The Senator stood in the green room. He could see through the one-way glass beside the door that the media had filled the main room to overflowing. It was loud with many conversations taking place in small clusters. His aides had done a good job setting expectations. The reporters in the room knew that his speech today would be newsworthy.
The stage was set. He was a little more nervous than usual. Today went beyond anything that had gone before. If he were successful, the entire world would be talking about his speech. He hoped that he would not have to follow through on the direst implications of what he was about to say. He hoped the mere possibility of the most extreme outcome of his words would be enough to cause the leaders of the country to take a deep breath and begin a dialogue about reconciliation.
But there was no way to know for sure and he was prepared to follow through if it came to it. Otherwise, he would never suggest what he was about to suggest.
His spokesman approached the podium and began to introduce him. It took a little time to quiet the room and gather the attention of everyone present. Once the room settled down, the words of the introduction were brief.
The time had come. The Senator stepped through the door and up to the microphone.
_______________
“Thank you for being here.
As you are aware, I am in my fourth term in the Senate. In some ways, it seems like I have been here forever. But in truth, when I was elected, I never imagined that the country could change so much in such a short stretch of history.
In the time I have been privileged to serve in the Senate, the country has become fragmented in ways I never would have thought possible as I was campaigning for my first term. The acrimony and animosity that is now ascendant in our politics constitutes, in my opinion, a severe crisis. It has progressed well beyond normal political grandstanding and represents an existential threat to the country that is much more serious than any other problem we might currently face.
I am speaking to you today because I think it essential that we rediscover and refocus on commonalities capable of reuniting the country. If we do not, I believe the country will not survive. The situation is that serious.
I do not profess to have all the answers.
I simply hope to encourage peaceful dialogue on a crisis that so many others seem content to either ignore, endure, or in some cases, even encourage.
I could discuss the recent events that have brought us to this breaking point, but I am reluctant to do so because I believe this will only fan the flames of division. All I have to say about the recent past is that there is plenty of blame to go around. Both sides have significant culpability in helping us reach where we are today. But neither side appears capable of accepting responsibility for their role in bringing about the current divide. Unfortunately, leadership now only seems capable of pushing their point of view to the extreme in the hopes of triumphing in a battle that is essentially unwinnable.
The cost of either side winning is most likely the very existence of the country.
_______________
I will start the dialogue by making the argument that the commonalities we need to rediscover are resident in the founding principles of our country. Others will disagree, and I invite them to make the opposing arguments. If they believe our founding principles are flawed, let them attempt to expose them as such.
If these founding ideals are to persist and reemerge stronger than ever, which I believe to be the only practical solution to our situation, then we need to identify the underlying causes of our current divisions and how they relate to these principles. The root issues of the crisis are not being discussed and what I hope to achieve today, if nothing else, is a shift that will force us to contemplate the core concerns that are threatening to bring this great American Experiment to an untimely end.
At the beginning of 1973, the Supreme Court heard the landmark case, Roe versus Wade. As we are all aware, their decision resulted in abortion being legalized in the country. A debate has raged ever since about the morality of that decision.
I want to suggest today that this decision is at the core of all the divisions we are currently experiencing. I believe the legalization of abortion, while serious beyond any shadow of a doubt, was only the most apparent result of the decision. The deeper implications have gone largely unnoticed and undiscussed, but they, in fact, challenge and now threaten to overrun several of the founding principles of the country.
Although it does not carry the status of formal law, the Declaration of Independence is the document that defines the spirit of our entire American Experiment. That spirit is conveyed most clearly in these words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
The Roe decision contradicts this statement in at least two significant ways.
The more obvious is the direct denial of the “certain and unalienable right to life” of unborn children.
We can argue all we want about the science of the fetus or the freedom of a woman to have full control over her body. The bottom line is this: More than 60 million fetuses have been aborted in America since the decision was promulgated and this is a tragedy that dwarfs any other:
- At the beginning of the Civil War, there were approximately 4 million slaves.
- Around 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
- Total American military deaths in all wars are about 1.7 million.
- Total worldwide deaths from the corona virus pandemic are about 3.5 million people.
The number of abortions that have occurred in the United States is a clear indication that we live in a deeply flawed and deeply wounded culture. Our entire society pays an escalating price for the cavalier attitude toward life inherent in Roe. We abhor the senseless violence that shakes us daily while we ignore the certainty that this decision has significantly damaged us as a people. This decision unquestionably plays a devastating role in the persistent plague of violence that constantly dominates our headlines.
If our society were healthy, even if Roe remained the law of the land, abortion would never happen, or at least would happen only in the very rarest of instances. Our culture needs to cherish life as a gift so precious that harming another human being is beyond our ability to consider. Pregnancy must not remain a precursor to a decision about allowing or ending the life of a fetus. Instead, it must regain its status as a cause for celebrating a great and mysterious blessing that most everyone hopes to experience one day.
We have no problem treasuring a child that we can see walking about, but we think of an unborn fetus as disposable. How is it not obvious to every single American that this is a wildly inconsistent way to think about the world? Every life, be it a fetus, a born child, an adult of any race, vocation or creed, or an elderly person facing the transition to eternity, is priceless. Until we embrace this reality as a deep and resonant part of our culture, we can never expect to defeat the violence that haunts us so regularly.
This act of treasuring is not something that we need to learn anew. It is something that once was a given in our culture, a point of view that was so transcendent that it made its way into the definitive statement of our way of life.
We hold this truth to be self-evident. All Men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to Life.
I suggest to you that the two sides that are currently so divided need to revisit this founding statement and how it has sustained us from the birth of our country. Within it is a commonality that all should be able to agree on, a starting place for peaceful reconciliation.
Yes, Black Lives Matter. They are precious. But so do Unborn Lives. They are equally precious.
Is it possible, I wonder, that the two sides in our culture could agree on the statement “Unborn Black Lives Matter?”
_______________
The second contradiction is perhaps less obvious, but its implications for our divisions run much deeper.
The Declaration affirms that our Creator is the source of our unalienable rights. For most of our history, we believed pregnancy to be a further gift from God, an obvious and tremendously welcome corollary to His grant of those initial rights. He played a pivotal role in the blessing of a child. It happened because He Willed it to happen, and we embraced this expression of His Will unconditionally. The idea that we had the power to reject His Gift was almost unthinkable.
When Roe was promulgated, it transferred control over the unborn life from the realm of the Creator to the human realm. The court decision gave humans the ability to insert themselves into the process and to openly defy the Will of God. It also encouraged them, quite irresponsibly from the perspective of Salvation, to ignore the severe consequences of embracing this newly inaugurated human power. God might still participate in pregnancy, but the final decision is now ours. We no longer believe unequivocally that our role is to humbly acquiesce and lovingly raise this precious gift to the best of our ability no matter our circumstances. Instead, we can choose to deny the gift and to deny the child completely, ending its life before it has a chance to take its first breath on this earth.
In essence, we have usurped the power of God and assumed the role of God for ourselves.
Thankfully, this usurpation has not been universally endorsed. There is still a good portion of the population that believes God has a proper and critical role to play not only in pregnancy, but in our full society. Those who believe in the need for God are on one side of the current divide. On the other side are those who have embraced the full ramifications of the Roe decision whether they realize it or not. They believe that God is no longer necessary and that they are fully capable of carrying out the responsibilities of God themselves.
This division applies not just to the debate on abortion. As could be anticipated, man was not content to exercise the power of God in only one circumstance. Given an opening, he inevitably sought to expand his reach into every nook and cranny he could imagine. We now find, for instance, that the definition of marriage is no longer consigned to the design of God. Instead, human beings have appropriated this responsibility for themselves and the traditional understanding of marriage is in danger of being completely eradicated. The same is true of the definition of gender.
Man has tasted the power of God. It is inevitable that those who have become accustomed to wielding this power will never be satiated. The only goal that can satisfy them, again, whether they realize it or not, is to eliminate even the memory of God from the minds of all. That way, no basis will remain to challenge their authority and superiority and no power will remain to judge them.
Ironically, they point to science and reason as proof of their preeminence, while at the same time ignoring the science that unequivocally establishes the independent life of the fetus in the womb.
Again, how is it not obvious to every single American that this is a wildly inconsistent way to think about the world?
_______________
I would like to tell you that I have a talking point about how to address this second rupture. On the issue of the right to life, I can at least imagine the feasibility of abortions being drastically reduced if the opposition was persuaded it was in their best interest for that to happen.
But I do not see this same possibility on the issue of man arrogating the power of God. This is an old occurrence that reaches back into history to times we barely remember. It is the story of the Garden of Eden. The result is inevitably a tragic and devastating fall that men do not see coming, and there is no instance in my recollection of man achieving a turnaround without first experiencing that fall.
This leads me to wonder whether our current divisions are reconcilable. I am interested in working with the other side toward solutions, but I must confess that it is hard to find a place to start. It is hard to imagine that they will embrace my view of the importance of referencing God as we determine how to rule ourselves. It is impossible to imagine that those who believe as I do, that God has a pivotal role to play in how we govern ourselves, could ever give up this belief.
This doubt rings particularly true in the wake of the last election. The more radical forces in the opposition are proving their ascendancy as the first few months of the new administration unfold. Not only is the Creator-driven Right to Life under a new and vigorous assault, but other Creator-driven rights are now fully under attack as well. The right to liberty and the right to the pursuit of happiness, especially if you understand this as fundamentally a right to dispose of your property as you see fit, are no longer sacrosanct.
Our basic understanding of the freedom of speech is being assaulted, especially in the arena of social media. And our basic right to think independent thoughts is being attacked by a cancel culture that would force us to accept Critical Race Theory and Wokeness as undeniable and omnipotent. If we refuse, the hammer of shame and ostracization will be employed against us in retaliation for our non-conformance. On top of that, coming tax policy will surely curtail our ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor as the government seizes more and more of our wealth in its efforts to enforce its own agenda.
The rights of the minority are being threatened and could very well disappear if the currently ascendant voices in politics get their way.
We must recognize that those voices believe themselves to be infallible. They believe they are better than us, know more than us, and that they are destined to rule over us. They will not hesitate to steamroll us if we do not find a way to oppose them effectively.
Their hubris finds its deepest expression in the supposition that the sins of our founders mean that our entire way of life should be scrapped. They view the principles of our founding as failed, and they expect to replace them with new and better mechanisms of government that only they are capable of conceiving and employing.
Yes, our founders were imperfect. Yes, the sin of slavery is a stain on our past. But this does not mean that the principles that so many of us hold dear and that are expressed so succinctly and elegantly by the Declaration of Independence are invalid.
The country has evolved. It continues to evolve. It will need to evolve forever because it is unrealistic to think that it will ever be perfect.
But it can only walk a path towards increasing perfection if the foundation is sound.
The divide right now is about this question:
Are the principles of the founders, despite their personal imperfections and failings, sound?
If you believe as I do, you say yes. If you believe as the opposition does, you say no.
We have reached the point where those who say no are now seeking to eradicate the God centric truths of the founders in favor of their own truths. Their truths begin with the notion, made possible by the Roe decision, that only the lives that they choose as important matter. Black lives matter, but unborn lives do not.
They have such complete confidence in their own ability to choose that they seek nothing less than to appoint themselves as human demi-Gods and in the process to destroy the principles that allowed our country to flourish for nearly 250 years despite its imperfections.
I would have thought what I am about to say was impossible. It pains me beyond description to state the following, but it must be said out loud and debated:
There is a significant faction right now in the opposition that is on the rise and gaining momentum. These self-appointed God replacements deeply hate the version of the United States of America that I and many, many others love so dearly. They view traditional America and its affection for God as a threat to their ascendancy and their own godhood and they will stop at nothing to destroy it and thereby consolidate and ultimately expand the power they have come to crave.
Our very way of life is under assault by men and women who hate historical America and God and who love themselves so much that they believe they would be doing us a favor by subjugating us.
_______________
Just a few weeks ago I thought I knew the solution. Despite all the direness of the above, I believed we held a winning hole card.
The radical opposition is very vocal, but they are presently a relatively small minority. I believed they intended to use public coffers in such a way that they would create so much dependency within the general public that their voting margins would become unassailable. They would amass enough power via this strategy to permanently control the reins of government and enact whatever plans they wished.
I reasoned that even if I accounted for those convinced to join them by their propaganda, they could not muster enough resources on their own to fulfill their plans.
If forced to it, our side could thwart this agenda by simple non-participation. Our side is, by and large, the engine of the economy. We generate the resources, the food and the taxes that enable their side to make such outlandish plans. If enough of our side could be convinced to simplify their lives, to reign in their activity to just that needed to support themselves, then the taxes needed to maintain their spending campaign would not be available and spending would have to be curtailed to sustain the viability of the country.
However, as the sheer outlandishness and audacity of the current administration’s spending plans have been revealed in the last few weeks, I have changed my mind. I believe the genuine intent of the power brokers within the opposition has been revealed. This objective is the work of the vocal few, but they have bullied and/or deceived enough of their sympathizers that this plan has a realistic chance of succeeding.
They are working to simply spend the country into oblivion. They want our country to accumulate so much debt that it is no longer viable. They are looking forward to the confusion that a financial collapse would entail, and they intend to induce such a collapse and then to take advantage of the ensuing chaos. Amidst the turmoil, they believe they will find the opportunity they are looking for to limit or abolish our freedoms under the guise of responding to the crisis.
Current catch phrases like Critical Race Theory, Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police and Wokeness do have a purpose in their plans. It is not an accident that they are seeking to introduce these concepts into our schools and thereby brainwash our children into believing that the principles of the country we love our irredeemable. They comprise a significant element of the long-term strategy these “American Haters” are pursuing to bring about the demise of the country.
But they are not the lynchpin of their strategy. They are distractions that are working very effectively right now, feints meant to hide the true spearhead of their battle plan. The lynchpin is much simpler, much more sinister, and quite frankly, brilliant. Economic mismanagement is the story of how all past empires have collapsed. We are already guilty of years and years of this. We already have put ourselves in a position where just a nudge can push us beyond the point of sustainability. Under the guise of the federal government lending a helping hand, they are now moving to push us over the edge.
They intend to force the collapse of our country by deliberately inflicting the final dose of economic mismanagement that will take us over the brink.
_______________
Given this, a strategy of non-participation might very well play directly into their hands, accelerating the collapse they intend to induce.
If that is not the first option, then what should our immediate strategy be?
First, we must recognize that the voting margins they have in both houses of Congress are razor thin. It would take only one defection in the Senate for this plan to be thwarted. And only a handful in the House.
Perhaps this is where hope for reaching across the gulf resides. Surely there are some among our opposition who have enough regard for the principles of the founding that they can be persuaded to pause for a moment and reconsider.
The first step is to get a few moderate souls to step back from the precipice and help us employ enough financial responsibility to give us time to talk further about our differences. Despite current disharmony, compromise is still possible and would lead to a complete de-escalation of the situation. It is not too late to reject the current discord and to re-establish the across-the-aisle courtesy that would allow us to return to serving the best interests of the country.
I ask those on the other side with doubts about the trend of current policy to think long and hard about the votes you are about to cast. Are you being bullied and deceived by those who profess to be your friends? Are their intentions pure and exactly what they seem to be? Are they really interested in the welfare of the entire country, or are their motives perhaps more sinister?
And perhaps, most importantly, even if you give them the benefit of the doubt, even if you believe they do not hate the country and you find their intentions honorable, will their foolishness push the country over the verge of insolvency anyway?
Is this a risk you are willing to take? Is the spending being proposed really that crucial?
Or is it possible that yours is the vote that could thwart the potential fiscal devastation of the country?
_______________
As I said before, I want to work with the other side toward solutions. The current crisis of division demands that this happens. But as I also said, I wonder if reconciliation is possible.
Coming votes on spending resolutions will likely answer that question.
If the current majority, razor thin as it is, runs roughshod over the opinions and hopes of a significant minority who believe their actions endanger the future of the country, what should that minority do?
If it stands firm, it can expect that the same propaganda mechanisms currently being deployed to suppress free speech and free thought will be rapidly multiplied. The radical opposition will do everything it can to hold us in check right up to the moment where the calamity occurs. Our financial collapse will not come slowly. It will come in an instant, the same way the stock market collapse at the beginning of the Great Depression came.
As soon as this speech is over the thought control machine of the enemy will launch devastating attacks against every word I have said. Be sure of that. As the assault begins, please remember that I have invited the other side to a dialogue. Watch and see if they return the courtesy and engage us on the merits of the principles of our founding and our traditional way of life. Or see if instead they seek to stifle any free speech in support of our side by labeling it as racist, hateful, etc.
Watch and see if they attempt to do everything they can to simply shout us down and stifle our free expression before their worst fears are realized and we begin to loosen their hold on those already persuaded by their propaganda machine.
_______________
No matter the ferocity of their onslaught, our side intuitively knows that we will do whatever it takes to preserve our unalienable right to free speech and free thought. Our reliance on these principles is instinctive and we are not capable of forgoing it. We will not allow any of our God-given rights to be taken from us under any circumstances.
If our faculties inform us that their actions have made the financial demise of the country inevitable, we will adjust accordingly. We will proactively combat the attempt by these radicals to strip us of our unalienable rights. We will maintain our grasp on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we cherish so dearly while making sure we do not wait until it is too late to act.
If reconciliation is not attainable, our side will pursue a prudent and peaceful course of action in defense of our beliefs.
We will engage in the policy of non-participation I suggested before as a non-violent way of opposing the demise of the country, marshalling our resources for our own use, and taking our chances that the principles of the founding will prevail against the opposition’s attempt to take advantage of the chaos of collapse and abolish the precepts that we hold so dear.
And we will also consider an even stronger corollary, a policy of outright, peaceful separation.
_______________
It is safe to assume that those radicals who hate the country hate us as well.
Perhaps, right now, we should give them what they want, and leave them to themselves, completely alone and liberated from all obligations to us. Perhaps we should set them free to enact the gargantuan spending plans they seek and free to pay for them on their own.
Perhaps they should also be free to:
- feed themselves without relying on the production of those whose opinions they hold in such low regard.
- allow anyone into their country they please, and to pay for the migration and well-being of those immigrants with their own resources.
- legalize all drugs and to live with the benefits or detriments of that decision without having to worry about our judgment.
- make voting as easy as they like without having to fight us about issues concerning the legitimacy of elections.
- control the definition of life, marriage, and gender as they see fit without having to worry about our contrary opinions.
In short, perhaps they would prefer to be free to redefine the terms of their own governance according to their own confidences and judgments, separate from the burden of history that we desire to live under.
Perhaps the best course of action for both sides is to agree amicably to be mutually free from each other. The Declaration of Independence, after all, speaks quite eloquently on the idea of political separation. Perhaps we have reached the point where both sides feel that “the course of human events has made it necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bonds which have connected them one to another……..”
If one looks at a map of voting distribution from any recent election, it is immediately evident that our divisions are not only ideological, but regional as well.
Yes, there would be difficult discussions that would have to take place. Issues on the distribution of the national debt, for instance, could be particularly thorny. Regional distinctions are not clear in every case and some boundaries might have to be redrawn. I read a story recently where some counties in the Pacific Northwest wish to secede from Oregon and join Idaho so that they may be politically associated with folks who share their values. Some, if they found themselves on the side of a border that was not to their liking, might decide to migrate. Some boundaries might not even be contiguous, with pockets of one philosophy existing within the boundaries of another.
But I believe if both sides would negotiate in good faith, these and all the other difficulties of separation could be peacefully overcome.
If this were to happen, then our two competing ideologies would be free to mature into the future on their own terms. We can have a little contest and see which set of principles prevails.
And rather than either side having to fight its way free with the consequent destruction of property and loss of life that would be devastating to both sides, we can each proceed peacefully into a future that is of our own making.
The final thing to say is that I believe, in the end, this crisis is about impending violence.
Peace is the cause we must all come together to serve.
Too much violence is already in the air. Both sides have already deployed it. Too many of our cities have already experienced it. Even our Capitol was not immune. If we reject the commonalities capable of reuniting us, then we must be prepared to talk about peaceful separation because our inability to find common ground will also signal the irreconcilability of our positions.
Terrible and increasing violence will ensue if the current divisions are not dealt with. It is inevitable.
To my friends I say that it is essential that our side embrace peace completely and confidently. Our side is the side that believes in the law, not the side that wants to abolish it because, just like at the time of the founding, we still have individuals amongst us who fail to live up to the perfection of our ideals.
If we are the side that continues to believe that God has role to play in our governance, then we must be the side that embraces humility.
We must seek the peace that Jesus gave us and the peace that He left us.
We must all understand that if we seek to compel unity via violence, that violence will only beget more violence, and that the only possible result in a world as modern as this one is escalating tragedy.
It is a great irony that we are called to follow the example of the Civil Rights Movement and, if worse comes to worse, to embrace non-violence resistance and non-participation as the only positive path to a better future, a future that honors the principles of our founding and gives them the best chance to endure forever. Those of us who were on the wrong side then must be the ones to prove that the lessons of that era have been learned, and that we are ready to live into them.
Our opposition must have no doubt, beginning right now, that we possess the resolve to peacefully follow our course without wavering or ceasing until the principles of the founding are once again ascendant, even if that ascendance requires separation.
Let them play the role of demi-gods and learn the hard lessons of the true limitations of man. Just as you would your child, let them be free to make their own mistakes, and let us be the ones who, in the end, humbly choose not to say, “I told you so.” We may not be able to prevent them from tearing down that which they do not cherish. But we can cherish it so much that we are willing to make all the sacrifices necessary to preserve it for ourselves, and even for them if the time comes that they realize the error of their ways.
Let us always regard them with the compassion and love that the father showed to the prodigal son. If what we believe to be their mistakes come to fruition, let us be prepared to welcome them back into a family that never really wanted to split from them in the first place.
We are called to the stay the course of steady and consistent conversion. We are certain that the founding principles we believe in remain valid as the best principles any government could ever embrace. Rather than proclaiming ourselves gods, we seek to humbly embrace the truly frail nature of our humanity and, with the guidance and help of the God who loves us unconditionally, to continually improve our self-governance according to His principles.
Yes, slavery was a horrendous sign of our frailty, sinfulness, and imperfection. But we have abolished it and, despite the pain that persists more than a hundred years later, we will continue to seek to recover from the longest-term implications of that sad episode in our history.
But abortion is equally horrendous, and history will judge us just as harshly as it now judges the founders for their role in the perpetuation of slavery. If we are not in a place right now where we can legally abolish abortion, we must at least work to minimize it in every way possible.
There is no better way to begin that task than by honestly embracing the slogan I offered earlier, “unborn black lives matter.” If the opposition will not embrace it with us, let us embrace it on our own and do everything we can to bring it to fruition.
As a white leader on the opposite side of many black Americans, I audaciously call today on black women everywhere to freely choose to never have another abortion. If you are offended by slavery, an act which at its core took away the precious humanity of your ancestors, be equally offended by abortion, an act that takes away the humanity of your descendants in a single, swift, and brutal act.
Do this not because I suggest it, but because you have considered it, even prayed about it if your personal beliefs encourage that. Reach your own conclusion that this is the right thing to do for the advancement of not only your people, but all people. Let all other people follow your leadership, example and courage and emulate what you do. Lead us away not only from the last vestiges of racism and slavery, but also from the horrendous practice of abortion. Prove the tremendous potential and worth of your lives in the process. Put the rest of us to shame by being the first to freely do the right thing.
The way to a complete recovery and renewal is not to jettison everything that is great about our society. It is to build upon our accomplishments and our never-fulfilled, always expanding potential so that those who feel left out or left behind can find a path that allows them to join us in the place of prosperity that we know our system can and will make available to all.
The most basic lesson the United States has to offer is that Liberty is always the best and only Hope for men. The way to prosperity is not through the expansion of government, but through the expansion of Freedom. Our Unalienable Rights must not be restricted, they must be pro-actively liberated from the tyranny of government that is being proposed by those who either hate our country or are sadly mistaken about what it is that allows this great American Experiment to flourish.
Yes, our past and our present are imperfect, but our future will be better.
It must be better.
We owe it to the slaves and the unborn children lost in our history to make it so.
Thank you.”
_______________
The senator stepped away from the podium. The shouted questions of the assembled media were overwhelming, but it was prearranged that there would not be a question-and-answer session after the speech. The senator exited through the door at the back of the platform and took a deep breath.
His associates nodded their approval at him. He believed it was the best delivery of a speech he had ever achieved.
Whether or not it was the best content he could not say. Only the future, both near and distant, would be able to judge that. The coming days would be active and contentious. The firestorm might die out and nothing might come of his speech. Or changes that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago might result.
There was no way to know.
Even though he had not voiced them, the doubts remained. Had he done the right thing?
He exited the building to a waiting car. When his phone rang, he ignored it. He ignored it even when the President’s private number popped up. He wondered what path the President would choose now, but the speech was enough for today. He was going home to his wife. The rest of the day was set aside for just the two of them.
No phones. No TV. No distractions. Just the two of them.
The next round of work would start tomorrow.
OFS Ongoing 