Dawn of the Unthinkable (38 page)

Another official was called on by Lao, and
asked, "In fact, isn't what you are talking about actually Utopia?
Sir Thomas More proposed it way back when, and any attempts to
establish it have usually resulted in failure. I don't see anything
different about this system that won't have the same result." He
sat back down, smugly satisfied that he had stuck a pin in their
balloon. He had considerable holdings that he had no intention of
turning over in this or his children's lifetime. Lao was about to
answer with a little anger in his voice when the chairman decided
he would field this one.

"That’s a good question, sir. Utopia assumes
perfection, which we are not pursuing. We
are
looking for
wholesale improvement, and we feel this system has as much chance
of success as some of the others we've analyzed. As matter of fact,
we went back and analyzed some of the previous policies we've
supported to see how they are doing, and many have failed due to
the discontinuation or misuse of funds. This program gets around
that to a degree in that society as a whole, not some five hundred
senators and congressmen, decides how to allocate resources. As
good as our current method of government is, we have never had a
system where the people being governed had a
direct
say in
their affairs. A representative government no longer works, as at
the time the Constitution was written, the United States population
was less than one percent of what it is now. Many of the people
could not read or write, so representation was almost a necessity.
Now most can, and they should be given more say in their lives than
currently afforded by a small ruling class. It's an
ultra-democracy, really."

Lao's boss chimed in, saying, "Why do you
think less and less people vote anymore? One of the reasons we have
determined is that the people do not feel that any one person can
represent their needs or their desires, so they lose interest.
Especially if that person is beholden to special interest groups,
or lobbyists, or PACs. With this system, people can take whatever
they need, and request what they desire, and every attempt will be
made to satisfy their desires. So the need for politicians will
decrease, and facilitators and logistics people will become more
important. What we gradually see happening is the quest and desire
for goods and products will decrease. If everything you need is
free, there will no longer be a need to own three of something if
one will do. Those assets can then be used for something else
deemed more worthy by society. And we feel that eventually, society
will turn their attention to more creative pursuits, and we may
benefit by that. We're not sure that's what is going to happen, but
we feel it's worth a try."

The Brookings group fielded some more
questions of a procedural nature while the attendees broke off into
several side conversations. The chairman looked at his watch. "I
see that our allotted time for this presentation is up, and I know
you are all busy people. We'd like to thank you all for coming and
any individual questions can be addressed to my staff, who will be
hanging around for a while. I'd remind you of the need for secrecy
on this; there will obviously need to be further debate before any
implementation. Thank you." He knew that there would be no secrecy
at all, that word would start to leak from the infamous "unnamed
source." He saw Karen Strock trying to extricate herself from a
swarm of admirers and gawkers. She had to get back to the senator's
office fast to deal with the stream of questions that would come
in. She also wanted to be the first to call "The Boys" as she had
taken to calling them. Especially Ryan, who she found to be sweet
and sexy at the same time. Unlike her usual careless attitude
toward men, she hoped that he liked her.

Charlie Lao was answering many technical
questions, but his mind was awash with feel-good hormones. His boss
and the chairman had both given him the thumbs-up, and he knew he
had done a pretty good job. He could not wait to tell his wife and
parents, who were very proud of his position.
Doing good by
society and your family, that’s what it's all about
, he
thought. He thought he had done okay by them both today.

Ryan was at home when Strock called. He was
not expecting a call from her as they had not given any solid
timetable for when they would be in touch. And he was used to
Cunningham calling with any new developments. He had the clearest
idea of any of them as to what the next step would be. So he was
caught by surprise when he heard her voice and started blushing
furiously when he felt himself getting aroused just hearing her.
But he calmed down when she told him her news, that the Brookings
Institution had recommended a test case. He was speechless. She had
to say "Hello?" to snap him out of it.

He shook his head and grinned from ear to
ear. "Someone's going to try it, huh? They really liked it? What
did they say?" He said this all at once, not leaving her any chance
to answer. She laughed, a sound that thrilled him beyond reason. He
had met other attractive women before; why was this one getting
under his skin so fast? He had to remind himself that these types
of feelings never did him any good; he had experienced unrequited
love before, and it was a miserable situation. He'd have to limit
his exposure to this woman.

She said in a girlish voice, "Wait, silly,
let me spell it out," and told him in glowing terms exactly how it
had went.

He let her finish and was very moved by this
personal triumph. He found himself choking back tears as he
whispered, "Damn," and then was silent. Finally, he realized he
would have to report this back to his comrades, so he asked her if
she could write it up and e-mail it to him. He managed to bring
himself to end the conversation, as they were veering towards
flirting and he did not want that to happen. They ended their
conversation with a promise to get together soon, and against his
better judgement, he was thrilled when she sounded excited by that
prospect. He hung up and turned the computer on, and several
minutes later when he checked his mail, it was there. He forwarded
it on to Palma’s and Cunningham’s addresses, with an intro that let
them know how pumped up he was.

He had scanned it quickly before sending it.
She listed the major attendees, none of whose names he recognized.
There were Undersecretaries of this and that, Deputy Assistants to
those Undersecretaries, and a virtual cornucopia of other
underlings. He was disappointed to see that Kennedy wasn't there
but realized he was probably busy. There apparently was some Asian
mathematician who had put a computer simulation together that
proved that theoretically, the thing could work, but an actual test
would be required. They wanted to pick a middle or western town and
put it into effect, which seemed like a good idea. Of course,
legislation would be required to establish what they called "The
Free Zone.". Karen wrote that as his Chief of Staff, she was going
to recommend to the senator that he propose the legislation, and
she was confident that he would accept it. Ryan was sure that she
was probably pretty persuasive. He sat back and let his mind reel
with the possibilities.
A real town trying to live out my idea!
Jesus, this is unbelievable! It was really just a paper that I
wrote for a lark.
It was amazing that it had come this far.
Sometimes the things that happened in life just could not be
explained; there was a randomness to it that was exciting with all
the possibilities.

He came out of the clouds finally and called
Cunningham. He wasn't in, so he left a message on his answering
machine and quickly dialed Palma. Luis picked up the phone on the
second ring, and his rich baritone voice made Ryan smile. He was
glad this project had brought this little group together; these
were really good guys that he otherwise wouldn't have gotten to
know. He filled Palma in quickly and was rewarded by a stunned
silence then a low whistle.

Ryan said, "Yeah, it’s amazing, isn't it?
They want to try it out, Lou,
to try it out
! It's hard to
believe, but now that I think about it, it's probably a far way
from reality. Once the conservatives hear about it, they'll
probably line up to shoot it down. And since the Republicans
control the Congress right now, it's probably a long shot at best.
So I'm going to have to calm down, but it's still a hoot!" Palma
had to laugh at his friend's enthusiasm; he had a funny way of
putting things. Palma was excited, too, but a lot more skeptical
than Ryan that it would ever see the light of day. His instinctual
mistrust of authorities kicked in, and he began once again to look
for cracks in their armor. But then he decided to quit being so
skeptical for a while and enjoy the moment.

Palma's secretary let him know that
Cunningham was on the other line. Palma patched him into the
conversation, and they told him what had happened. He let out a
deep sigh of satisfaction and relief, and said "Whew, now we've
really gone and done it. Wait 'til Senator Kincaid hears about
this; he hates Kennedy and liberals with just about the same
passion." Cunningham cackled at the thought; since he was already
being a burr under his dean's saddle, why not piss off some stuffy
old senator? "Okay, what's next, Nick? Did she give you any idea
what her schedule was?"

Ryan cleared his throat and said, "Yeah,
well as I was telling Lou, she's got to brief the senator and get
his buy-in, but she feels he's half sold on the idea already. I
guess if he says okay, then they'll introduce some sort of bill to
authorize a "Free Zone"? I'm not too clear on that part, but like
us, she was thinking of a big announcement on July Fourth. She said
there was an annual celebration on the Mall then with bands and a
big fireworks show. She said that usually politics is kept to a
minimum with patriotic speeches and what not but that she thought
that they could make an exception in this case. She said we'd be up
on the stage and would be introduced, kind of like a coming-out
party. Guess that will turn us into overnight celebrities. Better
bury those last skeletons in the closet, huh? Anybody got any
bitter illegitimate kids they haven't mentioned before?"

He said the last kiddingly, but actually all
three were searching their memory for any incidents or people they
wouldn't want dug up. Of course, they all had had some embarrassing
moments, but none had anything that would not withstand some media
glare. They all laughed, and said some variation of "Nope," or "Not
me," or "None that I'm aware of," the last from Palma, which set
them laughing again, as he was the only one with a realistic chance
to have an unauthorized copy running around somewhere. They were
aware of his effect on women and that there was probably a string
of one-nighters in his past. He did nothing to dispel their
suspicions, which were actually quite on the money.

Cunningham as usual inserted the "big
picture" view. He said in a thoughtful voice, "Hey, if this is
actually going to come to fruition, they're probably going to want
one or all of us to move there." This silenced them in a hurry, as
they hadn't thought of that.

Ryan responded, "Man, that would be tough
for me. My wife's about as mobile as a rock, and I don't think my
kids would like the Midwest." The other two said "hmmm" in
sympathetic agreement.

Cunningham said, "I could probably get my
sabbatical there; God knows my dean would love to see the last of
my radical black ass. I wouldn't want to leave permanently, though,
because a lot of my creditability is tied to my job, and I probably
should stay within train distance of Washington. What about you,
Palma?"

Palma had to pause and think. He had
traveled widely preaching the message of the Wobblies, so travel
was not a hardship. But to be a permanent lightning rod for
discontent, in a new town where Latinos might not be accepted, that
was something completely different. He preferred to get in and out,
make his point and move on. This was going to be like being the
first black sheriff in a Southern town, somewhat uncomfortable, to
say the least. But, if he was going to see this thing through, he'd
probably better take this assignment. At least it would be some
action; all the talking was driving him nuts. Besides, he'd have
lots of Wobblies to keep him company, as they would love this type
of pragmatic, can-do living. He smiled and wondered if they'd all
camp out down by the rail yards like in the past. The more he
thought about it, the more enthused he became.

"Yeah, I think I can do that. When are we
talking about?"

Cunningham said, "Well, if they're going to
announce it on the Fourth, I guess they'd probably start searching
for the right town some time shortly after that. August,
maybe?"

Palma said, "That would be okay. Give me
some time to clean up my affairs, in case they end up shipping me
home in a box." They all laughed uneasily at his gallows humor.
None of them liked to consider that they would come to any harm.
Palma was just kidding; he had been in worse positions than being
administrator of a socio-economic program, or whatever this would
be considered. Welfare state? Whatever. He just wanted to try
it—enough secrecy and jargon already. "What exactly would I be
doing? I mean other than directing my troops?” he asked
Cunningham.

"That would be a large part of it. That and
being our eyes and ears on-site. We've kind of got to let the
government run this because no one will trust the results if they
can't say they were the major player. Of course, we'll try to keep
it true to the original principles," he said as an acknowledgement
to Ryan. "We still use the original Constitution, and that's over
two hundred years old. So we don't want them straying too far from
that, which I'm sure they'll try in attempt to see if it cracks
under pressure. But I think your members will play an instrumental
role in showing folks how to live in a cooperative community, that
what's good for one is frequently good for all. I think your people
will adapt better than others, and with you right there to guide
them, they'll be a powerful force. How many do you think will move
there?"