Schools and the Second Ch. 04

Then 'Taps' was played, and everyone in uniform saluted as the American Flag was carefully folded with formal movements, then handed to the NCHS JROTC leader, who presented the folded Flag to Usagi's mother.

There had been an augmentation of Police by those of neighboring counties and the State Patrol. There had been rumors, no doubt ginned up by the Press, that protesters were going to disrupt the final ceremony at the cemetery.

But that had not happened... the protesters were on their way to Midtown, as were their Press 'enablers'...

Part 21 - Lack of Civility

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Monday, May 13th, from outside the State Capitol building in Midtown. "Channel Two News has learned that deeply unpopular Governor Val Jared will call a Special Session of the State Legislature!"

Bettina began: "Both Governor Jared and Lt. Governor Sharon Marshall refused to meet with Darryl Smogg and other student protest leaders over the weekend, especially after students ringed the State Capitol and shut down traffic in the area. On Friday night, protesters stormed the State Capitol building, smashing windows and entering the building!"

Bettina: "They were met by a heavily-armored group of law enforcement officers, including State Patrol Officers. Police made 24 arrests, but the damage to one corner of the State Capitol Building was extensive, and is estimated in the millions of dollars. Many protesters say that the Police exercised brutality against the protesters, many of whom were taken to local hospitals for treatment of injuries. The Police reported no significant injuries among their numbers."

Bettina: "Democrats were furious that Governor Jared called in the State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies rather than let the State Capitol Police handle the 'peacefully protesting demonstrators'. Governor Jared called the leadership of the State Capitol Police 'corrupt', and demanded an investigation into them for failing to do their duty to secure the Capitol building."

Bettina: "State House Democrats also said they plan to use the Special Session to impeach Governor Jared. However, the State Constitution states that the Legislature in Special Session can consider only the specific issues under which it is convened. Jared's proclamation cites only two issues: removing Next Door County Sheriff Scott Ishmael from his office due to cowardice and failure to confront suspect Adam Nikolas Eagan; and legislation regarding guns, particularly a bill allowing trained schoolteachers to be armed in schools around small children..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"How did you knowwwwww, Commanderrrr?" asked Chief Moynahan during the coffee klatch.

"Seems there was this Punk girl with purple hair amongst the protesters." I said, looking over at my special guest, Lieutenant Mary Mahoney Milton, dressed in civilian clothes and sporting purple hair. As she grinned, I said "Seems this Punk girl was yelling and screaming with the other so-called 'students', so they told her that they were going to attack the State Capitol building and take it over. They were going to chain themselves to the desks in the State House Chamber. And she might have mentioned that to her boss's boss."

"So," I continued, "your friendly neighborhood SBI Reserve Inspector made a few phone calls. The State Capitol Police have become really rotted out, and the Governor's call for an investigation is the next item on the SBI-OER Inspector's list. In the meantime, lots of volunteer LEOs got the opportunity to use their batons and shields like Spartans at Thermopylae, and we beat the living shit out of every protester we found inside. They started getting the point pretty fast when fists were being punched hard into their unprotected faces. I will add that no Government guns were used in the subduing of the perpetrators."

"Think any laws will come out of the Special Session?" asked Teresa Croyle, who might possibly have been in Midtown herself Friday night.

"Yes." Sheriff Griswold growled. "They're going to remove Sheriff Ishmael; even the most rabid Democrats are hearing from their constituents about that coward's actions, or lack of them to be precise. And the Governor thinks they'll pass two gun laws: training teachers to be armed in schools, and raising the age limit to buy guns to 21 years old."

"What about 'assault weapons'?" asked Tanya Perlman.

"The State House might pass something." said Griswold, "but the State Senate has already said it's DOA there."

Just then there was a knock on the door. Cindy Ross came in. Her face looked inscrutable to me.

"I just got here from the Hospital." she said, her voice sounding like it was about to break. She composed herself, then said "Molly... they're... they're taking her out the coma. They're going to let her wake up..."

Needless to say, no one beat Teresa in getting up and sharing a long hug with her BFF Cindy as the rest of us cheered. And there were plenty of hugs to go around...

Part 22 - Awakenings

7:15am, Wednesday, May 15th. Though still in the regular ICU, Molly Evans woke up to find she had a visitor with her.

"Breathing tube, don't fight it." were her sister Cindy Ross's first words, born of vast experience. Then she saw Molly's eyes, and the questions in them.

"Detective German was wounded in the leg; he's going to be okay." Cindy said. "You shot the perp in the ankle and shattered it; he was down and couldn't hurt any other students than the one already hit. You saved a lot of people."

"The boys are fine; Don's been taking care of them." Cindy continued. "Thanks to you, only one student died, and he was dead before you got there, so there was nothing you could do. So don't feel guilty."

Molly gave what was a nod, then began falling back asleep...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At noon, Dr. Morgan took out Molly's breathing tube. "We're going to have to make you take deep breaths, and it's going to hurt." he warned. "But if you endure it, you'll get better much more quickly."

Molly tried to speak to her mother, who was there, and found it painful. "Hurts... to talk..." she finally whispered.

"That'll come back, too." Dr. Morgan said.

"Hopefully not for a while." Cindy said, teasing her sister.

"Why, Cindy Ross!" exclaimed Maggie Ross. "That was very unladylike!" Molly laughed until it hurt. She clasped her mother's and sister's hands, and did not let go for a long time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"They missed you. A lot." I reported to Molly when I went to visit her that afternoon. "I told them you were awake again, and they immediately asked when I could bring them to see you."

"Soon, I hope." Molly said, and it was barely more than a silent mouthing of the words.

"Tomorrow, if the doctors clear it." I said. "Or the next day."

"Thank you for keeping them." Molly said.

"Hey, that's what I'm here for." I said jovially. "They're my boys, too, remember?" Then I said more seriously "You know you never have to worry about them. I'll be there for them. I'll always be there for them. And for you, too." Molly just nodded, a tear in her eye...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

That night, the Charter Commission met at City Hall. It was the first meeting with any formality to it; we were beginning to write the actual Charter.

"Okay, Article 1 is the Town & County Assembly." I said. "It will continue to be divided into 30 contiguous equal-population zones, redrawn after each U.S. Census is taken, without regard to the City Limit lines of the Town or Junction Station. They shall choose an Assembly Leader from amongst themselves."

"What about tie votes?" asked Edna Carter.

"Then the motion they're voting on fails, as there is no majority." I said. "And we're not going to have the Mayor as Assembly moderator to break tie votes."

"I am wondering..." said the Reverend Joseph E. Williams, "... if 30 is the right number. Would 25 be better? Or 20?"

"Thirty has worked pretty well for all these years, to this point." said Edward Steele. "Why would we want to change it?"

"It might be best the way it is." said Williams. "But now's the time to consider it."

"That's true." I said. "And it's an interesting question. The population of the County is around 100,000 people. That's about 3300 per zone. Twenty zones would make it 5000 people per zone, and that's starting to be a lot."

"I have a question about who counts as residents." asked Savannah Fineman. "Particularly University students."

"According to State Law," I said, "one cannot claim a dorm room as one's permanent address, since one cannot live there on a permanent basis. That was done partially to stop out-of-State students from using dorm addresses to establish in-State residency and pay the lower tuition. But that doesn't apply to Greek Houses, apartments, condos, and houses on University property... which is lucky for me and my wife since the Mountain Nest is technically on University property. So the drawers of the lines usually slice the University to ribbons."

"What about polling places?" asked Edward Steele. "Will we need more?"

"With the marvels of modern technology," I said, "every person's ballot, whether electronic or paper, is printed with the names of the various candidates that person is eligible to vote for. For example, and assuming we have a School Board going forward, my ballot will show candidates for the Council District I'm in, the Assembly Zone I'm in, the School district I'm in, and the State Legislature and U.S. Congress districts I'm in. So that will be all good. Also, there could be multiple voting places per district."

"Does the number of Assembly Zones give the Town an inherent advantage over the outlying County areas?" asked Edward Steele.

"Well," I said, "yes and no. There are some heavy population districts north of the Town Limits line, there's Junction Station, there's east of the mountain. There are also some farm areas where no one lives at all for miles."

"And some of the Assembly Zones are partly in the Town and partly out of it." said Edna Carter."

"One question as to the numbers," said Rev. Williams, "is whether or not the Town Assembly is going to continue to set the millage rate for the schools, like they do now, or if a School Board will do that."

"Well, I know how I feel about that, though you guys may differ." I said. "The Assembly should set all tax rates and fees in the County, every last one. Give some other body the power to tax, and suddenly people are being double taxed at exorbitant rates. Reminds me of being in Junior High School. Every teacher would load us down with homework, and when we complained, each teacher said 'I don't care whose homework you do, but you better do mine.'. I can easily see that happening if multiple bodies set taxes without regards to what the other bodies are taxing."

"That's about right." agreed teacher Edna Carter. "And let me add this. In asking for input, I went to several different teachers, principals, and administrators in all three high school districts. Most of them came back with reports that are very similar. It's as if almost all of them copied one student's paper."

"So the NEA wrote their papers for them." I said.

"Not much gets past you, Commander." said Edna Carter with a grin. Then she said: "All of them are saying that a separate School Board should set the tax rates for the schools. And that's the NEA's line for the input I got from them."

"So what do we want to do about the Assembly?" asked Savannah Fineman, mostly to get us back on track and moving again.

"You know," I said, "let's pick it back up next week. I want to think about the numbers some more..." I was nearly in a reverie as it was.

"Like you don't have enough to think about already." said Edward Steele, teasing me.

As we gathered our things to go, Rev. Williams asked Edward Steele "How's the Council doing these days? Still rigid as a military academy?"

"I think things may loosen up some." said Edward. "As long as things stay civil. But the protesters keep packing the Council meetings over three Police precincts."

"Oh God, I just realized," said Savannah Fineman, "when we have public comment night about the Police... are they going to pack our meeting, too?"

"Probably." I said. "But it'll be just one night, and it'll be me they're trying to explain things to. Should be fun." Everyone chuckled as I said again: "Should be fun..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Edward and I came to the Mountain Nest, we found two girls fiercely sulking in 'time out' on the stairs, with a worried Bowser supervising. Three boys were upstairs getting ready for bed.

"Uh oh." I said when we came in. "This is not what I want to see when I get home."

Laura and Stephanie Steele came up. Laura said "I told everyone to get ready for bed. Carole and Marie decided to enforce that by tearing up the boys's Lego building. Ian tried to defend the structure, and was pushed to the floor. They can explain that to you; I don't want to hear it."

"I see." I said, letting my eyes move to the two girls. Their facial expressions turned from sulking to worry and misery.

"Carrrollle and Murrreeee..." I said in an imitation of Chief Moynahan. "How old is Ian?"

"Three." said Carole.

"And how old are you two?" I asked.

"I'm six!" Marie said proudly, a bit too proudly for the occasion.

"I'm almost six." said Carole.

"Yes. Yes you are." I said. "And for you to be pushing down your three-year-old brother is not acceptable. It's being a bully, like Shawn in school. I am sure that neither of you want to grow up to be like Shawn, do you?"

"No sir!" came a chorus.

"Good." I said. "I expect you to love and take care of your younger brothers. So I know I'm not going to come home to this problem again, am I?"

"No sir!" came a chorus.

"Good." I said. "All right, what are the bedtime arrangements?" I asked.

"We're taking Marie home." said Stephanie. "She's going to have to behave much better than she did tonight if she wants to sleep over with Carole." Edward nodded vigorously in agreement.

Marie was near tears as she hugged Carole goodbye and left with her parents. Carole was also very sad, but a bit relieved that her punishment was not worse. I said: "Go get ready for bed, Carole. I'll take the dogs out." Carole barely made it off the stairs before Bowser was at the back door, joined by Buddy...

Part 23 - The Road Home

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Friday, May 17th, from the KXTC studios. "Channel Two News is bringing you continuing coverage of the Special Session of the Legislature, which was convened yesterday morning. Let's go to trusted political reporter Lester Holder in Midtown. Lester!"

"That's right, Bettina!" said Lester Holder. "The Special Session got underway yesterday, but was almost derailed before it began! State Rep. Tasheeka Harris of Midtown immediately introduced a resolution to formally impeach Governor Val Jared. She attempted to claim that Governor Jared's failure to do more to confiscate 'assault rifles' was grounds for his impeachment and removal."

Holder: "As you know, Bettina, the Governor cannot shut down a Special Session of the Legislature once it's called... except in the case of bills being introduced that are outside the scope of the reasons the Special Session is called. Governor Jared was in the process of calling the State Patrol to shut down the Special Session when the impeachment bill was stated to be 'not recognized and not seconded', and therefore dead."

Lester 'Penis' Holder: "Both Houses of the State Legislature have already passed bills removing Nextdoor County Sheriff Scott Ishmael from his post, and the Governor will sign the bill this morning. Meanwhile, the State House bill has three points, including outlawing 'assault rifles', limiting the capacity of pistol magazines to six rounds, and raising the age to legally purchase a firearm to 21. The State Senate bill has two points, including raising the age to purchase firearms to 21, but its provision to permit trained teachers to be armed in schools is fiercely opposed by Democrats and the student groups, who say schools should be 'safe spaces' for learning."

Bettina: "Lester, how is Chief Molly Evans doing? Has she been reunited with her children yet?"

Penis Holder: "Sources tell Channel Two News that she was brought out of her medically induced coma Wednesday, and is improving rapidly. Her children are being taken care of by their father, Commander Donald Troy. I don't understand how his wife tolerates him breeding kids with Chief Evans, and also siring a halfbreed child. It's just disgusting..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"So they did try to sneak impeachment in." Teresa said as she, Tanya, and I drank coffee in my office. The Chief was having breakfast with the Sheriff and some Council Members at John Colby's Country Breakfast Diner. "Was it symbolic? Or did they think they had a real chance to do it?"

"Neither." I said. "My understanding is that it was the radical Leftists like Tasheeka Harris that engineered it. I also heard that Elijah McKinney blistered her in a private meeting over it. He said it was their first real chance to do something to confiscate guns and deny guns to Citizens, and she was stepping on the message with the Impeachment antics."

"But she stood up to him." said Teresa. "Todd's sources say that she said that removing Val Jared from office was more important than anything else, and that any meaningful gun control legislation would just die in the Republican-controlled State Senate. The Democrats are becoming divided amongst themselves over it."

"Why are the Republicans allowing the age limit provision to be pushed through?" asked Tanya. "The NRA and other Conservative groups are howling. The NRA has promised a lawsuit if it passes."

"Negotiating point, I'd guess." I said. "They want the armed teachers in schools, but they'll never accept the semi-auto rifle ban nor the magazine ban. So they're hoping the Democrats will do some horse trading."

"How long can the Special Session last?" asked Teresa.

"Up to ninety days." I said. "But the Governor has to sign off on continuing after thirty days and sixty days to get to ninety. The Legislature can adjourn themselves any time before then. I'm betting it goes 30 days with nothing done."

"I'll take that bet." said Teresa. "I think they'll pass the Senate bill."

"You're on." I said. "Lunch at the Cattleman's Club." Teresa and I exchanged the 'looking at you' salute to seal the deal.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

11:00am, Friday, May 17th. Molly had been moved to a private room, though still being closely monitored. She and Cindy and Maggie were talking after watching SNN newscasts showing students demanding gun confiscation.

"They're teaching those kids all the wrong lessons." Molly said. "And the Media is not helping."

"You sound like Don." Cindy said as she looked at her cellphone. "You okay?"

"I guess." Molly said. "I'm just thinking about Tom Usagi. What did he die for? To have the U.S. Constitution destroyed by these crisis actors and the Media?"

"Try not to let it bother you." Cindy said, glancing towards the door.

"I'll try." Molly said. "Turn the TV to something else. Like 'NCIS: Los Angeles' reruns on Ion Television."

"Maybe this will cheer you up more." Cindy said, going to the door and opening it. In walked Your Iron Crowbar, with two armfuls of boys.

"Mommy!" Ian cried out happily.

"Ian! Ross!" Molly gasped. Then she began crying.

"You guys be careful." I said. "Don't jostle your mom." I set them down on the bed, one on each side of their mother, who put her arms around them and kept crying.