Chapter 9

Meals at our home were always interesting. You never knew what topic might be brought up, or where the discussion might lead.

Before we went into lockdown, California’s educational system seemed to us to be a costly babysitting program. Yes, the children enrolled in the state run schools learned many of the things they needed to learn, but at the pace of the slowest learner, and that pace was imposed on all of the students. Therefore, the better students didn’t learn as much as they could have learned.

When the Ark Foundation first moved into the Ark, we started all of the programs we thought we would need for supporting our new lifestyle. One of those programs was an educational system, tailored to what our children would need in the world we would face, after the meteoroids. The state of California classified our educational program as a privately funded Charter School. We don’t know why, but I suspected that since we were funded privately, the state was not worried about us spending their educational dollars improperly. Whatever the reason, the Board of Education seemed to be happy with the reports we sent them, and they never conducted an on-site inspection of the school programs we set up within the Ark. Therefore, they were never aware of the classes actually being taught, and the way we ran the school, didn’t match the organizational structure, school syllabus, and reports we submitted to them.

The Ark’s Educational Program was very different from the state run schools. Our Elementary Level Program presented our children with the basic information that the old school system presented during the Elementary, Middle School, and High School levels. Several of the state’s required courses, such as physical education, were included in the syllabus, but there were no actual classes. We also expanded and upgraded the content of other classes, and made our system a guided, self-paced learning system that was conducted in the classroom. The teacher’s purpose was to answer questions and ensure all of the kids were progressing at a pace that was appropriate for the individual. The majority of the children who started Grade 1 after we moved into the Ark completed the twelve-year Elementary Level Program within nine years.

Colleges and Universities used to teach their students to be generalists and provided a large amount of knowledge related to a specific field of interest. We never understood why someone like a medical doctor needed to take an Art Appreciation or an English Literature course in order to treat a patient. We recognized that all professions required profession-specific knowledge and hands-on experience, and that those additional courses to round out a student, really weren’t needed for our new society. So we designed our Advanced Level Programs to teach students to be specialists. We used the same guided, individual-paced learning system to teach a profession’s knowledge. The hands-on experience was acquired by pairing the student with people who worked in the profession.

It was assumed that my son Eric would become one of the Ark’s leaders, and would one day replace Clara and I as the leaders of the Ark. That perception, combined with Eric’s interest in political leadership, resulted in him and a number of other children enrolling in our Social Leadership Program.

Clara and I had come to accept that we were politicians, so we always thought of the Social Leadership Program as Politicians-in-Training. Eric’s program and classroom leader was Mistress Xena Hyatt. For the hands-on portion of their education, she paired her students on a rotating basis with Clara, me, and our Advisory Council members. It seemed like there was always someone following us around observing how we did our jobs and assisting us when possible. I have to acknowledge that they usually chose appropriate times to ask us to explain our actions. It was very annoying to have a student ask an appropriate question at an inappropriate time.

The Social Leadership Program students attended all of the Advisory Council meetings that were open to the public, and on special occasions, a few of the meetings that were limited attendance. We became so accustomed to them being with us, that we had to make a conscious effort to make sure they weren’t in highly sensitive and confidential meetings. Mistress Hyatt assigned them class projects and it was not unusual for the students to seek us out for advice. We also used the students who shadowed us to perform a variety of tasks that were within their abilities, as hands-on learning experiences.

Eric and his two Bond Mates-to-Be, Marcie Stult and Sylvia Chance, were classmates and they had decided they would replace Clara and me when we decided to step down from our positions. Until then, they decided they would work in the lower levels of the Ark’s leadership structure learning what they would one day need to know to be our replacements.

I was not aware of it initially, but our effort to create a new government was a prime opportunity for Mistress Hyatt to create and assign classroom projects that had a practical application to government. Mistress Hyatt was very much aware that Eric, Marcie, Sylvia, and a couple of their classmates wanted to become the future leaders of the Ark. The classroom projects, she devised for them, were always targeted at giving them the knowledge and experience they would need to become senior Ark leaders. When she overheard them talking about the unfairness of them not being able to participate in the creation of the new government, she struck.

Today, Eric invited Marcie and Sylvia to join us for lunch. Eric started the conversation with, “Dad ... Marcie, Sylvia, our friends, and I have been talking about the Ark creating a new government, and we have a problem with the way it is being done.”

“Oh, do you have a problem with us forming a new Government?”

“No, Dad, we think that is a good thing. Our problem is, we are being excluded.”

“What do you mean by excluded?”

“You and the Advisory Committee are developing a plan for forming the new government. In the Advisory Council meetings, it was clearly stated that only adult citizens will be allowed to vote on issues relating to the creation of the government.

“We all believe that you are just trying to comply with the laws that Mister Miller and his people wrote. But those laws create a situation that is unfair to all young people like Marcie, Sylvia, and me.”

“Oh! Why do you think that only allowing adult citizens to vote is unfair?”

“Well, when you explained our Age of Majority law to me, you told me that before you were born, the Old Government would send teenagers off to war, but they wouldn’t let them vote or drink alcohol, and that was unfair. Isn’t that correct?”

With all of my experience, I should have recognized a setup question. I just didn’t expect one from Eric, during lunch. He did it so smoothly that after the fact, I realized he had the potential to one day be a great leader for the Ark.

“Yes, it was, but then the Government reduced the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. What does that have to do with this?”

“Well, Mister Miller and his people wrote our Age of Majority, Citizenship, and Voter Qualification laws. We think they wrote those laws without considering the way they interrelate. The Age of Majority law defines what is required to be recognized as an adult. Adulthood and other things are required to be an Ark Citizen, and you must be an Ark Citizen to vote. So the laws, and your plan, essentially say you have to be an adult to participate in the creation of the government. We don’t think that’s fair.”

“It seems fair to me, Eric. I certainly don’t want children being given the right to vote on what I think of as adult matters.”

“We agree with you, Dad. Marcie, Sylvia, and I all agree that children shouldn’t vote on adult issues.

“The three of us and our friends decided that the definition and use of the word adult is the crux of the matter. From what we understand, the old Government reduced the Age of Majority to eighteen years old for most things. The change included the voting age, but not the right to drink alcohol. That indicated a young person was old enough to do some things responsibly, but not others. But then Mister Miller’s laws reintroduced the original all-or-nothing thinking regarding adulthood, and linked that to citizenship and voting.”

Sylvia added, “Mister Reppa, I remember talking with your Bond Mate Clara about after Bob and Sharna created Generation V984 of humanity. She said they changed our genetics to slow down our bodies’ physical aging process, so our life expectancy would increase. Now it takes most of us at least three additional years before we reach physical maturity, and the tradeoff is that our generation is expected to live for more than a hundred and fifty years.”

Marcie said, “That’s right, Mister Reppa. The Age of Majority law says we have to be mentally, emotionally, and physically mature before we can be considered adults. We can accept physical development being a requirement for us to reach our Age of Majority, which would allow us to do everything that an adult can do.

“But ... is physical maturity really necessary for voting and citizenship? You also need to take into account that our laws also say fifteen year olds are responsible for their actions, even if they haven’t met the requirements for being an adult. That law says that young people like us are expected to be responsible for our behavior, like an adult, before we become adults. If that is true then we should also be considered old enough and responsible enough to vote and to become citizens.”

Before I could respond, Eric said, “Marcie and Sylvia are right, Dad. Physical maturity and age should have absolutely nothing to do with voting and being a responsible citizen. Mental and emotional maturity are what should be considered. Our current laws make voting and citizenship two of the privileges of being an adult. We feel that those laws should be changed.”

I raised my hand to stop them from jumping in with more arguments. I should have realized by this point that the three of them had set us up, but their teamwork and delivery had been so smooth that it didn’t occur to me. I say, “I admit you have valid points. What do you want me to do about it?”

Marcie said, “We want you to discuss it in the Advisory Council meeting and make them change the law.”

“Marcie, the Advisory Council is not in charge of the Ark. Clara and I are. That is exactly what we are trying to change by creating a new government. We do not want to be despots, so we submit important things to our Advisory Council for discussion. We normally put these things to a vote and we abide by what the majority believes is appropriate. Up to now, we and the Advisory Council have basically told people what to do and they’ve done it. Granted we do get a few suggestions on how to do many things differently, but Arkians basically do what we tell them to do. The three of you have sat through enough Advisory Council meetings to know most of this.

“What Clara and I will do for the three of you is add the topic to the Council’s agenda, but the three of you have to make the presentation, and get our Advisors to agree with you. Okay?”

Glancing at Eric and Sylvia to gauge their reaction before returning her attention to me, Marcie said, “Yes, sir. We can do that.”

“Just to be sure the three of you are prepared. Tell me what you know about our Voter Qualification, Citizenship, and Age of Majority laws.”

Sylvia said, “According to what Mistress Hyatt taught us in our Social Leadership Program, the people who created our new laws decided that only those people who are qualified to be adults should be allowed to become Arkian Citizens and to vote.”

“Hold on a moment. I can see how someone might have gotten that idea from the laws and what has been said, but that isn’t exactly true. But let’s let that go for the moment.”

Marcie said, “Well regardless of what people think, Mister Miller and his people created the Age of Majority law that established the requirement for passing three Adult Proficiency Tests. The three tests measure a person’s maturity in terms of their Intellectual, Emotional, and Physical development. The law says for each of the tests we have to attain at least the test’s minimum score to be recognized as an adult. The Citizenship law defines the requirements for becoming an Ark Citizen. One of the requirements is that you must be an adult to become a Citizen. The Voting law states you have to be an Ark Citizen to vote, and the proposed plan for creating the new government only allows Ark Citizens to vote.”

“Yes, that’s all true. Do you understand why not allowing children to vote was a good idea?”

Eric intervened by saying, “Of course, Dad. Children don’t have the necessary level of maturity to differentiate between and understand the factors relating to an adult issue.

“It’s similar to what you told me about the past, Dad. Back when you were a teenager, they needed to differentiate between a child and an adult and they used age as the determinant. So age was the only requirement for adulthood. Eighteen years after you were born, you automatically became an adult. It didn’t matter if you were ignorant, stupid, immature, emotionally unstable, and a physical wreck; you became an adult at the age of eighteen. I agreed with you when you first discussed this with me. There is far more to being an adult than age, and age really has very little to do with being an adult or with being a responsible citizen; although as you said, knowledge and maturity are based on your life experiences, which are related to age.”

Sylvia said, “I think age was used because most people had gained sufficient knowledge and experience to be considered a mature adult by the age of eighteen. From the things I’ve been told, back then many adults didn’t relate to each other in what we would consider an adult manner. Two groups of so-called adults pointing their fingers at each other and shouting “I’m right, you’re wrong,” doesn’t seem to me to be an adult way to resolve a difference of opinion.”

Clara said, “You’re right about that, Sylvia. Jon and I believe there are better ways to resolve a problem than shouting at and physically attacking each other. Did Mistress Hyatt tell you about people killing each other because they held different points of view on some of the highly emotional issues?”

“Yes. She said it was stupid and criminal. She said the people involved demonstrated childish behavior and a tendency toward childish behavior is one of the things the Emotional Proficiency Test tries to identify. Adults should handle issues like disagreements in a different way and that requires the people to listen to each other. You can’t come to a negotiated solution if the two groups won’t talk with each other and at least try to understand the other group’s beliefs.”

I interrupted with, “I agree whole heartedly, Sylvia. Even today, the only reason many people listen is to learn enough to dispute the other person’s beliefs. You have to understand that there is a lot of that attitude still in existence. We adults aren’t perfect in how we handle emotionally charged situations. However, I have noticed our responses to those issues are not as prone to violence as they used to be.

“While I’m thinking of it, Sylvia, you may find it useful to research the factors influencing adulthood starting back in the 1400’s. Age was not the only factor for adulthood back then.”

Eric started laughing as I was speaking, so I ask, “What’s so humorous about that, Eric?”

“Dad! It was what you said before about adults not being as prone to the use of force coming from the man who is going to use the Ark Army to force his new society on the rest of the world. That just struck me as funny.”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, there does seem to be a conflict in my beliefs. Do you have a better way to handle the situation?”

“Not really, Dad. I believe most things can be resolved by reason. The problem with using reason in our situation is many of the survivors’ views won’t be rational and they won’t want to listen to reason. Some of the people we encounter are likely to meet us with violence and we will probably need to respond with violence. The only alternative would be to just settle our people in Auburn, and ignore the rest of the world. Unfortunately, if we tried that approach, I think our neighbors would grow strong enough to use force against us. We would be right back to the might-makes-right approach of resolving disputes. At least the Ark’s current approach takes into account that not all people will agree with us, and we will try to accommodate their beliefs.”

Marcie said, “Getting back to the original topic, we can’t see how physical ability affects our ability to vote or to be a citizen. Why did Mister Miller’s group make physical ability a requirement for voting and citizenship?”

“That is a good question, Marcie. Based on what the three of you said, I don’t think it was intentional. I suspect Larry and his group were so involved in all the laws they were writing that they overlooked the fact they linked citizenship and the right to vote to physical development. Intellectual ability and emotional stability are important to the right to vote, but not physical abilities.

“Now that you have brought this oversight to my attention, there are adults in the Ark who have reached physical maturity, but they have physical disabilities that would prevent them from passing the current Physical Maturity Test. We should probably modify that test also.”

“Dad, I understand the stated reasons given to me for why physical maturity is necessary for being an adult. However, I’m not certain I agree with those reasons. You may want to ask Mister Miller why he and his people decided to include physical maturity as a criterion for being an adult, for citizenship, and for the right to vote.

“That sounds like a good idea, Eric. It sounds to me that the three of you have the background down fairly well, so you should be able to handle that aspect of preparing for and making a presentation. What about the Suggested Change portion of your presentation? Have you prepared the text of the changes you think should be made to our laws?”

Sylvia said, “No, Sir, but we are working on it. Mistress Hyatt told us complaining about a problem wasn’t enough. She said, if we wanted a specific change, we had to propose that change. So we are working on deciding what changes we feel need to be made to the laws, and we have an initial draft specifying most of the necessary changes. We are still in the research phase in certain areas. We are trying to decide what is wrong with the laws, and what changes are needed to fix the problem.”

Marcie adds, “We didn’t think the Age of Majority law required change, but as you just said, there are factors that would prevent a physically mature person from passing the test.

“We originally viewed the problem as three related laws that all have an adult requirement, even though the term ‘adult’ may not be used in the laws. Our initial thought was to change what it meant to be an adult, but that would affect other laws, such as those governing child labor. We have what we think should be the requirements for citizenship and voting identified. We know we need to be careful and ensure any change we make to the Citizenship and Voting laws will not have an adverse effect on other laws. Our not understanding the ramifications our proposed changes will have on all of our laws is causing us trouble.”

Clara asks, “How many of the changes do you think you’ve identified and completed, Marcie?”

Eric responded with, “That’s hard to judge, Mom. As Marcie said, we aren’t certain of everything that needs to be changed. We did a search on our laws to see if the requirements for voting and citizenship affect any other laws. We found over a hundred laws that might be affected.

“Right now, we are going through the laws that might be affected to see if the proposed changes to the voting and citizenship laws will adversely affect other laws. Mistress Xena calls it the snowball effect.

“Mistress Hyatt said that understanding the text of the law was not enough. We need to understand the reasons why the law was created. In assessing our laws, we are working to understand the content of the laws and the reason why those laws were created. Based on the number of laws we identified as possibly being affected, we think we have completed the review of about a quarter of the laws that might be affected. When we find a law that we believe would be affected, we have to create a change to that law. Then we have to check to ensure that change doesn’t affect other laws.

“Sylvia said, “We decided the Age of Majority law is not an appropriate criterion for voting or for citizenship, but it is good for determining if a young person should be considered an adult for other things. We’ve learned that changing one law affects other laws, and unfortunately, it seems a change to one law has a ripple effect requiring changes to many laws.

Marcie added, “When we first started to work on this issue we decided passing the Intellectual and Emotional Proficiency Tests is a good indication that a person is qualified to vote and to be a citizen. However, part of what we are doing is defining the minimum qualifications necessary for voting and citizenship. It seems like many of our generation are capable of being good voters and citizens, before they can pass the Intellectual and Emotional Proficiency Tests. But we are having problems determining the minimum level of knowledge and emotional maturity necessary to vote and be a good citizen.

“Eric and Sylvia haven’t mentioned it but we had an alternative solution to resolve the issue. We considered creating a Responsible Young Person law to define the intellectual and emotional maturity necessary to be a good voter and a good citizen. Mistress Hyatt made our effort part of our classwork, and she has been advising us. She told us that creating and passing a new law was historically more difficult than modifying an existing law. We decided to modify the two laws that we saw as our problem, and we prepared changes for those laws.

“Then Mistress Hyatt asked us about whether our changes would affect the rest of our laws. That was how we learned about the interrelationship between multiple laws. This project has been a real eye opener to us. We had no idea that a small change to the voting and citizenship laws could affect so many laws. So, we are gradually reading those laws and assessing them to see if our proposed changes will affect the laws. Generally there is no effect, but we have found a few instances where we had to prepare a change to another law, which meant we had to determine if that change affects other laws.”

My Bond Mate Mary was a natural submissive who has developed a more aggressive personality since we first met. She usually refrained from joining conversations like this one unless she had something beneficial to add. She asked, “Marcie, have you considered that the two tests may be the minimum necessary for citizenship and for being given the right to vote?”