NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Early Saturday morning a strange new matte black surface takes me by surprise, like a vast perfectly clean cloth spread over more than an acre of ground. It gives off a strong smell of tar in front of the H-bar and across Huygens St. in front of Safeway. Not a vehicle in sight, not a movement, it is like a silence covering this usually bustling place. The area is marked off with orange cones. Yellow plastic ribbon stretches between them blown by gusting winds under a clear sky. Wind blows in my ear like white noise. A buck and a doe appear, standing still together with a nonchalant air in front of the H-bar. Were they there all along? As we look across the parking lot at each other it seems they want to say something, but they turn and trot away, past the big bow window of the H-bar, and disappear around the corner of the building. Several pale gray marks under the streetlights stand out like mealtime spills on clean linen, where crows gather to comment from on high. Carefully measured thin chalk lines have been drawn on the dark surface like the geometry lesson of a teacher’s chalkboard. They mark the place for thick broader white lines about to be laid down indicating parking spaces and directional arrows. The yellow DD 25 Volvo asphalt roller splashed with tar is loaded on a flatbed truck parked on Huygens St.. The lot was resurfaced only a year ago, yet it was crumbling in places and shallow gravelly depressions formed over the winter.
The old store seems empty as I walk in under the huge cement arches of the Safeway’s curving roof. Find a couple of mangos, and take a quick look at the rest of the produce, then move on along the back of the store past the pharmacy to find unfiltered apple juice. Turning the corner of the isle past the cheese and cold cuts section, I see Rank Majors holding a gallon of milk at the back of the growing express line.
“Looks like we all came at once Rank.”
“Fred, I though the place was empty. Where did this line come from?”
“There’s too many of us living around here.”
“Yeah! And, no parking access.”
“We are lucky we can walk.”
“Why isn’t this express line moving Fred?”
“I think the power just went out!”
The friendly manager walks over and tells us a fallen tree just brought down the power line. He says they will have emergency power on in a minute.
“A tree, not a terrorist huh?”
“Just a tree sir. It’s windy out there.”
The manager moves on.
“Are you going to the drill Fred?”
“The drill? What’s that?”
“Here’s what’s happening. Check out the website on this card … and bring your side arm.”
The card he hands me with red white and blue stripe across the top, is marked ‘Fauxmont Militia’ along with the website. The ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ logo from the Gadsden flag is printed on the other side.
“Okay Rank, I didn’t know you were in our local Militia.”
“Yeah! I met Frans last year at a party.”
“Frans?”
“Frans Banning Cocq, is our Militia Commander.”
“Oh yes! Albrecht mentioned him. Does he live in Fauxmont?”
“No he lives out near Culpeper. In fact I think he’s originally from Idaho.”
“So why is he commanding our Fauxmont Militia?”
“Well, he has the experience and connections to get the thing started, and he’s been helping Albrecht a lot.”
“Rank, I’d join the ‘Neighborhood Watch’ if we had one, or even “The Night Watch” but I don’t know about this.”
“Check it out Fred, just take a look.”
“Why did you join this thing Rank? Why the side-arm?”
“Fred, I am fed up with big government and big companies running my life and my country. It is time to assert our individual rights.”
“With a pistol?”
“I swore an oath to uphold the constitution when I joined the Air Force and still feel the obligation.”
“Oh, the fourth amendment …”
“Not just that …”
“What do you make of Albrecht’s ideas about corporate voting.”
“As far as that goes I think he’s nuts!”
“So do I, but he seems to think it is a viable notion.”
“Albrecht is a great energetic young guy, but he’s also goes too far.”
“Yes I have the same impression. By the way Rank, I don’t have a side arm.”
“Unlike the old days, you don’t have to own your own weapon to come to our drill.”
“Are you just anti government? I mean, do you see yourself as defending us from terrorism?”
“I’m opposed to excessive government and the present government’s excesses.”
“Okay, so how do you see the terrorism thing?”
“The terrorists are winning!”
“What do you mean? I thought we had them on the run.”
“Listen, they had no way of knowing that we would do their job for them … like shredding our own constitution … for one thing, they have pushed us into using torture.”
“True, but Obama stopped that.”
“Did he?”
“So we are told.”
“Look, we have responded to their attacks with secret laws, secret courts, and now we find out the government is tapping the Internet without a warrant.”
“Yes Snowden’s revelations have been extraordinary.”
“You know how bad thing are, when it takes a traitor to find out what our government is doing!”
“Those measures were all taken to keep us safe Rank, in an emergency!”
“Right, that emergency was twelve years ago. It has become an institution!”
“Yes, the president has renewed the Declaration of National Emergency every year since.”
“Not only that Fred, Obama’s latest revisions to the NDAA only strengthen government’s extralegal powers even further.”
“I have forgotten what NDAA is Rank.”
“Most people never knew in the first place Fred. Those who aren’t running scared are asleep! It is the National Defense Authorization Act. A very important law that is creeping dangerously towards the abyss.”
“You mean too much government power?”
“I mean too much executive power. If information is power then they now have more power and control over us than ever before! It is the Stasi’s dream come true!”
“Rank, they have more data than they can make sense of, not information.”
“That may be true now, but they will soon build better algorithms to mine the accumulated data. Not a single one of us is safe from snooping spooks.”
I see Diddlie approaching us with a mop from the hardware isle.
“Diddlie, haven’t seen you for months! What brings you here so early?”
“I might ask you the same question Fred.”
“You might, and I say, ‘Avoiding the crowd later’.”
“Likewise Fred.”
“Yeah we are the early crowd!”
“We are Rank. Are you carrying a gun? My God Rank! … you are! …What are you doing with it in the Safeway?”
“Diddlie I’m letting them know I have power too.”
“Them Rank? The Safeway? We’ve got the vote Rank. We don’t need guns.”
“Did you vote for those bozos in Congress? Tell me, what are they doing for you?”
“Well Rank, not much I guess, right now, but shooting people isn’t going to improve anything is it?”
“I am not going to shoot anybody Diddlie.”
“So what are you carrying a gun for?”
“My government is spying on me. I just lost whatever privacy I thought I had, and it is time to demonstrate a citizen’s right to protect himself.”
“But Rank, I don’t care about government spying. I don’t have anything to hide.If they can stop a bomber, God bless them!”
“Diddlie, stop for a moment! Stop and think about what you are saying.”
“Rank, I mean it!”
“You are letting fear blind you. Fear of terrorism is no reason to give up on our country’s foundations.”
“Well, the Islamic radicals are still plotting.”
“Diddlie we talked about a side arm for you before.”
“I know we did Rank. I am not interested. I think it is crazy. I also think that the government is doing its best to protect us from terrorist bombs and stuff. So they have to do all this internet stuff because that’s where they communicate along with the rest of us.”
“Diddlie, the government is too big to function properly.”
“It may be big, but this is a complex society.”
“It is Diddlie, and we are not doing a good job of managing our bureaucracies, public or private.”
“Well, that’s the truth. I see bad management and low pay all over the place.”
“That’s it Diddlie, big government and big companies have evolved together.”
“The one percent are getting most of the money …”
“ … and, Diddlie, taxes are taking too much of the rest.”
“Rank, at least we agree on something!” Diddlie pulls down a magazine from among the tabloids by the cash register where we are waiting. It is a copy of ShrinkWrap magazine.
“Diddlie I thought that thing had gone digital.”
“It has Fred, but Lark tells me corporate are trying out this monthly tabloid version. This must be the first one.”
She holds it up for Rank and me to see. It has a stiff cardboard back that folds in half for display. Unfolded one can see each page is about an eighth of an inch smaller than the next, while they are flush on the left and at the bottom. The smallest page down at the bottom left is only about 4 inches square; the exposed tops of each page have been printed to look like a single image that fragments as you turn the pages. A dramatic diagonal from top right to bottom left of the unopened magazine divides the blue sides from the red tops of the pages. Diddlie reads from the cover of the Tabloid.
“Look at this, guys. Here’s the blue part saying, ‘The Liberal Conspiracy to Socialize America’ and here’s the red part “The Corporate Right’s Conspiracy to Make us ALL Peons’. Pick a conspiracy Rank!”
Our line at the cash register has moved, and power is restored. Rank has his back to Diddlie as he pays for his gallon of milk. The cashier is waiting to get Diddlie’s attention.
“Are you buying that hon.?”
“Sure.” Diddlie puts her copy of the new Shrink Wrap on the conveyor to be scanned, and hands over the mop.”
There isn’t a customer to be seen in the store as we all walk out into the gusting wind.
