WAR (48 page)

“Make sure you give me the invoice for the changes before I leave. I’ll make sure you get paid very quickly.”

“Sean, I trust you to get us paid. How do you like being Press Secretary?”

“I liked having my own show more than I enjoy dealing with the regular media. By the way, the families should arrive in about an hour. Is your make up staff ready?”

“We’re ready, many are excited to meet the families. Did Sissy bring Rebel?”

“I asked her not to bring her to the station. I didn’t think you needed a dog running around. I also brought two staff who were instrumental with the first program, Joan was my sound engineer and Ted was one of the video directors, do you mind if I have them sit in the control booth with your people?”

“Not at all, it’ll be my pleasure to have two very experienced people in the booth with me. Is there anything special we need for the children?”

“Did you get the list I sent?”

“Yes, everything on your list is in stock and ready for them.”

“Great, that should be sufficient.”

As the two walk through the station an intern hands Mr. Bradley a note, he pauses reading it, he turns to Sean. “The Smiths are here as is Wolf who is browbeating the staff. He wants changes made to the studio.”

“Send him to me, don’t change the studio, I’ll handle Wolf.”

The two hear a familiar loud and angry voice yelling at people, trying to order changes in the studio. Sean shakes his head, “Wolf, we’re over here, join us.”

Wolf storms to the corner where the General Manager and Sean are standing. Wolf says, “Sean, have you seen the studio? It has to be changed before both families arrive. I told the workers about changes I want, they ignored me, tell them to make the changes I want.”

“Wolf, it’s not your studio, we’re borrowing Mr. Bradley’s studio. He’s made many changes per MY request. There’s no time to make any additional changes. The Smiths are already here. They’re in the ‘Green Room’ relaxing, their next stop will be make up. Why don’t you head to make up? I’ll meet you there.”

“What about the changes I want?”

“Wolf, do you want us to be building the studio while we’re taping the show? We’re out of time.”

“Why wasn’t I consulted about the design of the sound stage?”

“There wasn’t time. Calm down and go get ready.”

Sean enters the ‘Green Room’, he finds both families are there relaxing, enjoying some snacks and generally in a happy mood. “Hi everyone. Are you all ready to do this again?”

Jason says, “We’re ready, Wolf just wandered through mumbling about the studio is wrong, we looked at it, why is he so upset?”

“Jason, didn’t you notice something was missing in the background?”

“No, what did I miss?”

“The LSA symbol isn’t on the background, neither is the USA symbol, both flags
are
there, the LSA’s behind your family and the USA flag behind Bob and Carol. The center background is just images of life in both countries. Wolf doesn’t like it.”

“We think it looks nice.”

“You’ll be going to make up in about ten minutes, then you’ll join Wolf and I on the sound set. We’ll do some sound and video checks before we begin.”

Carol asks, “Sean, we didn’t find an outline of the questions, did we miss it?”

Laughing, Sean replies, “Carol, remember this is unscripted, Wolf and I will start with some questions while the audience sends in questions.”

“Oh boy, they can ask us anything?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll censor out any very personal questions.”

“Thanks.”

“Relax, I’ll see you in the studio in about thirty minutes.”

@@@@@

Wolf’s phone rings, “Hello, this is Wolf.”

“Wolf, this is President Booker.”

“Yes sir, what can I do for you?”

“You better make sure the Smith family agrees to return and support us on air, if they stab us in the back your career is finished. Have you found out how they escaped our agents?”

“No, they refuse to say how they made it across the border.”

“Work on the little girl, she likes you, she’ll be easy to break.”

“We have to know how they escaped so we can make sure others don’t use the same method. We can’t have our people slipping away in the middle of the night. I have Dianne ready to respond when you get us the information.”

“Mr. President, I’ll try.”

“Don’t try, just do. Wolf, don’t fail me, failing me is to fail the entire country. If we lose this election, there won’t be an LSA. In addition, Rand will most likely arrest Dianne and me,”

“Mr. President, I’m doing the best I can. My, our, leverage over what the Smith’s say has been drastically reduced.”

“Wolf, find something to hold over their heads, there has to be something you can find to use against them, there has to be some secret they want to remain hidden, if you can’t find one, make one up. Threaten to spread a story about one of their kids that should get them on board.”

“I’ll work on it.”

“Don’t let us down.”

@@@@@

Both families take their chairs, each family is seated on one arm of a large ‘V’ with Wolf and Sean sitting in the middle of the ‘V’. A makeup artist runs to each family member dabbing their foreheads with powder so none shine in the bright lights of the TV cameras. Sean asks, “Is everyone ready?”

Everyone nods yes, Sean smiles saying, “In five, four, three, two, one, Hello everyone in the USA and the LSA, we welcome you back to a new episode of the Smiths and Jones. Tonight we’re not broadcasting from either of our families’ homes, we’re in a studio in Raleigh, North Carolina. We’d like to thank our hosts, WRAZ the local WOLF News Network station which allowed Wolf and I to take over their studio for a few of days. I’m sure the other change, everyone has noticed, is we have both of our families together with us in the same studio. This is sure to add some fireworks as this is the first time both families have shared a common stage together. Our biggest change and most exciting to all of our viewers and listeners is most of our program is going to be based on your live questions. That’s right, you can call, email, post questions on our Facebook page or Tweet them, we have staff standing by to add your questions to the queue. We’d like to thank both President Rand and Booker for allowing us back on the air. Our goal is to allow you to ask anything you’d like to know about life in the LSA and USA ahead of the upcoming election which will decide the fate of both countries. We’ve all suffered through a very stressful few weeks, we hope this opportunity will allow you to get close and personal with real families that lived on each side of the divide. We hope this program will help you decide what’s right for you.

“Before we begin, we’d like to thank both families for taking the time to open their lives to everyone, once again. Both families have endured a lot in the past few months; every aspect of their lives has been recorded and made public. I know I speak for all of us when I say, thank you to both families. It seems like both families have become part of all of our families. Our first question tonight comes from Robert in Seattle, Robert would like to know if each family has a general comment they would like to make about the election.

“I’ll ask the Jones family to go first since we’re in their back yard.”

Bob smiles, he waves to the camera, “Hello everyone, as the father of the Jones family we welcome to you the continuation of our program. People in both the USA and LSA we want to thank you for making our program number one. We’re very excited about the upcoming election, as a Southern family with roots that go back at least two hundred years in history, we’re happy and excited about the election. Honestly, we’re hoping the result of the election will be the reunification of the United States. I understand why President Brownstone allowed the split. He was trying to save all of us from a civil war. He felt, and at the time I agreed with him, that we’d grown too polarized, we were either right or left, neither side spoke to each other, we went out of way to fight with each other. Congress couldn’t get anything done; it was all about scoring points for their side. Our representatives in Congress forgot they worked for us. They made side deals and behind our back deals versus what we the people, who sent them to Washington, wanted them to do.”

“The progressives wanted bigger government, a government that wasn’t a government as much as it was a parent to everyone. If you were naughty, you’d get punished by a visit from the IRS, if you were nice, you get a special tax break. They wanted to provide everyone with everything they thought the people wanted, free healthcare, free college, free phones, free broadband, free food, they forgot it wasn’t their money, it was ours. At the time of the split, we had 50% of the population taking from 50% who worked. Our national debt broke 20 trillion dollars. We didn’t think there was enough money in all the world to pay the debt back. The left and right both started to get violent, the civil war we wanted to avoid turned out to be around the corner. President Brownstone had two choices, to let the country split or fight. He allowed it to split to save tens of thousands, if not millions of lives.”

“The left built the great divide where they set up the progressive state of the LSA. We in the USA got back to our roots, we embraced capitalism, we embraced technology. We tied our currency to precious metals, we reduced our real unemployment to almost nothing, we paid down most of our national debts, we changed Obsamcare to something workable, we allowed insurance companies to sell across state lines, we put caps on malpractice suits, we encouraged midwives and nurse practitioners. Start up companies built ‘Docs on wheels’, mobile doctors offices they drove into the inner cities and very rural areas bringing medical care to many who didn’t usually have it. They were paid by the insurance companies, health care improved, our people’s lives improved, our life spans increased. Our economy grew by leaps and bounds. Tax cuts put money in our pockets, money we spent which created jobs, tax breaks were given to companies that opened offices in the inner cities, slowly but surely we rebuilt our cities. Are we perfect? Far from it, but most of us are happy, healthy and doing a lot better than we were before the split.”

Wolf asks, “Bob, then why do you want to unify the country?”

“Because the LSA is hurting. I didn’t know it until the program was on the air and we learned from the Smiths how life in the LSA really was. We learned the LSA gave up faith and belief in God. I’m not saying that belief in God is mandatory. I learned as a young child that morality comes from the bible. Without morality what are we? Without knowing right from wrong how do we pass and obey laws? We’ve become too politically correct, when everything insults someone, how do people communicate? How can people express themselves if everything is banned because it might insult someone in some manner?”

Wolf continues, “Bob, why do you say the LSA is hurting? We’re doing great, just ask anyone in the LSA.”

“Wolf, why don’t we ask Jason and Sharon, they’re sitting across from us. They have recent first-hand experience.”

Wolf, realizing he got caught in his own words, worries what the Smiths are going to say.

Jason and Sharon smile at each other and into the camera, Sharon begins, “Hello again everyone, it’s our pleasure to be with you again. Wolf and Bob just asked us what we think about what he said; frankly six months ago I would have said we were happy, we were living in the right country. Our government loved and looked after us, they cared about us. After arriving here to visit the Jones family, we’ve learned we didn’t know what we didn’t know. We’ve been here for three weeks. In those three weeks, I think I can speak for my entire family when I say, people of the LSA, government isn’t supposed to be our parent or babysitter, it’s supposed to protect our country and guide trade. We made the central government of the LSA into an all-powerful parent. We stepped back realizing we didn’t like being spied on 24 hours a day, we didn’t like the idea the government looked over our shoulder at every website we visited. They knew everything we ordered online, monitored and even blocked many websites from us. We realized we’d become slaves of the government. When the population works for the government, when the government supplies our utilities, when the government supplies our phone and broadband, our entertainment, we are their property. There're no checks and balances in the LSA.”

“When we left on our vacation the LSA government was deep in debt, they are going to run out of money in a few weeks. The last time I checked our accounts I learned that the government took 15% of everyone’s savings as a ‘shared responsibility tax’. Who asked us? Who gave them permission to reach into our pockets and take our money, our children’s savings? They took 15% of every account. We didn’t get so much as a thank you note, we got a receipt for taxes paid. This was done without even telling us it was going to happen. In fact, if in the five days before the government took our money there was a balance 10% higher, we had to pay the difference in what the government took and what they thought they were going to get! America was formed over taxation without representation, isn’t that what’s going on today in the LSA?”

Wolf jumps up trying to stop Sharon, “Sharon, I’m sure you get many services for your tax dollars, remember when we filmed at your home how happy you were to have the DepLIES keep their eyes on your family, how happy you were new schools were being built, that you had a good job, that you had enough to eat and fresh water to drink. You were happy you were doing your part to save the planet? Look at the USA, they refused to sign or honor any of the Global Warming treaties, we have to work three times as hard to save the planet because of them. Please let me touch on Bob’s point about faith and God. What’s right and wrong is easy to answer, it’s what’s correct under the law and what isn’t. Should one religion be above another? Should a religion force its beliefs on another? This is what happens when religions are allowed to flourish and grow. The various religions fight each other. We worked very hard for many years to pull our people’s hands off the various religious symbols and false faith. You spoke of right and wrong, everyone knows what’s right and what’s wrong; you don’t need a Church, Temple or a Mosque to know right from wrong.”