Choose Freedom: A Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Series (The Boston Brahmin Book 6) Page 20

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  The minister spoke next. “Marriage is an honorable estate. It’s not to be entered into lightly or unadvisedly, but discreetly and soberly. Into this relationship these two persons come now to be joined. I ask you both that if you know any reason why you should not be joined in marriage, you make it known at this time.”

  Sarge turned to the crowd and managed a smile. He made eye contact with Drew, who stood off to the side with Morrell. Drew nodded his approval. The minister continued.

  “Henry, do you take Julia to be your wedded wife, to live together in bonds of marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her so long as you both shall live?”

  “I do,” said Sarge.

  “Julia, do you take Henry to be your wedded husband, to live together in bonds of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him so long as you both shall live?”

  “I do,” replied Julia.

  Donald handed Sarge the wedding ring. He turned to Julia and took her hand, placing the ring on her finger.

  “As I place this ring upon your hand, may our separate lives become one as we commit everlasting love to one another.”

  Julia began to cry and giggle. Sarge tried to suppress his emotions, but couldn’t. His tears were flowing as well. Susan handed her Sarge’s ring and she fumbled momentarily before slipping it onto his finger.

  She repeated his words. “As I place this ring upon your hand, may our separate lives become one as we commit everlasting love to one another.”

  The attendees erupted in applause as the minister said, “Inasmuch as you have consented together in marriage, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the State of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Henry Winthrop Sargent the fourth!”

  Chapter 51

  Tuesday, May 9, 2017

  Election Day

  Morgan Residence

  39 Sears Road

  Brookline, Massachusetts

  Since the first election in 1789 when Americans overwhelmingly elected George Washington as President, the United States was one of the few nations in the world where voting was on public display. The right to vote in a free and fair election was the most basic of the rights afforded by the Constitution. Throughout the nation’s history, the consequences of elections directly affected many of the other rights of the American people.

  Voting mattered both to the health of the American political system and to the people who participated in it. If a particular community was apathetic toward the process, turning out well below other neighborhoods, elected officials would pay less attention and make fewer appeals to those constituents.

  Likewise, people who were associated with a host of positive civic, health and social factors were likely to vote and therefore worthy of their elected officials’ attention. Citizens known to be more engaged in activities like volunteering or contacting their election officials on important issues were most likely to influence the direction of their government.

  Voting was the cornerstone of the American democracy, but sadly far too few people had voted in elections in the past. However, in the first election since the apocalyptic conditions beset the nation, democracy was enjoyed by citizens in most of America.

  At the St. Louis Convention, the delegates from the participating states adopted the platform proposed by Sarge’s contingent and the two dozen states led by Texas that supported his vision of bringing America back.

  Besides the nonparticipating states in the Western United States, a dozen or so delegations objected to the immediacy of the presidential election process. At least a dozen states vehemently objected to the impeachment of the President on the grounds that he was acting lawfully and within the confines of the law as established by prior administrations.

  A compromise was discussed and adopted, resulting in the immediate scheduling of the presidential election and subsequent inauguration of the new President. The former President’s term would end on that date.

  By acclimation, the new President would serve a term of office extending until November 2018, when the next presidential and congressional elections would be held. The delegates to the St. Louis Convention agreed that this would allow the interim President time to deal with the many problems facing the country.

  Further, the nation’s capital was designated to be Boston. It was going to take a monumental effort by the National Guard to reclaim Washington, D.C., from the nearly one hundred thousand residents who survived the collapse and were trapped within the city by the military. By all reports, the city was in shambles, including the nation’s most coveted historical treasures.

  Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention argued the integrity of the elections couldn’t be guaranteed because of the lack of operating voting machines. Illegal voting would run rampant, many opined.

  Illegal voting by immigrants in America was nothing new. Almost as long as there had been elections, there had been Tammany Halls trying to game the ballot box. Tammany Hall was the name given to the Democratic political machine that manipulated vote counts for nearly one hundred years, ensuring a Democratic mayor for New York City.

  Well into the twentieth century, the political machines asserted their ascendancy on Election Day, stealing elections in the boroughs of New York and the wards of Chicago via the Daley political bosses. Quite regularly, Irish immigrants were lined up and counted in canvasses long before the term citizen ever applied to them.

  Prior to the cyber attack, the political machines continued their manipulations of election results. The evidence was indisputable that illegal aliens were registering and voting in federal, state, and local elections. America had always been a nation of immigrants and she remained today the most welcoming nation in the world. Newly minted citizens who went through the immigration process quickly assimilated and became part of the American culture.

  In the middle of one debate with a delegation from New Mexico, Sarge argued that compliance with our laws required no more of an illegal alien than it did of a lawful citizen. It was a violation of both state and federal law for illegal aliens who were not citizens to vote in elections. These violations effectively disenfranchised legitimate voters, whose votes were diluted, and the practice must be prevented.

  So the process of voting for this historic, special election was a simple one. Paper ballots were used. The ballot boxes were monitored by two individuals known in the community as being fair.

  The person seeking to vote was required to provide picture identification in the form of a government-issued driver’s license, passport, military ID, a photo ID from the federal or state government, or a handgun carry permit with a photo. If they couldn’t produce an ID, they couldn’t vote.

  There were no voting machines to be hacked. There were no illegal aliens voting. Lines were long, but the voters enjoyed the process. It was smooth, orderly, and legitimate.

  Results would be tabulated and then delivered to the temporary office of the Federal Election Commission in Boston by May nineteenth. The new President would take the oath of office and provide the inaugural address the same day, May twenty-sixth.

  America would have a new beginning—a much-needed fresh start.

  Chapter 52

  Friday, May 26, 2017

  Inauguration Day

  3:00 p.m.

  Boston Common

  Boston, Massachusetts

  The scene on Boston Common was surreal. Throughout history, the Common had been crisscrossed daily by busy Bostonians and countless visitors. America’s oldest park was more than a green oasis in a metropolitan city. It was a piece of ancient landscape that had belonged uninterrupted to the people of Boston since 1634. Purchased as land set aside for the common use of its townspeople, Boston Common still served this purpose and was one of the most popular Boston attractions for relaxing and enjoying nature.

  In 1768, as tensions mounted between the colonies and Brit
ain, the British Redcoats occupied the Common for eight years for use as an encampment. Soon thereafter, the colonists declared their independence and became free.

  Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful freedom march from Roxbury to Boston Common in the sixties. The Civil Rights Act, landmark legislation in this nation’s history, was enacted during the same time frame.

  Pope John Paul II conducted Mass on this patch of historic ground. He was an advocate for the peaceful resistance to communism. Within a year of his visit, a small group of ten people in Poland led by Lech Walesa created a freedom movement in the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe, which grew to ten million, resulting in the fall of communism.

  Over the years, events were held, visitors came and went, but Boston Common remained the same. It was pastoral in style—open and informal. It would always be owned by Bostonians, and Americans. It was the Common Land.

  Anticipation was building as the dignitaries and politicians on stage took their seats. The real guests of honor were the hundreds of thousands of Americans, survivors, who packed the Common and its side streets. They weren’t spiffily dressed in suits or fancy gowns. The citizens of America wore camo and blue jeans—shorts and flip-flops.

  Before the collapse, they were the silent majority—families who worked hard to make ends meet. They weren’t politically active. They didn’t protest by blocking traffic or closing down restaurants or constantly raising their hands in the air. These families focused on what was most important to them—love of one another.

  After the collapse, it was this love of family that gave them strength. They became self-reliant. They didn’t look to the government for a solution to the lack of water, food, security, and shelter. They dug deep within their souls and found a way.

  The silent majority, once a sleeping giant, was awakened by the collapse of the nation’s power grid—the reset. The silent majority filled Boston Common, looking for someone to lead their cause by launching America into a new era signified by the motto Choose Freedom.

  Article II, Section One, Clause 8 of the Constitution required that he be sworn in. Although the Constitution did not require it, the oath of office was typically administered to the incoming President by the Chief Justice of the United States.

  But these were unusual circumstances because the election was disputed by the existing administration and the four states that refused to participate in the process. The nation was fractured. It would have to be repaired by diplomacy, the rulings of the Supreme Court, or a second civil war.

  For that reason, Chief Justice Roberts abstained from administering the oath in order to maintain impartiality in what could possibly become a heated Supreme Court battle. In his place, Chief Judge Jeffrey Howard of the First Circuit Court of Appeals would administer the oath.

  The oath of office clause in the Constitution was specific in its wording. The Founding Fathers demanded the President swear to protect and defend the Constitution. In the past, this important aspect of the presidential duties had been cast aside. The new President hoped to reverse that trend.

  He raised his right hand and repeated the words. “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.”

  Shouts of choose freedom began to echo off the buildings enveloping the Common. Freedom-loving Americans of all walks of life waved American and Rebellious flags alike. It was a proud moment.

  Sarge turned to his mentor, John Morgan, and shook his hand, which turned into a heartfelt hug. His newly elected Vice President, Abbie Morgan, stood by her father’s side. Abbie beamed with pride as she undertook this journey with her childhood friend.

  Sarge made his way down the row of chairs to shake the hands of the Boston Brahmin patriarchs—Lowell, Cabot, Winthrop, Peabody, Bradlee, and Endicott. The descendants of the Founding Fathers were now able to take center stage as one of their own became the leader of the free world.

  They’d offered him a teleprompter to deliver his inauguration speech, but he declined. Sarge had said, When you’re speaking on principle and conviction, you don’t need a scripted speech to enable you to parse your words. You just let them flow.

  “My fellow Americans, to a few of us here today, this is a solemn and most momentous occasion. Yet, in the history of our nation, it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for over two hundred years, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this orderly transition of power between one duly constituted government and the next, something we accept as normal, is nothing less than a miracle.

  “But we live in troubled times. These United States were confronted with a catastrophic event of epic proportions. We’ve suffered through the collapse of our economy and society in a way that has never occurred in our nation’s history. It shattered the lives of all of us. It cost me the life of my brother. It has left America divided.

  “President Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ At a time when our country and its citizens should be coming together toward a common goal—recovery—we have certain constituencies defying the will of the people. The former President refuses to release the reins of power despite the fact that his term of office expired long ago. He has convinced four states to willfully violate the Constitution and refused to participate in the process that we are so fortunate to have been given us.

  “Once again, I, on behalf of all of you, call on the former President to step aside. Stop being an impediment to democracy. Let’s set our differences aside and move forward to restoring America to its former greatness. Now, Mr. President, without delay, for the good of the nation.

  “I’m honored to have been elected your President. It is a heavy burden to lead this nation, but it is one I willingly accept. Despite our political differences, I’m calling on all Americans to join me. We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding—we are going to act, beginning today.

  “The task is formidable. The challenges will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the will and desire now, as we’ve had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.

  “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.

  “The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price. America is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our factories, defend our borders, teach our children, build our homes, and heal us when we’re sick. They are, in short, we the people, the citizens of this great nation proudly called Americans.

  “Know this. All Americans must share in the productive work of this new beginning and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play that are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America at peace with itself and the world.

  “So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We’re a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the earth. Our government has no power except that granted to it by the people.

  “As Americans, we have every right to dream heroic dreams and work hard to make them a reality. Those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes just don’t know where to look.

  “Please, all of you. Look to your right and left. Each and every one of you is a
hero because you’re alive. You’re a survivor. Shake each other’s hands in congratulations. Embrace each other in love for your fellow man. You are Americans. You are all heroes.

  “Can we solve the problems confronting us? The answer is an unequivocal and emphatic yes. I did not take the presidential oath of office with the intention of presiding over the dismantling of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world.

  “The crisis we are facing today requires our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds. It requires all Americans to believe that together, with God’s help, we can and will resolve the problems that now confront us.

  “After all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.

  “God bless you, and thank you for the trust and faith you’ve placed in me to lead the charge.

  “Choose freedom, my friends!”

  Sarge stood back and basked in the sun, the glory, the pomp and circumstance. The nation was divided in a way not seen since the Civil War. With his speech, he intended to send a subtle message to the former President. Do the right thing, or else.

  Sarge waved to the throngs that were now chanting choose freedom in unison. He was shaking hands with those around him and sharing hugs with all who approached him. Suddenly, Morrell approached him and rushed to his side. Two other members of his security detail closed in from the left.

  “Mr. President, we have to go. Now, sir!”

  Epilogue

  May 26, 2017

  5:26 p.m.

  Morgan Residence

  39 Sears Road

  Brookline, Massachusetts