Chapter 12

While the clerk put the bottle of face cream in the plastic bag, Barbara glared at him. Chuckling to himself, the guy said, "Two cannibals are eating a clown. One cannibal turns to the other and asks, 'Does this taste funny to you?'"

"Very funny," Barbara said in a low growl. If she heard one more clown joke, someone was going pay for it.

The guy smiled and said, "I thought clowns were supposed to have a sense of humor."

"I'm not a clown," Barbara said still holding out the money to pay for her purchase.

"You sure look like one to me," the guy said.

"Just let me pay for my purchase so I can get out of here," Barbara said. She had never considered how other people were treated as a result of their appearance.

Sandra came into the store and asked, "What's the problem?"

"This guy is too busy making jokes to take my money," Barbara said.

The guy took the money from her and made the change. Handing it over to her, he said, "I like your purse."

Barbara looked down at the obscenely large clown purse in disgust. She said, "Right."

After Barbara picked up her purchase, the clerk smiled at her and said, "Don't hit your funny bone on the way out."

Barbara glared at the clerk and walked off growling. Trying to maneuver the clown shoes through the door, she hit her funny bone on the door frame. Angry, she stomped over to the car with Sandra. Barbara slammed the door shut getting part of her costume caught in the door. She growled and said, "I'm going to kill Cole."

Sandra got in the car and started removing her shoes since there was no way to drive while wearing the shoes. She threw her shoes on the back seat. Sandra said, "Get in line."

"He must have mailed out clown jokes to everyone in the area," Barbara said.

"Let me guess. You got the one with the cannibals," Sandra said.

"Of course," Barbara said.

Sandra said, "I don't know which is worse - having a guy drool while talking with you or having them laugh at you."

Tired, William rubbed his eyes and said, "Well, that's another candidate I've convinced to run for office."

"What was the problem?" Ed asked.

"Convincing Dan Corbet that he could actually win," William said.

Lucy asked, "Why would that be a problem?"

"He was concerned that it was too early in his career. The man felt that he had to have a better known reputation locally before he'd be accepted on a national level. I managed to convince him that with the backing of Mark Howell that he'd be taken very seriously," William answered. It had taken a telephone call to Mark Howell to convince Dan Corbet that he'd get the backing William was promising. Dan and Mark had crossed paths in the past and Dan knew that he hadn't impressed Mark.

Ed asked, "So what does that mean in terms of your plans?"

"We still have to convince two other people to run for office," William said.

"I feel like I've been on the road for months. How much longer are we going to be doing this?" Ed asked.

"Only another ten days," William answered.

"I bet you'll be glad that your job is done," Ed said.

"It is just starting. I still have to get them elected," William replied.

"Then you'll be done," Ed said.

"Not even close to done," William replied with a weary shake of his head.

"What do you mean?"

"The balance of power will change significantly to a more moderate tone. The volume of arguments in Washington will diminish. The arguments will still exist, but they'll be closer to the real issues. Real solutions to the nation's problems will be addressed without political rhetoric getting in the way. I'll have to guide people to the real problems," William answered.

"You keep talking about the real problems. What are they?"

Rubbing his forehead, William answered, "Where should I even begin? Every aspect of our society is on the verge of collapse. The infrastructure of this country is on the verge of collapse. Bridges, dams, roads, and water and sewage treatment plants are all being used twenty years after the end of their expected lifetime. When they start to go, the whole country is going to be in trouble.

"Economically, the average household is living beyond its means. A huge number of families live with a net worth that is negative rather than positive because of debt. Local property taxes are killing home owners. Inflating mortgage payments are sucking up any increased wages.

"The average family is living on borrowed time. There are two income families that are living paycheck to paycheck without any savings. They are at risk of losing everything with even a minor setback. Some families are even using the wages of their children to make ends meet.

"The major corporations are in serious trouble. We have to get a handle on corporate criminal behavior. Executives have to be held accountable for their negligence and incompetence. People who basically steal the retirement nest eggs from thousands of people should be treated very harshly. Somehow, corporations have to be held to standards of due diligence commensurate with the damage that they can cause.

"The legal system needs revamping so that equivalent crimes get equivalent sentences. The entire criminal code needs to be reexamined. What once constituted an unimaginable amount of money is nearly nothing today. We punish petty criminals as if they were major crime lords. Major crime lords get sentences that are laughable. Drug laws need to be revisited and solutions put into place that addresses the problem rather than punishing the victims.

"The huge number of trivial lawsuits has to be reduced. Lawyers have to take responsibility for bringing cases to court that are groundless. Hurt feelings are not a reason to sue. People need to take responsibility for their own actions; not try to blame others through lawsuits.

"We are living in times where crimes unimaginable in the past are occurring on a daily basis. Our legal system has archaic laws in place that don't even pretend to punish the newest forms of criminal behavior. It is possible to steal the identities of thousands of people in one afternoon and destroy their savings, credit, and lives by nightfall. We punish it as though it was a simple white collar crime. It isn't; it is murder. Some people commit suicide when they lose everything they have.

"People can write programs that destroy lives and companies, but it barely registers as a crime. Trillions of dollars are spent worldwide as a result of these destructive programs. That money doesn't improve the quality of life or improve productivity. It is a drain on the economic health of every person, business, and government.

"This is a nation that believes in entitlements and there just isn't the money to pay for them. It isn't that we have to balance the budget; we have to eliminate the debt. The national debt is killing our future. We are indebted to countries that are hostile towards us. You can't have a sane foreign policy when your enemies hold an economic sledge hammer over your head.

"Individuals need to take responsibility for their own actions. We can't solve the nation's problems by throwing money at people when they don't know how to use that money to their best advantage. It is even worse when they misuse that money to support their negligent behavior.

"This is the least healthy generation in almost two centuries. Nutrition is an individual problem, but the number of people who ignore it is overwhelming. I recognize it is impossible to control the eating habits of a population through laws, but changes have to be introduced. Obesity has led to a dramatic increase in the rate of diabetes. Healthcare costs are obscene once you factor out the moderating effects of the Fusion Foundation.

"The quality of education has to be addressed. The previous generation was better educated than this one. There's something wrong when the intellectual worth of a society regresses. Engineering and science education programs need to expand. There will be no future growth without engineers and scientists. The only reason the environment isn't a problem today is because of the invention of the Fusion Cell by my father. If we were still a petroleum based economy, we'd really be in trouble.

"Almost five percent of the people in this country are undocumented. With a population of three hundred million, to have fifteen million people running around who are outside of the system is a huge problem. We need to get control over who is in this country."

Ed raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is that all?"

"No. It is even worse than that. I haven't even dealt with our international policies," William answered.

"So do you have solutions to all of those problems?" Lucy asked. She had been playing with the economic models and knew just how complex the problems were.

"No," William answered shaking his head. He added, "I see the general trends, not the specific solutions. I have to nudge this society along pathways that lead to a better tomorrow rather than allow it to wallow in the mud.

"The first step was to get rid of the polarizing factions of the political landscape so that real solutions could be sought. The days of dogmatic pursuit of extremist agendas have to come to an end. That will help solve the crisis of followership."

Ed nodded his head in agreement. He asked, "What's the next step?"

"The Bards need to work to change things at a personal level. We need to educate people outside of a formal education environment. Only a small fraction of our population is in school where education programs are effective. We need some mechanism to educate the masses. That is the work of the Bards," William answered.

"What about Druids?" Ed asked.

"Oh, the Druids are going to be very busy helping the elected leaders find good solutions to all of our problems," William answered.

Ed frowned and asked, "How long is all of this going to take?"

"Oh, I'd say eighty to a hundred years," William answered knowing that he'd be dead and buried by the time the world was firmly established on a good path again.

Stunned by the kind of timeline that William was discussing, Lucy said, "I can't believe it will take that long."

"Why? It took us a hundred years to get in this mess," William replied. It would require at least three election cycles to get rid of the more extreme elements in government. The problem existed at the local, state, and national level. So far, his efforts were just a drop in the bucket.

"You can't speed it up a little?" Ed asked rather surprised by William's answer.

"I could do it in half of the time. It would require me to kill a couple thousand people. I don't think that you or any of the other Druids would approve," William replied with a negligent shrug of his shoulders.

"You can say that again," Ed said. He was pleased to learn that William wasn't even considering that solution. Curious, he asked, "How would killing that many people speed up the process?"