Chapter 5
The U.S. stations might be under Martial Law but stations in the rest of the world were not. Late into the night we listened to commentary from Canada. As it grew later we were able to pick up stations from other countries. Most Countries were outraged. By the end of the next day virtually all the governments of the world had withdrawn their ambassadors for “consultation” diplomatic code speak for being pissed off and wanting us to know it.
The Canadian radio stations were the only ones we were able to get in consistently. But they carried all the major British news services. I don’t think that the president or his military leaders fully understood how difficult it would be to keep a lid on things. The Internet, cell phones, Blackberries and other PDA’s were so interwoven into the infrastructure of the country they could not just shut it down for very long. Over the next couple of days stories began to leak out.
They shut down the online services. But there were so many other options available that all they succeeded in doing was to look foolish.
It seemed that not all military units had stayed loyal when Martial Law was declared. There had been reports of fighting in several major cities. But none of it made it onto the local stations.
On Friday night we were listening to a Canadian station when they said, “It has just been announced that General Swanson will be addressing the people of the United States in roughly 15 minutes. We will carry his address live and stay tuned after his address as we report on international reaction.
I made us all some coffee and we sat down near the radio. The charge was almost gone on the radio we were listening to so Kevin charged up the other and we switched the antenna wire as we waited.
It was only a few minutes later that the Canadian station brought in the U.S. feed and we heard. “General Swanson will be covering some additions to the emergency orders that are now in effect. I want to let you know that he will not be taking any questions today. We apologize but as you can imagine our first priority is to establish order.”
The announcer paused then said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, General Swanson.
“Good evening. My statement will be brief.
I must admit that I find it deeply disappointing that some in Congress would try and take advantage of this crisis to further their careers. At a time when our country is in crisis it borders on treason that some would take a few isolated incidents and blow them all out of proportion. I can assure all of you that the military is not fracturing, and they remain loyal to our great country and to our president.
To help prevent such distortions of the truth from re occurring. Effective immediately anyone caught passing on any information to a foreign news service or foreign government will be subject to arrest. This would include any video or descriptions of events that the government considers damaging to our country. In addition anyone charged under this provision will be tried by a military court not a civilian one.
Further an executive order has been issued giving all foreign news services 48 hours to leave the country. We have made every effort to work with them unfortunately, they have refused to follow a few simple guidelines that were put in place to insure their safety as well as help prevent unrest. If any news agency wishes to be re instated they will have to submit an application for re instatement. Included in that application will terms and stipulations on conduct. We will review each application on a case-by-case basis.
Your local radio and TV stations will be going over these new regulations.
Once again I want to thank the vast majority of Americans who have fully supported our efforts to keep our great nation safe.
Good night and my God bless our nation.”
None of us were ready for bed; we were all too keyed up. So we listened to the radio to well past 1:00 AM. By that time the different stations were just repeating themselves as we dragged ourselves to bed. One thing was clear our country was now facing nearly universal condemnation.
Within 72 hours it was obvious that it had really backfired on the military when they kicked the foreign press out. That seemed to trigger an avalanche of damaging information. The government threatened and blustered but they could not arrest everyone.
One of the first things that we learned was that the split in the army was much more serious than had been admitted. In nearly every region of the country there were bases that had refused to mobilize. There had been skirmishes between groups who had obeyed the mobilization order and those who felt it was a power grab. There were no reliable causality figures but it was widely believed that several hundred had died nation wide. Everyone knew that the next 2-3 days would be critical. If some solution was not found soon the situation could degenerate into full-scale civil war.
As I lay in bed I kept tossing and turning. I felt so helpless. My country was falling apart right before my eyes. While there were some real inequalities in our system of government that did not blind me to the good things our country offered. For too long politicians on both sides had played to our fears. Gradually our country had lost its since of unity. What had made our country great was that we were Americans first and Democrats or Republications second. At the end of the day you disagreed. But the differences were on how to best run the country. Now most of the effort went into demonizing the opposition. It has been said that politics was the art of compromise. Over the last decade it had become a culture war with slash and burn tactics. It was a winner take all strategy that was incredibly short sighted. If you are engaged in a war, then anything goes. It was the classic argument that anything was justified if you thought that your side was right and had the blessing of God. When you demonize a group or individual they become the enemy. They cease to be a individual and become something to be feared. When that happens you dehumanize them. Somehow we had crossed that line without stopping to think of the consequences. Now people were dieing because of it.
I don’t know how late it was when I finally drifted off to sleep. But when I woke up in the morning I was still exhausted. Since I was the first one awake I started breakfast.
I had some complete pancake mix that you only add water to. So I mixed up some pancake batter and proceeded to make pancakes. The smell woke up Kevin and Scott very quickly. It was a great break in our routine. Sometimes I thought that I was going to throw up if I ever ate another piece of deer meat. There are only so many different ways you can prepare the stuff.
After we had eaten we sat the radios up and prepared to listen for any new developments. All through the day reports of further fighting trickled in. By the end of the day best guess estimates of casualties were several thousand and things were getting messier. Civilians had joined in the fighting on both sides. There were reports of fighting in Virginia, California, Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Ma., Vermont. Those were the states they had reports from. It was widely believed that the fighting was more widespread than that.
That night I made up my mind. I did not think I could just sit on the sidelines and watch my country fall to pieces. I had to help somehow. The hard part was going to be figuring out what I could do that would make a difference.
Part of me argued that I had done enough already. It turned out that the information that I passed on from Forgothowtorun to OpEd had started this crisis. The president had come under heavy pressure to explain the emails and memos. When he had stonewalled the investigation. There had been a proposal to file Articles of Impeachment. It never had a chance to come to a vote. Martial Law had been declared the same day. Obviously the president had known that there was a lot of support for it.
It still seemed unreal to me that one email that someone sent me could set in motion so much turmoil. OpEd and I had been in the right place at the right time. Most people don’t realize that is what history is about. All through history there have been key points where the actions of a few people have changed the outcome of wars or the fate of nations. Neither one of us had asked for this but we did what we thought was best.
The government thought Scott and Kevin were dead so they were not looking for them. However I was another story. They were still very interested in finding me. If I could capture me and discredited me then they could shore up their base. But as long as I was on the loose I was something of a legend or folk hero. Capture me and some of the luster would be off. It still shocked me when I heard my name on the radio. Even though I had not seen it myself there were reports on the radio that a reward of $500,000.00 had been offered for information leading to my arrest. Apparently I was guilty of treason and they said I was to be considered armed and dangerous. The last part was almost funny. I did not even own a gun. They made too much noise and firing one would attract way too much attention. There would be game wardens looking for whoever was hunting out of season. So I did all my hunting with a compound bow. It was silent and almost as deadly. It was obvious that the armed and dangerous part was added to discourage anyone from attempting to take me alive.
It was almost funny that they were so afraid of me. Ours was a nation that had always prided its self on being informed. All I had done was to pass on the information. Now I was a wanted man for passing on that information. But when I destroyed my hard drive I had removed any evidence of origin of the information. Of course they had figured it out by now. But by the time they had done so it was too late. OpEd and I were the public face of the scandal. Since they now presumed him dead, that left me. Somehow I had achieved some degree of fame. It was something I could do without. One side viewed me as some kind of hero and the other as a traitor to my country. Neither was true. The hero’s of this whole mess were OpEd and Forgothowtorun. I was just the middleman. When this whole mess was over I was determined to make sure that everyone knew the truth.
I was sure that they were still looking for Forgothowtorun but that was being done in the background.
In a lot of ways my decision to go into hiding had been a lot easier than it had been for Scott and especially for Kevin. They had their world turned upside down and had been through hell. In a lot of ways I had been very lucky. But that did not stop me from griping about the situation.
What people did not realize is how scared I was.
© 2006, Joseph Men