared horrified at the TV screen; she heard her father but couldn’t speak; she felt frozen and freezing hot as she stared at the screen, gasping for short breaths as she stared at the screen. Chris Jr. stared up at her from the floor. She finally said, in a low, sobbing soft voice “Daddy oh my God, turn…on…the radio….. news….”“ARE YOU OKAY?” he shouted over the phone.“Yes..she said, choking out the words, ”I’m fine.”“Stay there, I’ll call back in a few minutes” he commanded his daughter as he frantically hit the car radio’s buttons.* * *Robert Miller hit the search button rapidly on his car’s radio after flipping it to AM, knowing he’d get a news station faster there. He was pretty sure he was still well inside Chicago’s broadcast range but didn’t know which stations were mainly news. He kept hitting the button, advancing to the next station and then hit on 780 WBBM, which was saying, “…..we’re watching a live camera feed on the screen coming to us from local television station WPVI in Philadelphia. The camera angle we see appears to be from about three hundred feet away but there’s no reporter on the scene to explain what’s there. The crawler across the bottom of the screen says all we have for now is one camera on the shoulder of a reporter who ran to the scene. Initial reports say an explosion took place on the east side of the city’s municipal building in center city. For those familiar with that city, this is the building topped by a statue of William Penn for whom that state was named. The source of the explosion is unknown and from our camera angle, it appears there have been a number of casualties. We see some emergency services personnel on the scene, and several ambulances have arrived at the location. Police have set up a very makeshift perimeter and the camera is behind it, as we said, from a distance of about three hundred feet, we guess. Again, apologies to our listeners, there is no reporter on scene, we will plug into that live commentary once we get it, so for now, the only live news is the video image we’re watching, as is being broadcast from local station WPVI. We now see what looks like a police helicopter circling above, but not landing it doesn’t appear. More news, more news, oh no, we’re now reading on the crawler that an explosion has taken place in New York, that’s right New York City, at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street, at the corner of the New York Stock Exchange. Coming across the wire are reports from New York City which say that explosion there occurred just three minutes ago, which would make it no more than ten or eleven minutes after the explosion in Philadelphia. For listeners that don’t know that part of New York, having recently visited the stock exchange, I can tell you that intersection is permanently closed off and no vehicles pass by; it’s barricaded off, so that discounts that explosion having been a car bomb. As you listeners know, we’ve unfortunately all seen many images of the aftermaths of car bombs in the Middle East and the scene being shown from Philadelphia appears from the camera angle to show very little debris that’s typical of such an explosion, so at this point, knowing the location of the New York City explosion and seeing the Philadelphia scene, we believe no car bomb was involved, so we’re not prepared to speculate yet as to what happened and if there’s a terrorism factor to any of this, despite the two explosions having taken place just minutes apart, about ten or eleven we believe…”Miller looked down the highway and at the upcoming sign; it showed a Route 10, it looked like, in one mile. Miller decided to get off the highway there and look for anyplace with a television set going. He looked at the speedometer of the car; seventy miles per hour. He pressed hard and ran it up to eighty and soon saw the exit approach; he braked and pulled off the long exit ramp as it peeled away from Interstate 65. The ramp came to a stop sign; Miller looked right and saw some businesses, no oncoming traffic, okay, he turned right and pressed the accelerator. The hood rose through the windshield as the car pulled strongly ahead. He saw a filling station just to the right, raced up to it, braking hard and pulling up to station’s store.He leaped out of the car and half ran inside. No television set behind the counter; he asked the cashier, “do you know anyplace along the road here with a TV set that’s on, like a diner, a bar, anything like that?”The counter girl, a little overweight, blond, sporting the usual tattoos and raccoon eyeliner, a girl who looked like she’d had more than few rough encounters half of which she was likely to have caused, said, “there’s a shopping center with a supermarket just up ahead; make a right when you see the post office signs. Gotta be something in there; try the video store.”“Thanks” said Miller, who raced back out as the counter girl shouted at the closing door, “why, what’s the matter?”He zoomed down the road a little farther, saw the sign and turned hard right. The shopping center was right there and he saw the video store on the corner. He pulled up, ran in and saw the store employees had a movie playing on the large flat panel screen just to the right of the checkout counters.“Do you have cable on that TV?” he gasped. The one employee, who looked about twenty or so with a head of too long black hair, looked at Miller like something was wrong. He asked. “you okay, mister?”“No, but yes, I am. Me personally, yes. I just heard something on the radio. Please, do you have a cable signal?”“Uhhhhhh, sure, I think so. Hey, Justin!” he shouted at the back of the store, “we have cable, right?”“Yeah!” Justin shouted from the back of the store.The long haired counter guy picked up the remote and started changing channels, asking Robert Miller as he pushed buttons, “what’s the matter?”“Explosions, Philadelphia and New York. That’s all they said, and it’s supposed to be on TV. That’s what the radio said.”“Explosions?” said the counter guy with a smile. “That’s whack! Cool. HEY JUSTIN, C’MERE!! QUICK!” he shouted; “He’s the manager, he’ll know how if I can’t figure this out.”The flat panel screen went gray with a green number three in the upper right hand corner. The counter guy pushed a few more buttons on the remote, staring at it closely, and then a cooking show popped up on the screen.“Great” sighed Miller with some relief in his voice. Justin the manager, who looked no more than few years older than the cashier, wandered forward from the back of the store as Miller and the counter guy looked at each other.“What channel, like, news you need?” asked the counter guy.“Yes, any news channel will have this,” answered Miller. The flat panel screen jumped through channels as Justin stood comfortably by, arms folded, curiously waiting to see what made his counter cashier so excited.The screen popped onto an emergency scene and Miller exclaimed abruptly, “that’s it, that must be it”.The image on the screen was in New York City from the east side of the intersection of Wall and Broad streets, about two hundred feet from the corner curb, from what Miller guessed, looking up the street towards Broadway and Trinity Church. Miller had remembered hearing it said that Wall Street starts at a cemetery and ends at a river, and it’s always going one way or the other; it flows along or it’s dead. Here it looked like death from the image on the screen, and on the left side the screen the stock exchange could be seen. There were emergency lights, ambulances and police, firemen and emergency workers. Police officers had blocked the street just by standing there; no barricades were up yet, other than the usual ones already there for cars and a few metal portable ones for setting up lines of visitors. Some of these metal barriers looked knocked over.“Holy fuck!” exclaimed the counter guy, “look at that shit!”The crawler announced two explosions, now known to have gone off ten minutes apart, first in Philadelphia at the municipal building and then in New York. A live announcer was now speaking over sounds of the scene being picked up by a microphone probably attached to the camera feeding the images now on screen. Sirens could be heard, their rising and falling wail reverberating off the walls of the many buildings, along with shouts and hollers coming from the crowd of responders.The announcer who couldn’t be seen was saying, “to our viewers just tuning in to Wolf News, what you’re seeing is a live image from our own cameraman who has just arrived at the scene of an explosion outside the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan. No vehicular traffic is normally allowed to pass through this area and no evidence of a car bomb has appeared, so just what caused an explosion we don’t yet know. As you can see from the images, it appears that there have been serious injuries at the very least, but no word on how many, and no word about potential fatalities or any other details. Our calls to the fire and police information numbers have gone unanswered, this not surprising so soon after such an occurrence. As viewers just tuning in may not know, this also just occurred in Philadelphia, in what also appears to be a non-car related explosion with seriously injured people there also. We’ll go to that camera image momentarily.”Miller, Justin the employee and the black haired counter guy stared in stony cold silence. Other customers in the store now drifted towards the counter, curiosity aroused. The screen showed the scene from the same angle, emergency personnel in bright yellow vests, police and a huge mix of mess, mayhem and disorganization. A gray sedan that looked like an unmarked police vehicle came into the image from the lower right, headlights alternately flashing, with what looked like blacked out windows and police lights flashing through the back window. It slowly approached the scene and the crowd parted to let it pass, as did the police officers standing guard to keep the curious and shocked crowd back from the scene.Suddenly there came a whump sound as the screen flashed bright, went blank and then fell deadly quiet, all in the blink of an eye.“What the hell was that?” said Justin the manager in a low tone.“Holy fuck, man,” said the black haired counter guy.Miller and the rest of the customers looked at each other in silent surprise and Miller softly started to say to himself, out loud, “oh no, oh no, oh no” and the other customers stared at Miller and shot each other confused glances.“Billy, try another channel, quick” said Justin to the black hair counter guy, his name now revealed.Billy pushed the channel button and the screen switched over to DNN, where a studio announcer was speaking, the news room and all its screens, desks and work stations blinking in the background.“Ladies and gentleman” on screen reporter Max Phillips began “we’ve just lost the one feed available, which was coming from a Wolf News camera on the explosion scene at the New York Stock Exchange. One of our reporters and camera crew, who were en route to the scene has just called in to say he heard a massive rumbling explosion from the direction in which he was heading, which was south on Broadway. He says he was passing John Street as he heard the explosion. We’re going to patch through to his mobile phone right now; please hold on.” “Steve, we’re live now. You can hear me?” said the DNN studio reporter Max Phillips to his colleague.“Yes I can” answered Steve Jackson.“Where are you?”I’m walking with my camera crew south on Broadway, we’ve just passed Cedar Street, two blocks to go before the left turn down Wall Street. We heard a large explosion from that direction and then we saw traffic stopped, so we bailed from the news van which managed a right turn down Liberty Street and headed west to wait for us. Wait a moment while I stop walking and we’ll get a live camera shot and the on camera mike going.”Max Phillips’ studio image shrunk to the upper right corner of the screen as Steve Jackson came into view, with Broadway behind him and the gray, foam covered microphone now in his hand.“As you can see, the traffic has stopped completely, what was going down Broadway.” The camera moved over to the right, to Steve Jackson’s left and showed the street clogged with cars and several yellow taxis mixed in. Jackson spoke; “we’re going to go down Broadway but we’re going left at Pine and then right at Nassau to see if we can get a closer approach and better camera angle; we expect the one block of Wall Street east from Broadway, leading to the stock exchange, will be impassible.”“Be careful” warned Max Phillips, whose words were ignored by Steve Jackson, who now held the microphone for the live camera feed like a relay baton, marching briskly down the street, camera crew in tow transmitting the image of his long strides down Pine Street. Jackson turned right on Nassau and the camera image immediately picked up drifting smoke ahead. Very little activity seemed to be occurring, in sharp contrast to the earlier shots from the Wolf News camera a few moments earlier. The street was littered with broken pieces of plastic, clothing, some things not recognizable and general junk. A large piece of twisted, jagged metal connected to a round metal housing lay in the street ahead, quietly smoking. Jackson continued forward, his longer strides now shorter, his pace a slow step now. He stopped and continued to look forward for a moment; the camera showed his back and his right arm holding the microphone drop straight down, as did his left arm. He turned back around slowly to look at the camera, a look of blank shock over his face, and shaking he said, “I’m going to carry the camera myself in a moment, from here to the end of the block and say nothing else; I’m sure I will be finished as a news reporter after this, but I don’t care about that now, America needs to see this. May your children who are watching, who will be shocked, never forget this.”Miller, Billy with the black hair and Justin the manager and the small handful of customers back at the Route 10 shopping center video store in Roselawn, Indiana stared at the screen as if they were witnessing Moses descend from Mount Sinai, transfixed in silence.The camera moved slowly forward, the image gently rising and falling with the cameraman’s slow steps. The scene in front of the stock exchange was eerily still. The only human sound was a wailing woman who could not be seen. There was a large crater in the street, broken asphalt, earth and pipes exposed in its sides. Smoking pieces of something littered the street everywhere, and several water geysers shot straight up from the sidewalk from holes where hydrants used to be just a few moments ago. The camera went closer and then the lens dropped and showed the close up surface of the street, and Jackson could be heard to say to the cameraman, “now you should give it to me, give it to me, you go back if you want to, I’ll hold it.”Then the camera angle returned to a more normal and level image. Steve Jackson took a few steps forward and came close enough to the corner to point the camera right and left up and down Wall Street and the wide boulevard that slowly descended in front of the Exchange, correctly named Broad Street for its size.Bloody body parts littered the street. Farther to the left, a man struggled to lift his torso off the sidewalk with his arms, his clothes ripped and his legs sheared off above the knees, bloody stumps in tattered, torn grey wool, a bright striped silk necktie still around this soon to be dead man’s neck. He lifted his blackened head and took great breaths and made herculean efforts with his arms, his filthy white shirtsleeves still buttoned at the cuffs, to pull his torso forward, left arm, breathe deep, lift head, right arm out, breathe deep. His uneven leg stumps left a twisted bloody trail about a dozen feet long. He stopped his heaving movement and vomited blood, collapsing anew onto the sidewalk. Bright yellow reflective vest pieces were scattered around. Several ambulances burned at the scene, with no movement from within. Steve Jackson panned slowly across the panorama of death before him and remembered his confirmation ceremony at church so many years before, specifically the question asked by the bishop, “Do you renounce Satan and all his works and his empty promises?” No other movement could be seen. All was eerily still; he heard sirens in the distance but looked again across the scene now spread before him on the street, at the junk, the garbage, the bits of clothes, bodies and parts and the shiny small stains, the gray painted pieces of sheet metal ripped from something, all along the walls of the buildings, on the steps of Federal Hall, next to the JP Morgan building and the broken glass everywhere.He walked a few steps to a stone window ledge, placed the camera on it pointing at the stock exchange across the intersection. He then the stood in front of the lens, looking straight at it and speaking firmly and steadily, said; “in the name of our Holy Father our God in Heaven, and our Savior Jesus Christ, I ask you to look at this, to have mercy on and pray for the souls here who have gone to home to Heaven and most of all, to pray for their families. Most of all I ask that all of you,” he said as he held his right arm out and then swept it in a semi-circle as he turned to his right and back, emphasizing the horrific scene, the valley of death, and then continued speaking, “that you all look here at the work of the devil, this work of Satan and ask yourself if we will let it continue. This is Steve Jackson, reporting live from Broad and Wall Streets, for DNN News.”Robert Miller turned and ran from the video store and jumped back in his car to finish the drive home. - 23 -Roots“You have to go back to Fort Worth next week, honey?” Kathryn asked her husband Christopher as he sat reading the paper in the living room. Kathryn had just put young Chris, Jr. to bed.“Yes, sweetheart, last planning phase for the factory expansion, just a continuation of the work from the trip I made before Thanksgiving. We have some things to finish right before Christmas, to be able to start the expansion by the second week of January.”“You’re not going shopping, are you?”“Shopping? Huh?”Well?” Kathryn asked with worried, earnest eyes.“Well, I hadn’t thought about it, but I might. It’s possible.”“Oh, Christopher!” Kathryn exclaimed.“You’re worried about a mall?”“Of course!”“Don’t be; I probably won’t go to one, but some of the guys will want to, maybe in the evening, after work. They can take the car.”“What if it happens again?”“It won’t, not likely there. If they take the car, why are you worried?”“You say that now, I know, but then maybe you’ll change your mind and go with them.”“Sweetheart,” Christopher said, “Do we let them win? Do their economic damage for them? I understand your worry but the chances are so low. Fighting back isn’t just for governments, it’s also what all people should do, so that each individual action, added together, makes the difference. Not changing our routines, our habits and our priorities. Although how long has it been in this country that we haven’t done exactly that, instead of changing out the bad guys, real and suspected. Still, think about it; it’s more dangerous for me to drive than fly, and that doesn’t bother you, does it? How many dozens could there be? Between six cities and six malls at least eighteen were involved, as far as anybody knows. Two weeks or so later, another full volley? I don’t think so…..”“Why not?” asked Kathryn. “They’re not logical, the people doing these things.” “Yes, they are logical. And they’re patient and methodical. And they’re crazy. Still, they’re logical. Besides, the profile group has been rounded up already down there.”“I wish they’d do that every place else, too,” Kathryn lamented.“Don’t we all? You know the drill.”“Yeah, and I understand, it could be anywhere, a supermarket, movies, dry cleaners, anything like that. But it happened in a mall, so I can’t help but think that’s the target; you understand my worry, honey.”“Yes, I do, but the whole country is a target. If we round ‘em up, maybe less. Like they did in Texas.”The next morning, Sunday, Kathryn left Chris Jr. with her husband to go see her father, borrowing Christopher’s white company car for the ride over. Her mother’s old car, which she’d inherited when her mother went to Heaven, was in the shop for some work, and she was in no hurry to rush to the mechanic to have to pay him any sooner. Hopefully she could get the charge to show up on next month’s statement so it wouldn’t have to be paid until the end of January. It was a nice older car, her mother’s and Kathryn strangely enjoyed it despite her memories of the tension and resentment.She remembered her last job at Treasury before being sent to New York; she’d finally come to terms with her anger at her mother and her resentment, and finally began to feel a little more free. She felt guilty for not coming to terms with and dealing with this before the age of thirty six, but after reading as much material as she could find time for on the subject, she realized that it was an accomplishment to have come to a realization at all. And that to achieve it at age thirty something was well ahead of the curve.She was surprised at her mother’s reaction to the CIG “after scandal”; she automatically expected she’d be blamed and accused of screwing something up, like schoolwork so many years before, by not trying hard enough. She now knew she’d tried too hard; at school and at CIG and probably everything in between. She now knew sometimes some people can’t do everything perfectly. Her mother probably knew that deep down inside and Kathryn now thought her mother was overcompensating in her all through her childhood.She had a very unusual upbringing in that she heard and overheard a steady flow of commentary about the role of people of color in the United States but never understood it. It was like a car accident, a foreclosure on a house or any number of unfortunate things that befall a certain portion of us. When those things happen to one of us as an individual, we don’t think of ourselves as a statistic; we think of what happened, what we did or didn’t do, usually a combination of the two, and how we might have brought it about. Most of all, we think about our own situation. Maybe only later do we look back and realize our place in the statistics and see we aren’t alone, however much it seems so at the time.Her mother was understanding, proud of her, defended her and never criticized what she’d not done. It was as if her mother understood a persecution in progress; knew of it from a past life. As if it were her role to worry for Kathryn and bear the burden.Insofar as the commentary, there wasn’t much statistic to be part of; her own circumstance was not common, she even knew as a girl. She often heard of things like profiling, driving while black and any number of problems and always wondered who they were talking about. Not her parents; not her relatives, not at all, not from anything she saw or knew.Maybe her mother felt the need to be a better mother; normal would not be good enough. Less than perfection in herself as a mother might be inferred from less than perfection in her daughter? Did the commentary and talk concern her mother, she now wondered? Was her mother’s at-times hyper critical approach the result of her mother’s compensating efforts? Daddy was never like that. He always came and went with a calm, easy approach to nearly everything, except the dog making a mess in the house; that erased the calm as quick as a thunderclap erases quiet. As the company went down and the interest in pursuing her diminished, eventually ending in an executive instruction from the new administration to drop the entire matter, her mother deteriorated in vindication, her role seemingly fulfilled.Daddy took her passing hard but got over it quickly enough, and reset his life patterns. His own health problems and the expense of hiring lawyers for Kathryn distracted him somewhat, but never knocked him off his game. Kathryn didn’t take her mother’s passing as hard at first, but now she did. Her memory of her mother mellowed; she was sure she missed the grandmother her mother would have continued to be to Chris Jr. and wondered if her mother’s overcompensation with her would have been a concern yet again? After all, Christopher was the same color as her; would Chris Jr. have renewed the concerns and attitudes of society she thought her mother might have felt but never spoke about? She reached her house quickly and sure enough, Daddy was there, making breakfast and watching the news shows, the last editions before all the hosts and guests took off for the holidays, leaving the politics junkies to guest hosts and books until after the New Year.“Hi, beautiful!” he said as she came in the front the door almost as if she’d never moved away. She wouldn’t have done this had her mother been there; she would have called and still rung the doorbell even if her father had told her to just come straight in. If she’d called and gotten her mother, it was front door and wait, no question. When Daddy told her to just come in and then gave her a set of keys on a keychain with her initials and a picture of her mother encased in clear plastic, she knew things had changed forever. She was reluctant a few times to just let herself in, and after the third visit and ringing doorbell, her father chastised her for not doing what he said.“I don’t run around the house naked, and it’s your house, isn’t it?”“Daddy!” she exclaimed. “Please! Too much information!” she complained with a smile.“I didn’t run around un-presentable all the years you grew up and went to college; why would I now?”Kathryn thought about this for a moment; when and where do we pick up ideas and behaviors that aren’t spelled out for us? She’d learned not to enter a house that was as much hers as anyone’s; her father never once sat her down to explain this; her mother either. Yet she understood it and did it without thinking actively. She had to make the effort to change a subconscious habit. “Where’s my little Tiger?” Robert Miller asked his daughter.“I left him with Christopher, for some bonding time. You’ve read how kids need separate time with each parent, not just in a group. Christopher is good at that with Chris Jr. but I think I can help the effort and force some togetherness; maybe it makes up for the times when Christopher travels.”“That’s a good idea, and it’s no different from me when you and Aaron were little. I think you picked up on that from your own household.”“Maybe. You think Aaron will be that way?”“Yes, but first he has to start on the family thing, which I don’t need to tell you is going to be an effort, if his wife is going to give up a career. I don’t need to tell you what she thinks of that.”“Tell me?” answered Kathryn. “I don’t sympathize; I empathize. I was there. I never thought I’d meet Christopher or anybody like that. I like to think the whole CIG deal was the universe preparing me for a swift exit, an attitude realignment and a dose of humility and appreciation.”Robert Miller looked at his daughter across the kitchen table with a loving appreciation, concern and admiration for his daughter’s insight. He kept quiet for a moment and then said;“Aaron’s happy with her. That’s all that matters. You’re happy with Christopher. That’s all that matters.”“Daddy” Kathryn said, “any recurrence of your condition?”“Nope. All done.”“Great. Whatcha doin’ for this Chicago law firm, the ones you drove up to see?”“They are representing one of two car companies in a dispute over a union contract. Remember when the prior administration forced previous importers of cars to build manufacturing facilities in the USA? When they imposed tariffs so high the only way to continue selling was to build the facility, since it was actually cheaper? The dispute came out of an arrangement to form a new and lower cost union; I don’t think the union buddies in that administration thought about that one; they just assumed the established unions would sink their fangs into the workforce the way they always have. Well, two of the new factories got together and decided to set union dues based on output and activity. Now they’re fighting, after the fact, over how much each one should have paid. The lawyers subpoenaed all those manufacturing records and yours truly gets the job of analyzing and to render an opinion.”“Where are the factories?”“One in Flint, Michigan and one in Cleveland,” said Robert Miller as he took a sip of coffee.“This doesn’t have anything to do with GM, does it?”“Actually, I think that law and GM are a poster example of unintended side effects. That’s why the offshore venture capital swooped in, bought out the government and moved it. They’re sitting pretty.”“How come they were allowed to move out?”“How do you stop people from quitting? It could have been imposed but the whole political mess over imposing domestic manufacturing made two assumptions, both flawed. Like I said, they never considered rejection of the established union or formation of new ones and they never considered the company would or could move. Well no surprise there, did they ever consider a whole state would secede?” “Are you going to get paid? I mean, any problems with finances with the law firm’s client?”“No, at all. The car czar seized enough assets to make sure there’d be something for the litigation expense. One thing DC lawyers know how to do is take care of lawyers. I’m a lawyer, even though just a tax lawyer. I’ve always understood this.”“Do they still manufacture?”“No, these two companies gave up. Just walked away. Which I guess was the government plan all along.”“Are you going to have to go to court?”“Hopefully!” said Robert Miller. “Bigger fees.”“Daddy, you haven’t heard this before, but Christopher and I want to relocate.”“Yes I have; he told me you want him to get relocated to Fort Worth.”“When was that?” Kathryn said with a surprised smile.“Months ago; said you mentioned it a few times since he had to start to travel there.”“Doesn’t bother you?”“No, in fact if I could figure out a way to install a helicopter rotor on top of this house, off we’d go.”“Would you really go there?”“Sure, I would.”“Really?”“Why not?”“Did you borrow money against this house? I’m sorry Daddy, maybe I shouldn’t ask that, but can you sell it and get enough for a nice house there?”“I won’t do that until you’re going, since I’d have to, what, pay rent? That would cost a lot more than my property taxes here. I’m under no time pressure. No, I didn’t borrow anything.”“We would probably be safer there, or at least feel safer.”“No, you wouldn’t just feel safer, you’d be safer; it’s a fact.”“You’ve been there, Daddy?”“Many, many years ago, before you were born. Bear in mind, they’ve always had bad guys; just like everyplace else. You’ve heard of the Rangers, right?”“Yeah, the baseball team?”“Well, yes” chuckled Miller, “there’s that old baseball team. I meant the law enforcement Rangers.”“Oh yeah. Those!” Kathryn exclaimed.“They didn’t gain a reputation by accident; they worked hard and took on dangerous missions to keep a lid on dangerous, illegal activity. I know it’s argued with some certainty that way back they were just hired gunslingers but overall they helped set the tone for law and order, which throughout modern times, has remained. It’s not to say there aren’t bad guys but the bad guys understand their place and the risks. You can take steps to avoid risk and defend yourself if you become the subject of the few bad guys that are everywhere. Criminals didn’t care about a rule, never will. So the rules there are set up to punish the bad guys and support good, law abiding citizens. Since the attacks a few weeks ago, as simplistic as they were, it woke up a lot of people about being vulnerable. Remember how the Rangers went out and rounded up potential bad actors, which was just wound down last week?”“Yeah, they did,” answered Kathryn. “That’s criminal profiling, which got outlawed in far too many places. Sweetheart, I haven’t discussed this with you, but you know many people of this color were profiled a long time ago,” said Miller as he touched his left forearm with his right index finger. “Didn’t happen to me, but it happened. We made many good faith efforts to correct improper profiling; which was outrageous, but what happened? We went too far; nullified our ability to criminally profile if there were even a possibility somebody would complain it was being done for race or religion or gender.”“I remember that.”“Any large group of people will have a bad few in it. In every group the rats try to use it to their advantage when they get into hot water. The community hot heads who love to stir the pot enable it for their own aggrandizement.”“You think that, really Daddy?”“People of color were held to a different standard because of racist attitudes, but those attitudes weren’t always unfounded. Hundreds of years of slavery can’t be erased in ten or twenty. Enslavers had set ideas and the newly emancipated didn’t turn into something else just like magic, either, the moment they were freed. No education in a subjugated, subservient existence, even in the best of circumstances, it doesn’t just go up in smoke. Some former slaves were young when they were freed. It was fifty and sixty years before most of them had gone to Heaven. It was how long before most of their children were also gone? Human beings adapt, but they don’t just turn into something else, no matter who they are, white, black, brown, red, yellow, green or orange. Same thing with the enslavers, and change doesn’t come evenly to everyone. You remember the awful jokes about blacks being dumb?”“Yeah, a lot of them. So stupid.”“By educated standards, illiterate people often are. Plus there were – and are – some dumb blacks. Look at the history. Same things were said about the Irish; the history of Ireland’s treatment by English invaders made that easy to believe. Anytime an un-evolved mind needs to reinforce a limited view, it was just a matter of finding a person from the group.”“You know something Daddy”, Kathryn interjected, “I always wondered why there was never an intelligence test by racial group.”“Because it would show the same distribution curve for every group, and destroy a lot of agendas, that’s why.”“So it’s ‘Lone Star’ safer?” she asked with a smile.“Yes, and I don’t believe jihad terrorists will ever try a mass attack there. It’s not a good enough target now; too difficult. You remember the malls? Who walked in with the explosives strapped to themselves? Or in a canvas shopping bag? We’ll never know, all they found out was maybe remote control from some of the evidence. It’s possible the carrier was tricked and didn’t even know what was in the bag, and maybe was led in by the detonator, who just told the carrier to wait while he or she went to the bathroom and pushed the button. No dental or fingerprint records could be matched on some people. Some witness said it was a person covered from head to toe in black in the King of Prussia mall. Political correctness made sure that person would not be stopped and forced to uncover. Well, that changed right quick, didn’t it? Still, nobody remembers anything from the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. Who’s gonna smuggle people and all the rest across the border from, where, Oklahoma? Terrorists did jets a long time ago, now downtowns and malls and the next thing will be different also. You shouldn’t stop yourself. You hand them victory if you do.”“Yeah, that’s true; that’s just what Christopher thinks. Doesn’t make it any less scary,” replied Kathryn.“So,” Miller asked, “you enjoying the break from the motion machine?”“Yes, it’s nice to take a break from him from time to time. Nice to see you, too Daddy. You miss Mom?”“Of course.”“Bothers you a lot?”“No. At a certain age you’ve seen enough people go, for enough reasons that can’t be controlled, you understand and accept that it will happen. Even to you and your family.”“You knew Mom was going when she got sick?”“Yes, I was pretty sure that was it.”“Daddy, why did you and Mom adopt children?”“She couldn’t conceive; doctors think it was from a condition she’d had as a young teenager. We don’t know. She complained of pelvic pain at the time; when she was a teenager but the doctors didn’t find any problems. Since it happened so many years before we tried to bring you along, they could only guess.”“Did it ever bother you I was adopted?”“Of course not.”“How did you find me?”“Just like your mother told you.”“She told me you both went and signed up to be put on this list for adoption, but it was a long list for babies.”“It was, yes. That’s what we were told.”“She told me you two went overseas.”“Yes, the Middle East.” “Where?”“Lebanon.”“I’m Lebanese?”“We highly doubt it. Your mother always thought there was a lot of Irish in you. Plenty of Irish people in the USA, easy to spot.”“She didn’t tell me this much. Lebanon……how did you choose me?”“We didn’t. The adoption list people called us and told us to call the State Department. We were told of a hotel attack; the building was destroyed, many dead. It was the beginning of a civil war. The front desk was beyond recognition; and registration records were not recovered. You were in the hotel’s day care center, which would watch guests’ kids six months of age and older while their parents were at the pool, sauna, restaurant, stuff like that. It was a resort, they told us. You were in the next building over from the attack. They waited for relatives to come searching; weeks went by. The civil war ramped up. Your mother told you all this, yes?” “Not in this detail, Daddy.”“You were taken to a hospital, uninjured. No one ever came to claim you. We’ve always assumed your biological parents were killed and couldn’t be identified, and we have always believed their relatives assumed you perished also. We don’t know if any remains were identified. So the hospital, which knew nobody would adopt during such circumstances, contacted the diplomatic missions of every country they could. That led us there, we were told we’d have to pay our way, and apparently there was little interest and no takers from American parents to fly to a growing war zone.”“When did you see me?”“You were crawling around in the maternity ward.”“Did I fight much?”“Not a bit, you came along as if you’d been with us since birth.”“Did people stare much?”“At what?”“You and Mom, adopting a baby so different from them.”“I don’t think so. If they did, we never noticed.” - 24 -The Rectory“Father DiNardi” Kathryn said, “thank you for taking the time to see me. You know, I’m not a member of the congregation; I’m not Catholic. I also understand it’s unusual to do this without an appointment.”“It’s not a requirement to be Catholic to speak to a priest, you know!” joked DiNardi. “Six days of the week, you’re right, I probably wouldn’t be able to see anyone on the spur of the moment, but Sunday afternoon is usually a good time; nobody ever wants to see me about now. It has something to do with the NFL, I’m told.” Kathryn smiled and said, “I attended school here as a girl. St. Ann’s holds many memories of mine, all good.”“Did you study here in every grade?”“Yes, Father, until I had to go to high school, East Lewisville.”“Was it good for you?”“It was a big change, for me, going to that public high school.”“Pardon me, what I meant to ask, was your time here at St. Ann’s good for you?”“Oh yes, I’ve always felt like I belonged here and that I was part of the congregation. Many of my friends had their First Communion and Confirmation here. I came to more than a few of those ceremonies.”“Very good; how long since you’ve been back to visit?”“This is my first time, Father.”“I’m guessing that’s quite a few years, if you left here about age fourteen. What brings you back?”“I wanted a different opinion on some things I’ve been thinking about, and it occurred to me to come here.”“I notice a gold ring on your finger. For how long have you been married?” “Not long, coming up to two years.”“Has the Lord blessed you with any children?”“So far, one.”“Your first marriage?”“Yes Father.”“His?”“Yes, also.”“Where’s your husband, any reason he’s not here with you?”“No Father, no particular reason. He’s home with our son. I went to visit my father earlier today, Sunday morning’s a good time for that, plus I leave my husband with Chris Jr. to give them time together without me. It’s also a nice break since I’m a full time homemaker.”“More traditional family structures make a comeback when economic times turn,” said the priest.“I’m sorry if I’m getting in the way, on a Sunday afternoon, Father,” Kathryn apologized.“You’re not,” he answered. “Mass for me is done by one o’clock.”“It was more an impulse than anything, Father.”“So, what can I do for you, young lady?” DiNardi said with a smile. A middle aged man with salt and pepper balding hair, light brown eyes, he looked to be in shape under his black robes and gave Kathryn the impression of a veteran man of the cloth.“I‘d like to ask a few things. I don’t know where to start, so I’ll start where I think I should.”“Go on” he said.“My mother passed away a few years ago. I carry around some guilt from it, and it goes back to my childhood. Not too long ago I was in a bit of hot water for a while, in the public’s eye. She took it personally and I believe it precipitated her passing. Father; am I able to talk to her in Heaven?”“Your name is Kathryn, yes?” asked Father DiNardi. “I think that’s what I wrote down when the parish office called.”“Yes, Father. Kathryn Miller. That’s my maiden name.”Father DiNardi looked at her and smiled. Kathryn glanced back and then down, a little nervous, a little concerned. “The famous Kathryn Miller who helped bring political titans to their knees?”Kathryn looked down at the floor, back up at the priest, who sat earnestly and eagerly, awaiting Kathryn’s response.“Yes, I am that Kathryn Miller, unfortunately,” she said with a hint of embarrassment.“Unfortunately? Are you ashamed of that episode?” asked the priest.“Yes, Father, because for a short time it brought scrutiny on my family, made my mother quite angry. I had a difficult relationship with her growing up, at times, and I always feared her disapproval and her outbursts.”“Young lady,” said DiNardi, “I meant it as a great compliment when I suggested you brought down titans of the political world. The reality is these men and women brought themselves down. Had it not been you, it would have been someone else.”“Really, Father? You think?”“I’m sure of it. We all live in a cocoon to a certain extent, don’t we? We are physically limited by a body and live through our own filters of experience, attitude, intellect and understanding.”“Yes, but in my case…..”“No, not just in your case!” he cut her off. “In all cases; all of us are unique but none are so special that we create the complete plan, make every key decision and affect the outcome of every situation we encounter. Even though it seems to us that we do.”Kathryn looked at DiNardi and kept quiet. He went on;“You didn’t run the company, plan it, operate it or have anything to do with its troubles before it was taken over in a bailout. Or did you and you’re keeping that a secret?”Kathryn smiled and said “No, Father.”“Well, of course not. The scheme to eliminate the political liability from the debt, who organized that party, you Kathryn Miller?”“No, but Father…”“Kathryn,” he sternly interrupted with a smile, “and the retaliation for uncovering a financial issue made you the creator of the problem?”“No, Father.”“Then would someone else have stepped in and sooner or later and addressed the matter?”“Yes Father, I suppose so. That’s possible.”“I remember the statement put out by that attorney who represented you, the one who talked to the press, quite a character, wasn’t he? And therein lies the lesson; with great influence comes responsibility.”“Yes, that’s true. It does.”“Look at the other side of the coin; would you have a son, a husband and have the marriage you do now, if you’d avoided controversy, been a good robot, pleased the higher-ups and never looked into the issue? Probably not. What power, influence or material wealth would have brought you a husband, his love and your son? Would those things have made you love him or made him love you?”Kathryn smiled again, gently but deeply. “Can you doubt there’s a functioning of the universe that works in ways you don’t easily see but is there just the same? You can’t see the stars during the day, or the moon when it’s on the other side of the earth, but do they cease to exist at those moments? Do the moon’s gravity and the oceans’ tides go away? You couldn’t see what was going on in the White House, the Treasury and CIG, but they did affect you, didn’t they?”“Yes, Father”“Do you believe your mother understood none of this, was unaware of it, didn’t appreciate it? That she was unaware of the forces you could not control, which acted upon you? Do we blame the victim of a tornado for losing a house?”“She was very aware,” answered Kathryn, “and she was very protective of me, defensive. She was indignant that her daughter be accused of doing something improper. Incensed is a good description for how she was.”“And your father?”“He didn’t react emotionally, he brushed it off, told reporters it was ridiculous, it would be proven ridiculous and that they should all go get their thinking caps replaced, because they’d taken leave of their brains and common sense. He was right. He wasn’t upset, either with the issue or with me.”“Your father’s well? You mentioned you visited him earlier today.”“Yes, he’s fine. Had a health scare but he got over it and fingers crossed, he’s recovered completely and that problem won’t recur.”“I’m going to estimate his age based on what I guess to be your age; and from that I will guess that it was prostate related. Pardon my guessing, I realize it’s only my business if you wish to tell me, and you didn’t. You said it wouldn’t recur; which sounds like prostate problems. Like matches, they only flare up once. It’s a high incidence affliction in genetic descendants of Northern European males.”“And blacks, of African extraction.”Father DiNardi looked at Kathryn for a moment and said, “Your father’s black?”“His entire life, I’m sure!” she said. “Sorry for the sarcasm” she retreated, “but I’ve had lots of practice over the years with that.”“No apology needed, Kathryn. It’s unique and unexpected, as you know well, I’m sure.”“I’ve had fun with it from time to time,” she smiled.“Do you remember your adoption?”“No. I’m told I was about seven months old.”“Do you have any siblings?”“A younger brother. Nine years younger.”“Adopted also?”“Yes. My mother couldn’t conceive. In fact my father just explained it to me this morning, exactly why. I used to think when I was younger and my mother was on a tirade, that she adopted us to avoid the hassles of pregnancy.”“Do you still believe this?”“No, of course not but I carry guilt from my childhood, it comes up from time to time. I compensated for it in my career by being domineering, aloof and critical. Got me pretty far, too. Lots of supervisors like that fake confidence; it flew very well in government service.”“Your statement makes me believe you’ve resolved this. You’ve reached an inner understanding.”“I feared for Aaron, my brother, and that cuts as deep to any person’s emotion as possible, I think. He had nothing to do with their perceived problem, yet they threatened me with going after him, and I suddenly saw the whole mess for what it was. I saw my life for what it was and could be. What it is now.”“You feel anger at your mother?”“Sometimes; but the way she reacted to the attacks on me went a long way to opening my eyes, Father.” She went on, “that’s what I came to ask about. My mother.”“What specifically?”“Can I pray to her? In Heaven? Will she hear me? Will she know I’m talking to her?”“Of course she will.”“How will I know?”“You know now; you just haven’t received an acknowledgement from her. Deep down I trust you know this is true. You may never have this acknowledgement and you may always doubt that she really hears you. She does. If she does not know of you immediately, God will hear your prayer, your message and see to it she hears you. This is the challenge of faith in general, the sun is often shining when we look towards our stars of faith, so they’re not so obvious; usually invisible. The signs of God’s presence are all around us. Modern societies discount the evidence of this presence, and find what come across to us as rational explanations for phenomena we don’t understand. Remember always, God hears all prayers and all prayers are answered. Society has interpreted this to be ‘all requests are granted’ which can be a vastly different thing.”“I’ve asked for things to happen, by praying in general. It didn’t work out.”“It didn’t work out the way you perceived it. Not all prayers are answered in the expectation of the person asking at the moment they pray. There’s an interconnection; you may be where you are to play a role in another person’s life; your unhappiness leads to their progress. Your prayer requests it be stopped. Will your tormentor learn his or her lesson if you get what you want right away?”“I never went to the Catholic classes, Father. Is this what they teach?”“This isn’t taught in general religious classes, no. Not at the high school level, certainly. While you were here as a student, were you required to study religion at all?”“No, Father, it was offered as an elective but wasn’t required. I did take it, though. It was about all religion in general, with parts about all major world faiths.”“Who taught the course?”“Father Richard,” Kathryn answered with a smile.“You liked him, I take it?”“Yes, he was a nice man and made the course interesting.” Father DiNardi went on; “To answer your question on these ideas about prayer, they’re studied as part of theology, such as in a seminary or at the university that offers the course of study. There are many bodies of thought and writing which explore these subjects in depth. Priests are encouraged to be well read and to expand knowledge. I don’t know the rate of study and reading among Catholic clergy, or even all men of the cloth, or if I’m typical. Nevertheless, I strongly believe an understanding of society is vitally important to minister to a congregation. It is na?ve to ignore the trends of a society and superficially disregard the influences of those trends, especially on the young, both children and young adults. Deeper interpretations of theology are not a curriculum for elementary or junior high school. The Catholic faith is not the only group of Christ’s followers. There are also many other faiths followed by human beings for whom God loves and cares just the same.”“I’ve often heard about eternal life; is it really that way?”“Yes. Christ spoke openly of this concept; one of his statements that I most admire is when Christ said that a person who loses his life for God will have it forever. You’ve heard that?”“Yes Father, the ultimate sacrifice.”“In the Armed Forces, they award the Medal of Honor. Most recipients are given the medal posthumously; their act of bravery sacrifices their own to save the lives of many of their fellow men. We honor them here on Earth, but in eternity they sit with the Lord, as the most revered of souls in Heaven, those who did the most possible to help others. As Christ said when he walked among us on earth.”“Those killers, the suicide bombers a few weeks ago; where will they go?”“Catholicism teaches us about Hell, a place of horror and misery. It’s not a place; it’s a condition of the soul. No soul gets sent; souls place themselves there, through their actions here on earth. Those who killed but believe they’ve done a good deed, may be forgiven if they were sufficiently fooled, if they could not know. If this is the case – very rare I think – Hell will be created for their masters. They will have their day of reckoning, and there will be a choice. They will see clearly what they have done. When they repent, they will be free.”“Who could be fooled to do such a thing?”“Mentally retarded people.”Kathryn held her hands over mouth, opening both eyes wide in horror, not saying anything.“Yes,” Father DiNardi went on, “I believe the fake unmarked police vehicles driven to the scenes of the first explosions were driven by the same individuals who held a remote control detonator to set off the explosives. A mentally retarded person was used to carry, unknowingly, the initial bomb, the ones that exploded in Philadelphia, New York and Ft. Lauderdale. Anybody up close who might remember details is gone now. The driver of the vehicle may have been a suicide bomber him or herself or slipped away in the chaos, possibly by dressing as law enforcement and detonating the car from a distance. These people have by such actions prepared their own Hell.” “Are most Muslims bad, Father?”“No, Kathryn, all humans are God’s children on Earth. Inflicting pain and hurt for its own sake is not of any faith or of the Heavens, it is of this earth and the men upon it. Muslims that do this have misinterpreted the circumstances.”“They quote the Quran and point to phrases in it that support their actions.”“The Bible says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Does this mean if your car is damaged, you seek out the person who did it and damage his car the same way?”“No.”“No, you don’t, of course not; the phrase means limit your reaction in proper proportion to the trespasses against you. God recognizes we are humans and have emotions; those things go together. It means if you lose an eye, you seek a remedy worth no more than the value of an eye. It doesn’t mean go gouge it out of your attacker. The Lord’s prayer is clear; to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. It doesn’t mean we forget and expose ourselves anew; it doesn’t mean we don’t defend ourselves. It means we do what’s possible to remedy the wrong, insofar as a value can be given to the remedy and can be had from the responsible person.”“The Quran is wrong?” she asked.“No, like the Old Testament, The New Testament, the Book of Mormon or any other religious writings, it requires thinking, interpretation and good will. It requires an understanding that all retribution possible cannot turn back the hands of time and undo what was done.”“Are we wrong to take steps in our own defense?”“Of course not. Christ would never advocate that we willingly allow ourselves to be a victim of a transgressor.”“You’ve heard the criticism of the roundups of suspected terrorists, the vicious insults that were hurled, and will probably always be said, you have Father?”“Yes, but would Christ want us to pretend it cannot happen because we feel bad for someone? This approach has been tried and failed. Is it more valuable to us as humans to feel for others’ sensibilities than for our own survival? Often such choice is forced upon us; we don’t seek it out. Is it preferable to avoid bad feelings and risk a violent death because of it?”“You’ve seen bad things happen, haven’t you Father?”“Like all priests, yes.”“I mean you’ve been involved in them, too.”“Yes, I was a Navy Chaplain early in my career.”“What did you see?”“Combat.”“In the Navy?” Kathryn na?vely asked.“You’ve heard of the Marine Corps, haven’t you?” “Oh” Kathryn realized. “I didn’t think of that. You know Father, we’re told how bad war is, and we heard so often how wrong the US has been to use military force.”“Because it’s horrible, however the circumstances are not often as clear as is the perception from afar. Look at your well being personally. This is an easy subject right now, given recent events. It was the subject of my sermon at mass today. There must be almost nothing more devastating for a human than to take a life, to unleash deadly force, use a weapon, on another human being. Can you imagine anything worse?”“No Father, I can’t.”“There is however, something ten times worse. Yet very similar. What could it be?”Kathryn thought for a few moments; she couldn’t think of anything.“I don’t know Father. That seems as bad as it gets.”He replied, “Then consider having that weapon turned on you. Does Christ advocate suicide? If you know you are in grave danger, do you ignore it? It is logical to avoid it, but what if that doesn’t work? Is it prudent to be prepared?”“Of course it is.”“Agreed” said Father DiNardi, “but to listen to many vociferous individuals with large and far reaching soap boxes, it would be easy to think otherwise.” He went on: “the country had, for several decades, followed the concept that by making self protection difficult, it would lessen danger. Did that work? No evidence has shown this to have resulted. The Constitution was written to guarantee our ability to protect ourselves. There has never been a shortage of opposition yet no positive results have ever come up to support such opposition. Satan is a strong, cunning and divisive soul. He is dangerous. He revels in a good person’s weakness; it makes his dirty work that much easier. A weak mind is his prey; he seeks it always. He hunts for vulnerability. On a larger scale, for how long have we heard that we must understand the plight of the Muslim, seek to be friendly and if only we would stand down, the danger from fanatics would subside. Satan counts on this; since most Muslims are good people, since they are not any religion’s enemies, we find it easy and convenient to focus on this large majority. It is not enough, however, to understand the good ones and to be tolerant of all. We also believe all motorists are well intentioned and will be careful. We still buckle our seat belts, don’t we? Satan has found a willing minority happy to do his bidding, and to continually convince us we don’t need seat belts. He has made inroads into all faiths, and into leadership at all levels. You have heard of priest scandals of pedophilia? This is the work of Satan also. Adolph Hitler? Josef Stalin? Saddam Hussein? All examples so easily forgotten. It is difficult to know the depths of depravity of some men’s souls but likewise it is foolish to assume it isn’t out there, somewhere. Examples of it arise regularly, if not predictably. Christ does not advocate that we let our guard down and be hurt by unpreparedness. This is his message; follow his word, use your good will, ask for help. You will be protected; you will learn to protect yourself. No better safety exists.”“Father, I worry about our country. Will it disintegrate further? Will we turn a corner?”“It is in our hands to make this choice, collectively.”“We had an entire state secede, became its own territory, an independent Republic. Is that bad?”“I once knew a German man”, said Father DiNardi, “who grew up in what was West Germany. He was born after the war, and knew of it from history books and stories. He once told me he never thought for a moment of a person from East Germany as being any less German than he. Cultures develop over time and persist for long periods; they cannot be forced into or out of existence without exterminating an entire population. Even Hitler failed despite horrific attempts. Look at Ireland; its culture and language were successfully supplanted by similar means; yet both have flourished anew. Do people who live in the forty nine states consider citizens of the new Republic un-American? No, generally those citizens are admired, even envied. Whether we reunite as a nation depends on our actions.”“I know many people Father, who would like to go there, and I confess I am one. My husband travels there to work from time to time. I have prayed we are given the opportunity to go.”“You can go now, can you not?”“Yes, but with what job?” Kathryn laughed.“What conditions are acceptable when compared to the reward expected is a changing combination, Kathryn. Think of one hundred or one hundred fifty years ago and compare day to day existence then to that of ten years ago. The more modernized world was inconceivable just as the world then is unconceivable to us now. How many people came to this country under the same conditions you have just cited; with no job? The Bible tells us to not be seduced by material wealth. This does not mean material wealth is bad; I am not condemning it. We must guard against allowing it to play too large a role in our lives.”“I can’t think of going there and using up all of our savings in the hope we might get something and then it doesn’t happen.”“Have you thought of a Mexican who came to the USA illegally with nothing more than a backpack and his hopes?”“No, not really.”“You didn’t grow up there, you didn’t walk in his or her shoes, you had a wonderful life by comparison. So your attitude about losing everything is the result. This a good thing, as you will work to maintain and even improve it.”“I look how well things are going in the new republic; maybe we could find something.”“Over time, certainly, you would find much, no doubt. Ask yourself, ‘why are things going well?’ Have you pondered this much?”“Somewhat, I have” answered Kathryn. “A good economy.”“What makes it good? I didn’t just say a prayer for it to happen, and while it’s possible many did that, the good economy came from decisions made to achieve it. Look at the reasons for breaking away; what were they?”“Bad economy, or the threat of one.”“What made it that way?”“Huge debt, mostly.”“Correct, and that came about, how?”“Government spending.”“Yes, why?”“You are sounding a bit like an economist, Father!” Kathryn exclaimed.“That’s allowed to be studied. There isn’t a banned book list for priests of which I’m aware. I’ve enjoyed the subject, as an insight into behavior.”“So they broke away because of spending?”“You’ve studied history; you’ve heard of communism. Do you know of any place where it succeeded?“No.”“What was its appeal? Why did it expand before collapsing?”“It promised to make things more equal, make poorer people less poor.”“Look at this institution, the Catholic church. It suffered terribly, for similar reasons.”“What do you think that is, Father?”“The Catholic message was distorted; remember the meaning of catholic, away from Christ or religious organizations. “Catholic means faithful?”“Close” said DiNardi, “it also means undiluted, or uncorrupted, faithful to the original. In the case of the church, to the ideas of Christ. These were reversed. The leaders and the hierarchy at too many moments throughout history stopped emphasizing people and focused on themselves, on power and imagery. Factions within the church successfully resisted this, for example Jesuits and Franciscans. The Jesuits, whose name is no coincidence, are faithful to Jesus and the Franciscans, to Saint Francis. Saint Francis was very much this way, humble and serving, the very concept of Sainthood. You remember from years ago a scandal where a cardinal knew of a priest who was raping young teenage boys, a pedophile?”“Yes Father, the priest was transferred, nothing was done about it.”“I have looked myself in the mirror and asked if I were the person who came to know of these crimes, could I look away and still consider myself a decent man? How could a priest, a cardinal no less, have just brushed the problem aside, knowing the sinner would attack again? He preferred an unsullied image for at least his Diocese, if not the church in general, over the well being of people, his congregation and its most vulnerable members.”“Lots of politicians have been accused of this.”“Yes,” said DiNardi, “for good reasons. Many have earned such reputation. At what point do they become confused about the value of their position and its purpose? It’s impossible to draw a sharp line in the sand; it’s only clear after the line had been passed and is some distance away. Compare this to economics; we pay much attention to unemployment. When unemployment truly improves, three separate phases have taken place; first it must stop increasing, level off; then it must remain steady, for at least three months, and then it must improve, steadily for at least three months. We can only know when each phase begins and ends after that’s happened. If unemployment rises and falls from month to month, it cannot be concluded as a positive or negative trend. In a country of several hundred million people, we cannot measure more often than once per month and also be accurate. We know that when we see something move in the same general direction for three months, it’s probably a trend. Once critical mass is reached, it doesn’t generally shift very quickly. Ask yourself Kathryn, how many times have you heard the month’s unemployment figures and then heard endless commentary about it from political operatives, be they elected officials themselves or their designated pundit mouthpieces?”“A lot Father, that’s typical.”“Does an athlete play through a stress fracture, have it treated after season’s end and expect it to be cured in two weeks? Never. To listen to commentary about economic trends, you’d believe if only the right approach were taken, that would happen.”“You’re right Father, that’s also typical.”“Not all priests are bad, in fact very few. But there were many who were not purged, not for a long time. There will always be a bad one, potentially. There is no doubt the environment attracted pedophiles for the access to children. Marriage for priests solved this; homosexuality or pedophilia don’t mix with marriage over time, although that has happened. Marriage made sense, but it was a huge step, viciously opposed. In this same way, we must create an environment where an elected official does not become corrupted by the system and really does represent the interests of constituents, not just the group within that screams the loudest. Look at homosexuals clamoring for marriage. Anthropologists have long stated that the rate of homosexuality in humans is from three to five percent. Let’s assume five; let’s also assume each has two heterosexual siblings, who both fully support marriage privileges for that third brother or sister, and both parents who do also. This brings us to twenty five percent, meaning seventy five percent will not be a homosexual or a heterosexual directly exposed to it. In practice, not every homosexual has two siblings or both parents still alive and some of these close relatives may oppose it, just as the remaining seventy five percent will include supporters. Nevertheless, Kathryn, it’s not difficult to see from where majority opposition might come. The sacrament of marriage and all of its privileges, pleasures, obligations and benefits have traditionally meant something special to society and to the individual. The purpose of marriage is not self-gratification, despite the many gratifications experienced. It is an institution to protect the sanctity of a family, to form a nucleus and provide for the children a source of strength, confidence and security. Homosexuals will not have children; they must adopt. Do we prefer two women or two men to adopt? Many people have strong feelings on this, but if we choose lesbian couples over males, is that not gender discrimination? So is not only homosexual marriage but also unfettered homosexual adoption the answer? What will happen when polygamists insist on three person unions? And adoption? It is easy to envision married couples of all three types, man woman, man man and woman woman, all telling the polygamists that three, four or more-way unions are unacceptable. In lockstep, the polygamist hopefuls will cry out to the homosexuals, ‘and so it used to be for all OF YOU’ and then what? When will the definition of a marriage stop expanding? After it’s possible to marry the deceased? To marry brothers and sisters? The issue has been put before voters and always rejected; by clear majorities, yet a few states’ assembly and courts have instituted it. Kathryn, do you see now, in these examples, how elected officials acted not in representation of their constituents but other considerations? Acted in the interest of fashionable popularity? Vanity? Does this example help explain why the breakaway took place?“Yes, Father, I didn’t think of things in just this way, but it makes sense how you explain it.”“If you go there, your taxes will not go to pay interest on debt, since they don’t have any. So your taxes, which are really a piece of your life, will go to things that will be of a direct consequence to you, good or bad. You will see, and in fairly short order, if the piece of your life taken from you goes to improve or worsen society for all. Remember the health treatment law, dismissed as unconstitutional? Did you ever hear a discussion involving treatment for substance abusers?”“No Father, that was never a subject.”“How many hundreds of pages long was that law?”“More than two thousand.”“But nothing about a hardened alcoholic requiring a liver transplant, was there?”“No, not a word.”“Is it fair to spend enormous amounts of money on a person who intentionally destroyed his or her health, not to mention give them a transplant, over a person who required the same treatment because of hepatitis?”“No.”“You’re understanding the break away more now, aren’t you?”“Yes, Father.”“I know you came to ask about your mother, but I think you’ve since made your peace with her. This should not be a problem for you anymore. Do pray to her. She will hear you.”“Father, I am going to also ask for the Lord’s help. Thinking about what you say, I believe there is a place for me and my husband and son if we head south and I also believe we don’t have to worry and be destitute, go wanting for the basics. I am going to ask God to direct us.”“If this is what you truly want, if this is your desire, God will help you. That’s freedom. That’s the Bible.”“Freedom. What does it really mean?”“I’ll give you an example. Years ago, after the Navy, I did mission work in the Middle East, in a society that was largely Muslim, adjacent to an orthodox Muslim country that was absolute; the absolute neighbor allowed no manifestation of any religion other than Islam. Where I was, organized efforts to proselytize citizens were prohibited; however worship by foreigners was tolerated. I ministered to many foreign contract workers from the Philippines. I learned much about attitudes towards God. Many people there, Muslims, often repeated phrases, in Arabic, such as ‘it’s God’s will’ and behaved in a fatalistic, superstitious way. This was most often the case when something bad would happen. I agree many things are God’s will but that doesn’t mean they are not primarily our choice. As time went by, I noticed a key difference in attitude; Christians understand that in spite of gifts from Heaven such as sight, hearing, a sound mind and body, intelligence and a capacity to learn, we have most of all free will and choice. In times of confusion we can ask for help. We can pray, do what you’re doing now. We are free to try things and succeed and enjoy our success, and we are free to fail. We can follow a healthy lifestyle or choose not to, and either way we will have the results. Many people in that part of the world did not perceive of their existence in these terms; they saw any unfortunate occurrence as a decision God made, and to an extent absolved themselves of a responsible role. This was a curiously positive thing at times, as it helped them deal with tragedy more easily. They were not often wracked with guilt, and came to grips and began to get over their grief. Overall, though, I came to see how they resigned themselves to fate and did not act like a master of their situation as much as a member of an event or a victim of circumstance. You, Kathryn, are a victim of circumstance or a master of your destiny?”Kathryn looked at Father DiNardi and said nothing. She inhaled deeply, re-crossed her legs and arms and looked up at the ceiling. DiNardi gently smiled at patiently waited. Then Kathryn spoke slowly;“How many times I wondered what it looked like in here, in the rectory, Father.”“There were no tours?”“Oh no, that wouldn’t have occurred to anybody to do.”“I do it regularly; I bring the students over myself. I usually don’t take them to the sleeping quarters, the bedroom wing but we always end up going since the kids ask. So the whole group visits.”“Interesting Father, you think it helps?”“It will someday. They’ll see the church as a sanctuary institution and not a monument to be wondered about, misunderstood and in the worst of cases, feared because of the misunderstanding. They’ll see human beings being human. They can see the church, the sacristy and the parish offices so why not the rectory, all of it?”“Do you teach a class at the school, Father?”“Yes, mathematics and for the advanced placement eighth graders, introduction to geometry.”“No religion?”“No, the school has no required classes in religion and no longer are nuns, deacons, brothers or priests teaching the elective religion.”“Father, I think we’re going to move,” Kathryn said suddenly.“I believe it’s what your mother would have wanted. You came to ask about her.”“Yes, I did.”“Maybe she wanted you to come ask me about moving,” he said with a smile.“I will talk to my husband. We’ll make our plans. I’ll write you. My father will also like this. I think he’s going to consider going also.”“I suspect it’s what your mother wants.”“Thank you Father, thank you for your time. I don’t know how else to thank you.”“Be happy and enjoy the providence of a good life and good fortune. That’s my thanks. You don’t need to tell me. Just follow your road.”Kathryn stood up, grabbed Father DiNardi’s hands and held them in hers, smiled up at him.“May God Bless you, now and forever, bring you good fortune, good meals and goodwill. Amen,” he said, as he made the sign of the cross on Kathryn and stepped back. She smiled up at him again, tears welling up in her eyes and said “Father, please say a prayer for our nation and tell God we aren’t running away; we want her back together again someday.”“He knows this, and thank you for the inspiration, I may use this as the subject of next week’s sermon.”With that, Kathryn turned to go, steeping out into the cold, clear afternoon sun, walking over to her husband’s white Chevrolet and to the rest of her life.- 25 -Closed Far“Honey,” said Kathryn, “I don’t remember what time my father’s flight arrives, sometime after three o’clock this afternoon.“Okay, I’ll make it to the Arlington plant by lunchtime and then I’ll leave at three.”“Will you make it on time?”“Sure, the airport’s only a few miles north. By the time he gets to the baggage claim, I’ll be there.”“Will you bring him here?”“Yes, of course, where else would we go?” asked Christopher.“I don’t know” said Kathryn, “someplace. What I meant was, should we go out to dinner?”“No, unless you really don’t want to make dinner at home. You know your father better than I do, and what I know is that he wants to eat at our house; he likes your cooking.”“OK, I’ll make spaghetti and sausage; how’s that?”“Melted cheese on top, please,” said Christopher.Kathryn smiled and said, “let me put your son on the phone; wait a minute.”Kathryn lowered the telephone and left the kitchen, walking into the living room, softly calling out for her son, “Christopher Michael, where are you?”Little Chris, surrounded by toys, looked up from his spot on the patio behind the house, turning his head back towards his mother. Kathryn walked to the back screen door, slid it open and stepped out onto the patio into the cool, early morning bright sunshine, and held the telephone handset out to him, and said, “talk to Daddy!”Chris Jr. bolted up and over to his mother, jumping up to grab the telephone. She held the phone up from his grasp and said to her son “wait just a second.”“Honey” she said into the handset, “tell little Chris what you just said about dinner.”She handed the telephone to her young son telling him it was his father. Chris Jr. held it to the right side of his face with both hands.“Hi, Dad Dee!” said Chris Jr. “You working?” Then he listened carefully, his face a world of concentration; suddenly he broke into a big smile, excitedly handing the telephone back to his mother, and half shouted, “Daddy say speggy saw sidge mellid cheese!”He ran back to his spot on the patio behind the house and grabbed his plastic sword and struck at imaginary bad guys in the air and screamed “swish, swish, take that!”Kathryn whispered hoarsely into the telephone at her husband, saying “wait a second” and then grabbed Chris Jr.’s arm and said “Ssssshhhh!!! You’ll wake up your sister! Now stay outside, that’s a good boy and please, be quiet!” Chris Jr. answered, eagerly whispering loudly “Grampa like speggy saw sidge too?”“Yes Christopher Michael, he does,” Kathryn answered and stepped back into the house.She listened carefully for any sound from the bedroom hallway. Not a peep. Relieved, she continued talking to her husband.“Okay, I have to go to the mall, I’ll have dinner ready around five o’clock. You’re driving my father home afterwards?”“We’ll decide honey” her husband answered. “Let’s make absolutely sure I don’t have to come back here later. If something requires my attention, then you take him, okay?”“Sure, but not that I mind, what could make you go back to the factory?”“Production shift; component dispatch leaves Arlington at five in the morning to deliver to the factory for the start of the seven AM shift. If production runs more than ten percent off schedule, we may have to alter component deliveries. Only two people can authorize that, and you’re married to one of them.”“Couldn’t somebody else do it?”“No, honey but the chance is pretty low. I know Bill’s on vacation. Don’t worry, I’ll be home with your father for dinner, but he lives in the other direction from Crowley, so I can’t do both. Besides, he doesn’t want to go to my office at the factory.”“Yes he does; he’d love it; he really likes that car factory,” said Kathryn. “I didn’t know that. When did you find this out?” he asked.“Like, every time you’ve ever taken him there, that’s all he ever says to me afterwards when I ask him how he liked it. “Wow. I thought he did it just because he did some auto related work a long time ago. Well, okay, like I said, chances are slim to none and Slim’s heading out of town, but it’s possible I’d have to come back. Don’t worry, I’ll be home for dinner.”“Okay, honey, thanks for getting my father. We’ll see you later. So long.”“Okay, so long sweetheart,” Christopher said to his wife as he hung up his office telephone, looked out the window at the parking lot next to and below his second floor office window at the General Motors assembly plant just west of Crowley, southwest of Fort Worth, Texas.~ THE END ~ GlossaryActs of ActionThe certain road to sure happiness, destination unknownCephalizationIncreasing importance of the head in development of animal life; concentration of important organs or functions in or near the head Closed FarGone away and arrivedDear Mr. President Satisfaction disguised; we can attain perfection Dollar Man, TheThe old name of “Gold Coin” exchanger, the way it’s going Far but ClosingWithin reach a way off yetFatuityComplacent stupidity; foolishness; follyGlossaryList of definitions and interpretations, at least this one isHit MenStrike persons hard; those paid to do so Iniquity Lack of righteousness or justice; wickedness; sin Meet the Millers Meeting the MillersPersiflage Light, frivolous and flippant style of writing or speakingPlebian Elites The elites within the non-elites Prison Spark Plug SchoolHigher erudition in every organizationPseudomorph A false or irregular formRectory, TheA house of rectitude, un-angled straightnessRootsBeginnings Taking StockInvestment thought or how to lose it while making itTaxing HistoryThe Yahoo way; criticized but it workedThermolysisDissociation of a compound by heatTo The President It wasn’t attainable; change courseUrburbiaUrban bliss Variegation Diversity or variety of character or appearance, especially of color VermiculationMotion like a worm; the wavelike contractions as it movesVitrificationTo make like or have the nature of glass YupurbiaUrban bliss for no-kids professionals, even unemployed ................
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