The Smiths and Joneses (12 page)

              “Jason, was your income also reduced because you no longer had your vehicle costs?”

              “Of course, it was. However, we don’t have to worry about the declining value of the vehicles or breakdowns. This is another example of how the government has lifted a crushing burden from us. Our government has made our lives much easier to deal with.”

              “Where does the extra electrical energy come from to charge your cars and trucks?”

              “We have huge solar farms, plus we burn trash and believe it or not we burn dead bodies for fuel to generate electrical power.”

Sean sees a couple of woman holding hands walking along the sidewalk while a little girl skips ahead of them. Sean asks, “Sharon, Jason, I’d like to ask what are the laws or definition of marriage in the LSA?”

              Jason looks through the front window, he sees the two woman, “Sean, I assume Jane and Susan raised your question. The answer is easy; we believe marriage is a civil agreement between people.”

              “Jason, are you saying, the LSA has removed God from the equation?”

              “Of course we have. We’ve downplayed religion in our society. We’ve found a way to lower the divorce rate. We have three levels of marriage. Anyone over the age of 18 can enter into an ‘Alpha’ marriage which is a civil agreement for a term of one year, it can be renewed for an additional period. A ‘Beta’ marriage lasts for three years and can be renewed for an additional period of three years. Of course, we have regular marriage that has no fixed term. However, everyone under the age of 25 who wants to marry must start with either an Alpha or Beta marriage.”

              “Why do they have to start with an Alpha or Beta marriage?”

              “Divorce rates reached 65% in new marriages; people rushed into marriage too quickly. This enables our young to try marriage before having to commit for a long term.”

              Sean looks at Sharon and Jason asking, “So two people can enter into a limited term marriage and at the end of the term just walk away?”

              “Of course, that’s the entire construct of the Alpha and Beta marriage.”

              Sean asks, “Is marriage still between two people?”

              Sharon blushes, responding, “No, it can be between as many as they want it to be. One of our neighbors is in a marriage of three people, two women and one man. Since our courts have ruled that marriage is a civil contract, the courts ruled that any number of people can enter into a marriage.”

Wolf says, “On that note I think this is a wrap for tonight. I want to thank everyone for tuning in and thank President Brownstone and the Smith family. We’ll be back tomorrow at the same time. You can log on to our website; www.12yearsafter.com to take part in the discussion about tonight’s show.”

Chapter 6

              Kathy and I were two of the millions sitting in front of our television screen for the past three hours; we hadn’t moved. When the program ended we sat in a trance staring at the local newscaster who started off the nightly news program by saying, “All I can say is WOW, I never knew.”

              I answered the newscaster saying, “We agree, we didn’t know either.”

Kathy laughs responding, “He can’t hear you.”

It’s been a small joke forever between us that when a newscaster says something I don’t like, I usually end up yelling at the ‘talking-head,' Kathy always reminds me to yell louder because they can’t hear me at their broadcast station from our family room. Turning to look at her I ask, “Kathy, do you think that was all true? Was that really unscripted? Can those people really believe all of that?”

“Brad, if you looked closely at their faces, it really looked like the entire dialog was unscripted. I’m sure the LSA department of truth, or whatever they call it, selected the family to represent their side of the argument. They picked their family really well. These people totally believe the government line.”

“Honey, why wouldn’t they? Look at it from their point of view. Many in the LSA were liberal, they wanted a progressive government. Some even thought President Obsma didn’t go far enough. Many started off being upset with us in the USA. As the LSA central government consolidated their power, they handed out benefits and money buying the allegiance of their people. The absorbed all of the utilities and other service providers. They say they don’t even think about their government controlling their utilities, I bet they’re right because they don’t give a moment’s thought to everything their government has taken control of. I bet they don’t give a minute’s thought to the government listening into their every call, or that they read everything the people are reading or writing. Based on what we’ve just seen, the LSA knows how many people are home at any one time due to the amount of energy being used. They know where everyone is at any moment. These people have accepted a society where the central government knows everything about everyone living within their borders. They’ve exchanged their freedom for what they see as services and security.”

“Brad, we stopped paying attention to the LSA years ago, as long as they left us alone, we left them alone. We’ve been busy with our own lives, our jobs, our friends and families. Most people thought the LSA was going to implode at any moment. As time marched forward, the friction between the two countries lessened. Someone once said that fences make good neighbors; they must have been correct because as the wall along the border was raised, the tensions between our countries lessened. Each country has developed their own entertainment programs. We can get a couple of their channels; however, most of our cable providers don’t want to pay the LSA the high fees they demand to carry their programs. Hence, over time we’ve lost touch with what they’ve been doing. They haven’t bothered us, and we haven’t bothered them. There’s many in the USA who still hold a grudge against the LSA for splitting off.”

“President Brownie and President Cruise reached an agreement to seal the borders between the two countries. People crossing the border require a visa. President Bloomberg increased the visa requirements making it even harder for us to enter the LSA or his people to enter the USA. He doesn’t want his people visiting us. He claims we polluted his citizens’ minds and bodies. He didn’t want our entertainment or sports programming in the LSA. He was able to get all of the rules he couldn’t get passed in New York City when he was Mayor, made law in the LSA. In his mind, he’s created the perfect society, where he knows what’s best for everyone. No sugared drinks over 8oz are allowed to be sold and even then, only three a day are allowed, no tobacco, no salt, no firearms. Everything the citizens of the LSA do and purchase is recorded on their national ID cards. Bloomberg pushed through the daily maximum allowable caloric intake to ensure people weren’t overweight. He hates overweight people.”

Kathy smirks while responding, “Well, he did get everyone to lose weight, they have the lowest percentage of overweight people in any first-world country.”

“But look at how he did it. He starved his people until they lost weight; he brainwashes them in school. He’s outlawed entire classes of foods. He forces kids to walk up to two miles each way to school. He enforced bike lanes be placed on every road creating more car traffic because he took a lane away from cars. He taxed gasoline powered cars. Kath, I couldn’t live there, I like my doughnuts too much.”

“Ron taught you the wrong things; you could stand to lose some weight. I guess you don’t want to vacation in the land of ‘The people’s republic’?”

“Not me, I don’t need to be watched 24/7. If we’re going to be recorded in bed, I want to be the one doing the recording.”

“Bradly, you’re too old for such games.”

“Want to bet? Now I like this idea of two women and one man being married for a set period of time and being able to walk away at the end of the term.”

Kathy sits down staring at me, she has a frown on her face, “Bradly, what are you saying? Am I not enough for you? Where did this come from? Is there something we need to have a serious talk about?”

“Honey, I was joking, Honey it’s a JOKE.”

“You’d better have been joking! Can they really be serious? Their marriage can be between any numbers of people?”

”Kathy, it’s the logical end of the argument the progressives were making before the break up. They argued that marriage is between two people regardless of their gender. I can see their courts ruling that since marriage is a civil contract, it can be between any number of people. I think it would take some getting used to.”

“Brad, I wonder what else is they’ve changed?”

“Kath, I would assume, based on where they started, we’re going to learn they have moved much further to the left than we ever imagined. Even with their government running everything, their standard of living appears too similar to ours. They have a nice home, two cars and all of the modern appliances. The LSA did bring manufacturing jobs back from China. I think they have done some things pretty good, I just couldn’t accept the total government control and surveillance of everything.”

“Brad, do you think they even realize what they’re missing or what they’ve given up?”

“Nope, they think they’re safe and being taken care of by the government. Tomorrow’s program should be interesting when the USA family is introduced to the world.”

“Brad, do you know how the USA family was selected?”

“The networks said over ten thousand families applied, they screened the applications through a supercomputer for the ‘average’ USA family. The finalists were interviewed by a group made up from both broadcasting networks.”

“I want to see the differences between the children and their schools; their schooling is what’s going to determine the future for both nations.”

“We’re going to have a very interesting few nights.”

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The ratings for the first night’s program breaks the broadcast record of 105 million viewers held by the last episode of ‘MASH’ in 1983. The early returns say 200 hundred million people tuned in to watch. These numbers shocked the other broadcast executives who laughed at the program when it was initially presented to them. The morning after, network board rooms are filled with shocked directors and program managers who didn’t think the interview program would draw ten million viewers. ABX thought they had the best formula; they broadcast the latest James Bond movie for the first time on television; it drew only a five share which is going to cost ABX millions in refunds to the advertisers who purchased air time based on a promised number of viewers. The presidents of ABX, NBX and CBZ, call each other to see if they can quickly come up with a way to slow the ratings of the Wolf/CNN broadcast. The president of CBZ says, “If tonight’s broadcast equals the same ratings, or God forbid increases, we’re going to lose hundreds of millions of advertising dollars. It’s going to destroy our quarter if we can’t quickly recover. If they win tonight, they will slide through Thursday, Friday and the live town meeting broadcast on Saturday. The Sunday morning programs are going to be filled with nothing but comments about the program. We won’t get a chance to recover until Monday. If the ratings hold and I were running Wolf or CNN, I’d run a series of follow-up programs with outtakes next week ensuring people tune in. They could crush us for another week. They ran the program during ‘sweep month’ they will build up their advertising rates for the balance of the year at our expense.”

The president of ABX replies, “I agree, who the hell ever thought Wolf and CNN would agree to partner with each other on anything. They’re about as far apart on every issue as black and white. When I first heard about their plans I laughed. I thought this might be the program decision that breaks Wolf. It must have cost them a large fortune in bribes to get permission to film in the LSA.”

The president of NBX quietly says, “How did we miss this? How did we miss the fact the average person would have so much interest in a show about how the other side is living? I bet Randolph Mandake, the founder of Wolf, thought this up and approached CNN; this isn’t something that CNN would develop. CNN doesn’t have a creative person on their staff. Randolph most likely thought if he partnered with CNN, President Bloomberg would go along with it because he could exert some control over CNN. CNN went along because Randolph would foot the production costs.”

ABX responds, “We should have seen it coming, we all blew it. Each of us could have done the program; we could have put together a better production than these two did. However, we’re now faced with the fact that if we went off the air tonight no one would notice. Wolf may be able to use the program to pass all of us in the new season. We’ll lose billions that will go directly into Randolph’s pockets enabling him to expand and kick our teeth in next season.” 

“I’ve decided that NBX is going to broadcast an evening of repeats; there’s no reason to waste new programming when no one will be watching.”

ABX asks the president of NBX, “How do you plan to deal with your advertisers?”

“I’m going to have a call with them in an hour and offer them a reduction in price plus additional slots after the Wolf/CNN broadcast ends. I’m also going to rush into production a series on how we got to where we are. I’m going to directly call President Brownstone to see if we can engage him as a special consultant.”

The president of CBZ says, “Good luck with that one, when he was in office, we all blasted him for everything he did and said. He won’t agree to be a consultant for any of us.”