Chapter 184

“Numquam praestantibus in re publica gubernanda viris laudata est in un sententia perpetua permansio.”
(Sticking with what they think has never helped political leaders.)
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, I, 9, 21

I DIDN’T HAVE TIME to mope about when Desi and her parents pulled out Thursday for Washington, DC. It was the first day of second semester and I had a mandolin lesson at seven-thirty. Sarah complimented our broadcast on New Year’s Eve and said it must have been a great honor to work so closely with the president. I just thanked her. That set the tone for my day.

Physics was its usual boring class. My teacher was so dull I couldn’t even remember his name most of the time. On the other hand, Ms. Pixler was in top form, giving her introduction to Hamlet as a forum for discussing how we deal with the pressures in life. Near the end of the period, she handed back our term papers from last semester. I’d been worried about this one. I compared the National Service to Frankenstein’s Monster. A red ‘A’ was written at the top of the paper. I looked through it and she hadn’t written a single comment. I sighed. Another sign of presidential influence.

Miss Lustig had us start right in reading Cicero and translating aloud. She corrected pronunciation and challenged the meaning of words we mistranslated. There were only twelve of us left in the class. Next year, I guessed there would be eight who hadn’t graduated and wondered if she would stick around to finish year four of Latin or just take her long-delayed retirement.

LeBlanc asked Cindy and me to meet him during our lunchtime on Friday. I was surprised he didn’t just hold us in class to talk about whatever was on his mind.

Business math was just a review of where we left off first semester and an introduction to trends and projections. That could be interesting. I’d completely lost track of where we were professionally and was thinking I needed to look at our books, our market share, and projections for the next six months.

Then there was Mr. Richards and constitutional government.

“I scarcely know where to begin,” he said. “We did a lot of discussion about National Service and how government functions last semester. We had a unique opportunity and I juggled some of our topics that would normally be covered first semester so we could make use of resources. Now, I want to delve back into the constitution, specifically Articles one to three that describe the function of the branches of government. During the course of this first term, I want to focus on whether we continue to have an effective system of checks and balances, or if we are moving toward a more executive-centric government with supporting branches. Who is, and who is not, functioning within the purview of their constitutional authority?”

It should be an interesting year.

After school, Cindy and I practiced for the first time this week. We were still working to finalize the program for our spring break concert and had not yet figured out if we needed more arrangements from Remas. I wanted to talk to each of our east coast girlfriends and begin to get a feel for what we were getting into.

I got home to find Sophie was with us for dinner. During the week—except Wednesdays—it was usually, just Donna, Em, Nanette, and me.

“I was just holding these when they started coming in, but as of today we have a dozen requests for endorsements and public appearances in support of legislative candidates around the country,” Sophie said. “I really didn’t expect anything like this until late spring, if at all. Do we have a list of candidates we are supporting for the fall elections?”

“No!” I realized I’d spoken louder than normal and my girlfriends all stared at me. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to shout.”

“Nonetheless, you were quite definite about it,” Donna said. “You’ve become highly recognized. Are you sure you don’t want to throw your support behind some select candidates?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.” I took a deep breath. Of all my girlfriends, Nanette probably knew better than anyone that something was bothering me. She ran with me in the mornings and I hadn’t been going easy, even though I’d never run another high school footrace again. “Um ... It seems it isn’t as obvious to anyone else as it is to me, but the president fucked us up.”

“Jacob?” Em said. “We got exactly what we wanted, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. The problem is that having quoted our memes and then making her announcement the day after our broadcast—and quoting me again—she made it appear that we are an extension of her plans, not that we influenced her. If we’d been contacted and asked by her to provide propaganda to reinforce her position, I’d have considered it. We seem to be well aligned. At least on the National Service. But by doing it the way she did, she made it sound like we’d been preparing people for her announcement all along. We’re accessories before the fact, as Mr. Richards pointed out to me after class today.”

“What does that have to do with endorsing a candidate?” Sophie asked.

“As tightly as we’re now identified with the president, endorsing a candidate would appear to be the president endorsing him or her. I don’t think we should play that game. If we have an election purpose, I’d like it to stay ‘Vote anyone out of office who doesn’t support reform.’ That keeps our target specific and we don’t have to deal with vetting candidates.”

“I see,” Donna said. Nan and Em were nodding their heads as well. It seemed this was a night for me to sit with the elders of our pod. I loved each of them to the ends of the earth. But Donna wasn’t finished. “This being co-opted by the president has been bothering you ever since the announcement, hasn’t it?” I could only sigh and nod my head. “First, you need to let everyone in on your thinking. We should try to have a Skype call Saturday so Joan, Rachel, Remas, Livy, and Desi can participate and understand what’s bothering you.” I nodded again. “Second, there’s another aspect to what you are saying—and I’m not disagreeing with you at all. That other aspect is that the president has taken a huge risk. We still have no indication that she is or will pressure you in one way or another. I don’t think we can track down any influence or pressure on our pod in preparing the concert tour. Not regarding content. Dr. D even excused herself from reviewing the content so she wouldn’t influence us. If that continues, the president is vulnerable to anything you happen to say. Certainly, that will be important in your concerts and chats with patrons. But I dare say, any one of your classmates could be recording you in class discussions. If you happened to make a disparaging remark about a teacher—not that you ever would—it could go viral in a day. Comments about candidates or political figures are likely to become hashtags at least and possibly memes with your picture attached. They would immediately be associated with the president.”

“Oh, crap!” I said. “I was so wrapped up thinking about how she destroyed our credibility that I didn’t think of the risk she was taking.”

“I think I’d zip my lip and never say anything,” Nanette said. “That puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.”

“I’m going to have to start thinking before I spout off. Nobody thinks of me as just a smartass kid now. Now I’m an administration spokesperson. Fuck! I mean, excuse me. Doggone it.”

“This is really critical for the whole pod to be in on,” Em said. “Believe me, we are all still solidly behind our message and the way you expressed it. If anything, having Celia and Leslie stay with us for a night cemented that. But we all need to understand what’s at risk when we open our mouths.”

We managed to get the whole pod together and Skype Joan, Rachel, Livy, Remas, and Desi Saturday morning. The three DC girls and Livy were easy as they were all together for the weekend to get Desi settled in. Joan joined us with a yawn, claiming she’d been up late. It looked like Beca had been up late, too.

“It sounds scary,” Rachel said, “but I’m not worried about it.”

“Why not, sweetheart?”

“The transition from a review commission to the Office of Civilian Service has been smooth, even though it was rushed. I’ve never heard of politicians keeping something so secret without a national security order. The orders for new housing went through a month ago and no one knew. The OCS is going to do exactly what we wanted and they aren’t suddenly going to try to control you or your message.”

“Congress, on the other hand, might try to influence you,” Remas said. “I agree with not backing any specific candidate. There is a long history of campaigning for an issue instead of a person. We should stick to it.”

“We’ve always tried to be polite and not talk smack to our elders,” Beca said. “Granted, you got carried away once or twice, but I think it is like the test instructions Ray gave us. Go into every situation with the right attitude and let aptitude take care of itself. In this case, let’s keep to established and well-known positions and then not worry about how we defend them.”

“I think you are right, Rebeca,” Donna said. “And Jacob, I fully agree with your stance on not backing specific candidates but making sure the message is loud and clear regarding voting out those opposed to reform. Honey, I know this is really a tough time for you and you are feeling a little betrayed. No matter that we had twenty million viewers Friday night, the president had eighty million on Saturday. That’s a lot more than normally watch the president’s State of the Union address to congress. That means that most people don’t know or recognize that you put the words in the president’s mouth. We should follow our normal conversation until and unless someone in authority tells you to shut up.”

“And don’t contradict anyone who believes you represent the president. Ignore them,” Remas said. “The burden is on her, not you.”

“Well, I’m just glad our next live stream concert is small and intimate,” I said. “I’m guessing we’ll be performing for the commission—or the OCS now, I guess. They couldn’t tell us that before now. If you are all in agreement, we’ll just pretend a link to the president never occurred. Okay?”