Consent of the Governed Ch. 02

Mason: "And second, don't think for a second that Miriam Walters doesn't want to keep Paulina down, if not get her out of the D.A.'s Office completely. Miriam has to run for D.A. again in two years, and you better believe the Bryant case will come up and be used against her. Miriam will very likely throw Paulina Patterson under the bus if that's what it takes to protect herself."

I said "You said a minute ago that Miriam might seek other opportunities. What opportunities would those be?"

Mason said "I've heard rumors that she might run for Mayor, especially if Allgood wins this cycle. She might run for State Rep or even State Senator, if she thinks Katherine Woodburn is vulnerable. And if she gets a State position, she'll eye the U.S. Congress slot that former Mayor Vaughan is going to kick the incumbent Condor out of..."

Part 14 - Philosophical Exchange of Ideas

3:30pm, Thursday, October 15th. Helena was gone for the day and my door was open. So Commander Cindy Ross invited herself in, closed the door behind her, and practically collapsed on the sofa. I could see she was exhausted.

"Oh my God." she said quietly.

"What happened?" I asked, admittedly surprised and a bit worried at how my pregnant cousin looked. "Want some coffee? It's fresh."

"Don't mind if I do." Cindy said as I got up. I filled her mug full and handed it to her, then poured some for myself in my Airborne School mug.

"What happened," Cindy said as I sat back down, "is that the black Democrats, especially Cori Bowman, began giving everyone crap again. When the Fire Department budget came up, she kept asking why the EMTs were not a part of the Fire Department. The Sheriff got up and said we'd answered that, but Bowman said she wasn't satisfied with their answers and wanted a better one."

Cindy: "Then Ryan Paulson stepped in and said the conversation was redundant, and asked the Mayr to move things along. I don't think Daniel likes him; he glared at Paulson and told him that he, Daniel, was in charge, not Ryan Paulson. What, is Paulson laying groundwork to primary Daniel two years from now?"

I replied: "Possibly, but I think it's more to do with Cori Bowman. When I see Cori, I see a far-Leftist Democrat, and make my judgements upon her words and actions. When Ryan Paulson sees Cori, he sees a black woman, and makes his judgements based upon the color of her skin."

Cindy nodded, then continued: "And then the Public Health budget came up. And several Democrats kept asking where the funding for minority outreach was, and minority-this and minority-that. The Sheriff got up and said that money for those things were in there to continue existing programs, and that other County services not under his control were responsible for other parts of it, and to ask them."

Cindy: "At the end, Cori Bowman said that they should take all the money they were going to strip from the Police, and assign it to purely minority programs, especially in predominately black districts. Ryan Paulson said that was discrimination, Coretta Scott called him a racist, he said he was going to sue her for that and that she was the racist, and then both sides just started yelling race-based accusations at each other. The Mayor just told the Sheriff that the rest of it would have to be read on paper, and he just adjourned the session for the day."

"And it didn't get physical?" I asked. "Nobody started throwing water bottles or anything?"

"No." Cindy said. "This wasn't a University of Tennessee football game, after all. And as you like to say, it is possible that Teresa, Kalsu, and a couple of SWAT Team members coming up and standing in front of them, augmented by me coming up and handing Teresa my green crowbar and telling her to not hold back, deterred them from getting any worse than they were."

After a pause, Cindy said "Can I ask you a question, Don? Personal, not professional?" I nodded, and she said "I just don't understand. I'm a lesbian, I've been discriminated against. I've been subjected to the hatred by those who refuse to accept me for what I am. So I can empathize with Blacks, at least to a point. And I can say I understand their hatred of the Police as part of that."

Cindy: "But I just don't get it. Why do they think defunding the Police will accomplish anything positive? Do they really think that destroying the Police Force will improve race relations?"

"No," I said, "and the politicians, white and black, and of both Parties, are not interested in improved race relations. Nor is the deeply corrupt Press. (air quotes) 'Black and Whites get along!' is not a headline that generates eyeballs and ears for their broadcasts.

"I get that, and that leads to my deeper question." Cindy said. "Don, what do Blacks want? I don't mean defunding the Police. What do they really want? I mean, when are they going to say 'Okay, that's far enough, let's work on better race relations in a positive way now.'?"

I nodded, then said "I have an answer to that, Cindy... but it's the kind of answer that I think I'd best keep to myself. I won't even whisper it down a well at high noon." Cindy nodded in understanding.

"Okay," I said, "are you going to be at little Jack Burke' birthday party at Teresa's house?"

"Yes, we'll be there." Cindy replied. "Have an extra tub of ice cream for Betsy. She loves that stuff. And that's another question: why not wait until the weekend to have the party with the kids?"

"Todd suggested a weekend party, maybe a pizza party at a restaurant. Little Jack got huffy and asked why he was being punished." I said. "So Teresa said they'll have a much shorter, smaller party with just family on his actual birthday."

"That'll be a large enough party." Cindy said...

Part 15 - Agenda-Driven

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Friday, October 16th, from roof of the building at Riverside and College, with City Hall and the western side of Courthouse Square in the background. "Radical white extremists yell the 'n-word' and other racial epithets at peaceful black protesters during yesterday morning's demonstrations on Courthouse Square!..."

To be continued.