Chapter 27: Aldermen

August 6, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“Good morning, Alderman,” I said when my call was put through to him.

“Good morning, Steve.”

“I’m going to have to decline your offer mostly because I simply don’t have the time to dedicate to something like that to do a good job. Between work, my family, karate practice four times a week, and marriage counseling, I just don’t have the time. I’d be happy to endorse you.”

“I’ll take that. If you change your mind, just let me know,” he said. “I spoke with the other Aldermen like you asked. They’re expecting your call.”

“Excellent. Thank you very much!”

“You’re welcome. Just remember me the next time you need to hire someone.”

“I will. Thanks again, Alderman.”

We hung up, and I called both ward offices to inquire about speaking to the Aldermen. I left my name and number and was promised that they would call back in the next day or two. After I hung up, I actually managed to do some programming work before leaving for my lunch with Al Barton.

“How is she doing?” Al asked when I sat down across from him.

“That was going to be MY question,” I said with a grin. “From a relationship perspective, everything is fine. She’s still going to her individual counseling, and the three of us are still in our marriage counseling, though it’s every two weeks now instead of every week. It’ll switch to once a month after the first of the year.”

“Doctor Green thinks you’re making good progress, obviously.”

“He does. What about work?”

“She’s the best young doctor in the hospital. I may be a bit biased, but I don’t know anyone who disagrees with that assessment. Her past behavior still gives some people serious pause, but the longer she goes on an even keel, the better. I did have a long talk with the Chief of the Surgical Service about the fact that she’s still doing pure scut after two months. He doesn’t fully trust her because she was on his service when she had her meltdown.”

“She’s been taking it pretty well,” I said. “She complains, but she’s sucking it up.”

“She should be happier today. I pointed out Friday afternoon that the whole point of a teaching hospital is to teach and that she could easily complain to the Hospital Administrator, and he would intervene because Jessica was given a completely clean bill of health and had no issues at all during her ER rotation.”

“Thanks, Al. I appreciate you looking after her.”

“She’s worked far too hard to recover to allow it to continue. She’s done every single thing we’ve asked, including random drug screens.”

“I wasn’t aware of that. She never said anything.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know they’ll always come up negative. I’m sure she just didn’t want you to get upset. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“Don’t sweat it. I won’t say anything to Jess,” I replied. “I meant to ask the last time we were together, but what’s going on with the Hubble Telescope? It seems like there’s a big problem.”

“It’s a complete mess. They aren’t entirely sure yet, but it looks like some kind of tolerance was off when they ground the mirror. We’re talking fractions of a millimeter. They aren’t sure what they can do to fix it just yet.”

“Damn. And they couldn’t find that before they put the thing in orbit?”

“Apparently not! Belinda is extremely disappointed.”

“I can imagine.”

“So, how are you doing?” Al asked.

“Things are really busy, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“And your health? Any repeat incidence of syncope?”

“No problems of any kind. I’m running on a treadmill rather than outside because I lost my running partner.”

“Oh? What happened?”

“You remember that it was a student at the dōjō, right? Well, she graduated from High School and went off to Princeton. I decided to get a treadmill because that saves me the fifteen-minute walk each way to the park. I run a bit further and then go at walking speed to cool down, and it still takes less time.”

“And your physical was clean?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “Blood sugar is good, cholesterol is fantastic, everything else is right in the center of the range.”

“And your smoking?”

“Maybe once a month, either the pipe or a cigar. That’s about half of what I was doing when you told me to cut back, which was after Jess had already limited it.”

Al smiled, “Good. And the soft drinks?”

“No more than one a day,” I said.

“I think that’s OK. For now.”

“Are you EVER going to quit riding my ass?” I chuckled.

“No!” Al laughed but then turned serious. “Jess needs you, Steve. She’ll always need you. And keeping you as healthy as I possibly can is high on my priority list. And that’s over and above normal doctoring.”

“Which explains your over-the-top response to me passing out when Nick was murdered.”

“Actually, that wasn’t over the top. What happens to you under severe stress isn’t normal. And it’s something to be very careful about. If you were driving or doing something that was inherently dangerous, it could create a life-threatening situation.”

“I’ll be happy to never get more news like that for the rest of my life,” I sighed.

“The bastard is in prison at Fort Leavenworth?”

“Yes,” I said. “He’s filed an appeal, but my inside contacts tell me the appeal isn’t going anywhere. The Captain who heads up the Judge Advocate General unit in San Diego said it was a slam-dunk case. So did the Legalman who sat through the whole trial with Bethany.”

“How is she?”

“Better than I would be in a similar circumstance. She has good days and bad days. I’ve been to see her several times, and her best friend Kathy — you’ve met her; she’s the gorgeous redhead married to my friend Kurt — has been down a few times as well. We also talk on the phone, and I’ve spent some time with Nicholas, too. I’ll see her again over Labor Day weekend. The whole family is heading down to Ohio.”

Al smiled, “It sounds like everything is going fairly smoothly.”

“That’s when I get worried,” I sighed.

After lunch, I headed back to the office, and before I went home, I heard from both Aldermen. I set up a meeting in our office for Tuesday the 21st. I left a bit early for the walk to the hospital so that I could swing by Theo’s place and let him know that the meeting was set. We agreed to have lunch on the Monday before the meeting to talk about what I needed to say during the meeting with the Aldermen.

That evening at home, Jesse had a request.

“Dada, want to see DuckTales at the movies.”

“Did you ask Mama One?”

“Yes. She said it is a good movie for Dada and Jesse!”

I chuckled. Of course, she had. Jennifer wasn’t into animation at all, not even Saturday morning cartoons.

“Steve, I bet Matthew would love that movie,” Elyse said.

“Sounds like I have plans for Saturday afternoon,” I said. “Is it OK if Matthew comes with us, Jesse?”

“Yes!” Jesse said.

“OK. Tell Mama One that we’ll go on Saturday.”

“How many days is that?”

“Five.”

“Thanks, Dada! I need to go back to my mamas!”

I chuckled, “Good night, Jesse.”

I got a hug and kiss from him, and he ran out the back door to go to the coach house. I sat down with Jessica, Kara, and Elyse to watch CNN. The UN Security Council had passed another resolution on Iraq, ordering a complete economic embargo and authorizing a naval blockade to enforce it.

“Still think nothing is going to happen?” Elyse asked.

“We’ll see. If the embargo is actually enforced, maybe we’ll see some movement by Iraq. But a naval blockade of Iraq isn’t going to stop all trade. They can trade through Syria, which I don’t think will enforce trade sanctions. I still don’t believe the US is going to send troops.”

“You know Bush is just itching to show he has the balls to do it.”

“Maybe so, but where’s the justification? I don’t see it.”

“Me either, but politics is a weird game.”

“So true,” I sighed.

August 7, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“OK, so I was wrong,” I said as we sat watching CNN on Tuesday evening.

“That’s a neat pivot,” Elyse said. “Troops to Saudi Arabia to protect it from invasion by Iraq.”

“It is. It lets him get troops and planes into the region without making any promises about liberating Kuwait, but it threatens Hussein. At a minimum, it’ll get his attention. Bush is clearly worried about Hussein trying to link a solution to this situation with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after he got out in front on that issue. If Iraq can co-opt enough Arab nations, they can make Bush’s position untenable.”

“So you don’t think we’ll attack Iraq?”

“If Bush gets sufficient troops in place, we will. But it’ll take at least a month to get troops, supplies, and, more importantly, a significant naval presence into the area. Heck, they might even have to call up reservists. I’m not sure we can deplete our forces in Europe enough without risking trouble with the Soviets. Not an attack or anything, but saber rattling. Just enough to give Bush pause. My concern is that Bush is reckless. Hopefully, cooler heads at the Pentagon will prevail.”

“You don’t think we should attack Iraq to force them to free Kuwait?” Jessica asked.

“Is it worth Aimee’s life? Or Karl’s? Or Howard’s? Or Clayton’s? Or any of those ROTC students or new recruits we had here over the years?”

“That does put a different perspective on it, doesn’t it?”

“After what happened to Nick? It’s not abstract anymore,” I said. “It probably shouldn’t have been after Jim McGrath’s funeral, but I never knew him.”

“Elyse’s uncle?”

“Yes. My Uncle Larry, my mom’s youngest brother, went to Vietnam, too. He came home, but his health, both physical and mental, was pretty bad after his tour. According to my grandma, he was never the same.”

“You support a strong military but don’t want to use it?”

“The point of having a strong military is so that you don’t HAVE to use it. Peace through strength. Or, as Nick liked to say, ‘Peace through superior firepower’. Or if you want another authority, ‘Speak softly, but carry a big stick.’”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Abbie said. “But it seems like an awful waste of money.”

“As long as there’s one guy with enough military power to threaten his neighbor, you don’t have much choice. History is replete with examples of weak nations being taken over by strong ones.”

“Violence never solved anything,” Abbie objected.

“Initiating?” I responded. “I agree. But violence in self-defense isn’t a problem. Sure, it should be your last resort, but Edmund Burke rightly said ’There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.’ At some point, you have to stop turning the other cheek, as it were.”

“Didn’t he also say that ’All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’?” Elyse asked.

“Supposedly,” I said. “But there appears to be some dispute about that. But it’s the right sentiment, no matter who said it. That’s what happened with the Nazis — Europe had a chance to do something, and they didn’t.”

“So you think we SHOULD do something about Hussein?” Elyse asked.

“He hasn’t attacked us, or NATO, or any of our allies. I don’t see sending young men and women into harm’s way over this. But it appears President Bush does.”

“Or he’s just using them like you said — as a threat.”

“Maybe. We’ll see. I don’t have a good feeling about it. But then again, I haven’t had a good feeling about Bush since 1980!”

August 11, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“One adult and two children for DuckTales, please.”

“That will be $8.00.”

I handed over a ten and received my change.

“Dada, is eight dollars a lot?” Matthew asked.

“For some people, it would be, yes. But not for us. We’re fortunate that both your mamas have good jobs and that Dada’s company makes him good money.”

“Oh,” he said.

Both of the boys were just beginning to grasp the idea that one needed money and that it didn’t just magically appear in my wallet or their moms’ purses. Although we were doing our best to try to impress on them the link between the money we earned and the money we spent, it was slow going for the boys, who were four and three, but we were making progress.

“Do you boys want popcorn?”

“Yes!” they both said with glee.

We went to the snack bar, and I got a small tub of popcorn for the three of us to split and three small soft drinks — 7-Up for the boys and Coke for me. We found the correct theatre and found seats about halfway back.

“Donald Duck!” Matthew exclaimed when Dude Duck, an old cartoon, came on the screen. The boys laughed as Donald tried to deal with a visit to a dude ranch. When the cartoon finished, the movie started. The boys laughed as Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie visited Egypt, and Scrooge found the lost treasure of Collie Baba. Of course, there was a magic lamp, and the duck boys had fun with the Genie, while trying to avoid trouble from Merlock, the evil sorcerer.

“That was funny!” Jesse said when the movie ended.

“I liked it!” Matthew said.

“Good! Shall we go home to the moms?”

“Yes!” the boys agreed.

We left the theatre with one boy holding each hand, and we walked to the garage where the car was parked and then headed for home.

August 12, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“That was the other shoe,” I said as we watched CNN on Sunday after lunch.

Saddam Hussein had just declared linkage between what he called the Israeli occupation of portions of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan and Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon. He also demanded that US troops leave Saudi Arabia to be replaced by an Arab force that did not involve Egypt. And he demanded an immediate end to the boycott and blockade.

I had to laugh because Egypt had the only military in the Arab world that could possibly take on Iraq. Iran could, of course, but they were Persian, not Arab. If Saddam were successful in removing the US forces and keeping a small Arab force that excluded Egypt, his takeover of Kuwait, which Iraq had formally annexed a few days earlier, would be a fait accompli.

“Bush flat-out rejected that linkage,” Elyse said. “There’s going to be a war, isn’t there?”

“I’d say,” I sighed. “The topic came up at breakfast yesterday, and Karl, Howard, and Clayton are convinced that we’re going to attack Iraq sometime early next year. Clayton thinks it will take until around mid-December to get enough assets in place, at least from the Navy’s standpoint. He’s thinking they’ll deploy two additional carrier battle groups, and to do it right will take some time. And Howard says that if we have to airlift a couple of hundred thousand troops and their equipment and supplies, January 1st is probably the soonest everything can be positioned.”

“Should they be saying that stuff?” Kara asked.

“It’s hard to hide a carrier battle group,” I chuckled. “Everyone knows where they are, how quickly they can put to sea, and how quickly they can move into position. You’re talking 5,000 to 6,000 sailors per carrier, plus a couple of air wings. And that doesn’t include the cruisers, destroyers, and submarines in the battle group. The newspapers will report exactly where the battle groups are. And anyone with satellite intel can track them pretty easily. The Chinese or Russians could feed information to Hussein just to cause trouble. So, nobody is violating security. It’s different with Jake. Nobody knows the exact deployment dates or locations of the boomers.”

“Are we watching the race today?” Jessica asked.

“Did you have something you’d rather do?” I asked.

“We could go to the movies. I want to see the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore movie — Ghost.”

“Oooh! Me too!” Kara said.

“Me three!” Elyse laughed. “Let me see if Katy and Lauren are interested.”

Lauren was finally getting over her funk from coming out to her parents and their reaction. Jennifer and Josie had been spending lots of time with Katy and Lauren, which had helped. I hoped they’d be willing to go out with us today. They’d been more or less recluses for the past four weeks. Elyse was back a minute later.