The Smiths and Joneses (43 page)

              “Scott, have you been taught that plants use CO2 to make Oxygen? Do you realize if there’s a major reduction of CO2, there could be a reduction of Oxygen?”

              Scott looks confused at Sean, “Huh, I don’t understand.”

              Jason says, “Sean, I think you’re trying to sway and change what Scott’s being taught. We agreed not to cross into discussions like this.”

              Sean responds, “Jason, you’re correct, I’m sorry for saying that. Jason, do your teachers discuss how much warmer the planet has become in the previous ten or twenty years?”

              “Mr. Sean, we’re shown pictures of the ice melting at the North Pole and icebergs floating in the oceans. We’re shown the number of animals that no longer exist. Which is proof of the planet getting warming. Another proof is school is kept warmer every year which must mean everything is getting warmer.”

              “Scott couldn’t it be that to save energy they’re just increasing the temperature of the air conditioning which increases the temperature in your classrooms?”

              “I’m sure it could be possible, but I’m not sure why every building seems warmer than before.”

              “My guess is the government has adjusted the temperature up a half or a full degree every year to save money.”

              “Mr. Sean, I don’t know. I’ll ask my teacher.”

              Sharon looks at Sean saying, “Sean, please back it down a little.”

              Wolf laughs saying, “Sharon, Sean and most of the people in the USA still live in the dark ages. They don’t believe in Global Warming or in saving the environment for their future generations. The USA still lives like they were in the twentieth Century. They recycle only 45% of their waste, while we recycle close to 80%. In a few ways, the USA is very backward. Don’t be upset with Sean, just do as I do, I pity him and most of those in the USA. We hope that the day will come when they see the value and truth in going green. Europe led the green movement; we followed and soon exceeded even their level. The LSA is proud to be the ‘greenest’ country in the world. We can all hope that one day the USA will follow our lead. As to the schooling of the LSA’s children, we’ve taken an approach that the USA launched fifteen years ago. We learned that children learn quicker if they are taught within their comfort zone.”

              Sharon says, “Sissy is learning things at her age I didn’t learn until much later. I can’t even help her with her homework any longer. Most parents can’t. That’s how advanced our education system has become.”

              Sean asks, “Sharon is there a single Department of Education or does each town have their own?”

              “There’s the national DepEd, followed by the state department of educations, we did away with our local educational departments. Every child is tested against a national standard. I’m very proud that Scott and Sissy have both scored very high on the national tests.”

              Sean follows up, “Does every student take the standard tests?”

              “Yes, the scores are posted on our national education website.”

              “Oh? May I see it?”

              “Jason taps the commands into his tablet, “Here is it, and here is the listing of the last test results.” He hands the tablet to Sean.

              “It doesn’t look like anyone failed the test.”

              “Almost no one fails. Remember we’re all equal, most of the scores are very similar, they are graded on a curve.”

              Sean asks, “Sharon, then what good is the tests if they are graded on a curve?”

@@@@@

              President Paul asks his chief of staff, “Marvin is the information complete, there’s no doubt on the results?”

              “Mr. President, there’s no doubt. The poison itself was designed in Russia, the scientists who developed the formula even published it. We found a copy. I’m sure the FSB is currently trying to clean the Internet of any reference to them or one of their labs. The people who performed local poisoning all had ties to family currently in the LSA. One broke down telling us if she didn’t agree she’d never see her parents again.”

              “What does the cabinet suggest?”

              “Sir, the cabinet went back and forth all day.”

              “Back and forth over what suggestions?”

              “An all out attack response in kind or some sort of blockade, seizure of assets, those sort of actions.”

              “Did the cabinet reach an agreement?”

              “Sir, not really. Half of the members side with Defense who wants to bomb the LSA, and half want to respond in kind.”

              “My choices are responded in kind, hurting children; that’s off the table. I’m a doctor; there’s no way I will agree to hurt children because they hurt ours. As to an all-out attack, that’s out too. I’m not going to hurt people who have no idea what happened or who did it. There has to be another option. Find one.”

              “Sir, what if we froze their assets?”

              “It might have worked at one time, now the LSA don’t have any of their resources in our banks. They nationalized all of their banks. As soon as they did they moved all of their assets back into their own banks.”

              “Mr. President, how are we going to respond?”

              “I don’t want to use the military because they don’t have a military; in addition, if we bomb them, we’ll harm their civilians. We need to find a way to respond so that President Bloomberg gets the message to leave us alone or else.”

              “Sir, we could bring down their wall, opening up the border for their people. We could find a way to broadcast into their territory.”

              “Let’s spend one more day looking at options.”

Chapter 26

The current episode ends with a special announcement, President Brownie and President Brownstone will be speaking with each other in the next segment. Even people who hadn’t followed the series decided this was a program they had to watch. This will be the first time in history the two presidents will share a table to discuss the split and why each went the direction they did. The presidents of the other networks threw up their hands in frustration. None knew how they were going to compete with this program. The president of ABX tells his staff we might as well go black for the night, who is going to be watching the reruns we broadcast. “Hell, even I want to watch that program.” The Senior VP of programming suggests, “Sir, I have an idea if I may?”

“What is it?” 

“Sir if no one is going to watch us, why don’t we offer to carry the program for that night too. We can offer Wolf and CNN a share of our advertising revenue.”

“That’s not a bad idea at all; we may at least hold some viewers for the evening. In addition, we’ll earn something versus earning next to nothing. I’ll call Randolph right now.”

In three hours, the first of its kind announcement is made - every station will carry the program with the two Presidents.  The stations usually all carry the same program if it’s a Presidential debate or special event like the 1969 moon landing. Wolf and CNN are ecstatic, they're getting 65% of the revenues from the other three stations without any additional costs.

On the night of the presidential discussion, the streets are empty, stores close early, those who had to work held their portable communications devices to watch the program. The program opens with two flags behind two chairs at one table. The camera zooms into the focus; President Brownstone is sitting in the right-hand chair, President Brownie in the left. Sean and Wolf sit across from their Presidents. The camera focuses on Sean, who opens the program.

“Hello everyone. It’s our pleasure to welcome everyone to our program this evening. We’re honored to have with us President Brownie from the LSA and President Brownstone from the USA. As I’m sure everyone knows, our two guests were the two men who faced off against each other when the LSA split from the USA. These two men could have taken us into a very violent time. A violence that surely would have destroyed America. Our program this evening is going to be completely different from our previous ones. Tonight, we’re going to let our two guests speak to each other, in addition to responding to questions send in from you, our audience. Without further ado, President Brownie.”

“Hello and thank you for joining President Brownstone, Sean, Wolf and me. Our goal is to answer your questions about the differences between the LSA and the USA. If we run out of viewer questions, we’ll let Sean and Wolf to ask us some questions. I see from the incoming email list that we already have more questions than we’re going to have time for this evening. Our first question comes from Mrs. B. no age given, from Sparta, South Carolina, she asks, “Why did we build a wall between our two nations?”

“Mrs. B, when we split away from the USA to form a progressive nation,
we,
I felt we needed to have a clean start, a fresh start if you will. I was also presented with a problem of having hundreds of thousands of people who were unemployed; many of the companies they worked for were located or were moving to another country. If we didn’t have a way to truly differentiate ourselves from the USA, we would have had a very difficult time forming a new country. I knew the USA would flood us with propaganda to sway many of our people to cross over and return to the USA. The wall, or divide as we call it, allowed me to put everyone to work, many learned new skills while also creating a way to separate us from the USA.”

John Browning, age 9, from Aurora, Illinois, asks, “Was it hard building the wall, how long did it take to build?”

“John, the plans were very simple, the construction was much harder than we expected. We had to teach almost everyone how to build a wall that is two stories high and up to twenty feet thick. I’m sure John’s follow up question was going to be what’s the wall made from? John most of the wall is made of rock and reinforced cement.” President Brownie shows images never seen before, on a large screen behind him, of the wall being built. President Brownie says, “I’m happy to announce that next week Wolf News Network and the Continuous News Network will show a two-hour program of how the divide was built. Rare images of the original blueprints and a video of the rocks being cut and made into the wall. Stay tuned to your local stations for news on this exciting program.”

“Here’s a question for President Brownstone, it’s from Jackie R, age 28, who lives in South Orange, New Jersey, she asks, ‘Why didn’t you sign the Global Warming accords?’”

President Brownstone replies, “Jackie, I didn’t sign onto the latest round of Global Warming accords because our own scientists didn’t find proof the planet has warmed in the previous twenty-five years. In fact, our records show the planet cooled around half of one degree.”

He continues selecting a question from those submitted; “This question is from Frank G, aged 75, from Austin, Texas, Frank asks, ‘What happened to the US Military bases and equipment that was in the LSA?’”

President Brownstone replies, “Frank, part of the separation contract was an agreement we could have up to one year to remove all of our assets from the LSA area. We used a steady stream of US Air Force cargo planes and merchant shipping to remove all of the US military equipment. Let me say, if it wasn’t nailed down we took it home, if it was nailed down, it usually took us a little longer, but we took it. We even took apart buildings and brought the materials home. We left foundations and runways, not much else.”  

President Brownie added, “He did too. I never expected the US military to be able to strip a military base down to its foundations, but they did. I think if they could have pulled up the runways they would have. To be fair, they did hire over one hundred thousand LSA workers to help them take apart and ship everything home. I appreciate them hiring our people versus them bringing their own people to handle the movement.”

President Brownstone selects another question, “Here’s a question from Stephanie H, aged unlisted, living in Seattle Washington; she wants to know why the USA doesn’t sell more oil and gas to the LSA.”

“Stephanie, we’re willing to sell any amount of oil and gas to the LSA they want. The oil companies in the USA offered the LSA a special price because a lot of the pipelines already exists. I suggest you ask the LSA why they don’t buy more from us. I know our petrochemical companies would love to sell you whatever you want.”

President Brownie stands adding, “Stephanie, when I was your President I pushed forward what I called the ‘Total Green Agenda’ I knew that dependence on oil and gas would cost us in any times of disagreement. The USA petrochemical companies could have been ordered to stop our shipments leaving our vehicles empty and our homes in the North East cold if they didn't get heating oil. I know the initial years were very difficult as we started our conversion. I’m proud that today the LSA is the ‘Greenest’ country in the world.”

Sean says, “I’ll earn my pay, here’s a question from Cecil Q from Boston, age 27, Cecil wants to know why are the customs agents so strict along the border, he says there says when he has to cross the border more than once a day.”

President Brownstone says, “Cecil; that’s a good question, I think the issue is both countries are concerned with people bringing contraband goods across the border as their business.”