Chapter 31

For better or worse, we have a Constitution. Most of the provisions I thought important have been included, and I believe we can live with the rest. Only time will tell for sure. Some of the important provisions that I and others fought for are:

• Rather than political parties, we have four sociopolitical interest groups, which elect their own representatives to the House of Representatives. These groups are: Social Dependents, Wage Earners, Corporate Executives grouped with Individually Wealthy, and one that I didn't think of: Small Business Owners. An individual's membership in one of these groups is determined by his or her wealth and employment status. Government employees that are not elected are Wage Earners, while elected office holders retain membership in the group that elected them. Unlike the US House of Representatives a district doesn't elect just one representative. Each group within a district elects its own representatives which vary in number depending on relative populations.

• Our Congress is bi-cameral (two houses), but in the Senate, each district elects one representative from each of the four Sociopolitical groups. This should help to balance any inequities introduced in the House by the population based representation.

• Our President and Vice President can, in theory, be elected from any of the groups. In practice, I expect that most often they will be Wage Earners, simply because the vast majority of voters should fall in this group, and we have no electoral college. The popular vote elects the President. The runner-up from the same group is Vice President. Members of each group vote for the candidates from within that group during the primary elections to select their group's candidates for the final election. During the final election, however, they are free to vote for whomever they please

• Justices on our Supreme Court are appointed by the House, with ten year terms, but must be approved by both the senate and the President. Instead of making Law Enforcement a department of the Executive Branch, we have placed it under the Judicial Branch.

• The Constitution explicitly prohibits any branch of Government from having 'privileged' information that is not available to other branches. The structuring of this provision to ensure our national security is still being worked out, even as we head into our first elections.

• A bill of rights, similar to those added as amendments to the US Constitution, is an integral part of ours, and has been updated to allow for technologies about which our ancestors could not even dream, such as electronics and the Internet, which is well on its way to being resurrected.

• There is no such thing as a Stock Market. Corporations are allowed, but under much different rules than before the Sickness. Individuals may invest in corporations if they so choose, but those transactions may be made only between the corporations and the individual or another corporation. The insanity of an open stock market wherein hordes of people gamble enormous sums on companies about which they know little or nothing, overvaluing some and undervaluing others, while brokers get rich off their ignorance should never occur again.

• The Central Bank is a government entity and cannot be privatized.

Thanks to the input of The People, and lessons learned from our own past, conservation and the health of our planetary ecology are also built into our constitution and legal systems in numerous places, and there are automatic provisions for changing the incentives for having children as the population increases. Education and its funding are also built into this constitution. In addition, campaigns are financed by the government and the Department of Elections is the only entity allowed to publish information about candidates. That information is limited to: Stated positions of the candidate, records of public actions while in office, and the candidate's sociopolitical group membership. These two provisions alone should go a long way toward seeing that qualified candidates have a fair chance being elected without the waters being muddied by personal attacks.

There are still legal issues to be finalized surrounding the constitution. For example: How does marriage across sociopolitical boundaries affect the group membership of the parties involved?

When it came time to select candidates for President, there was a great deal of pressure from the people for me to run, but I am too old for such a young nation, and I declined, so they drafted Gav, instead. When I left, it looked as though he would win the election handily. He will make a good President.

Perhaps it is better that things have worked out the way they have. If I were there, I would be tempted to look over my son's shoulder and try to tell him how things should be done. This way, he will make his own mark without my interference.

Yes, after the Constitution was ratified, I decided, or rather Sophie insisted, that I needed a vacation. After twenty-three years of making decisions for what amounts to the entire human race, I suppose it was due. Ruth and Sophie conspired to have Ruth look after my daughter and send me off on my little walkabout - or perhaps I should say 'rideabout.'

Sophie, at twelve, is far more mature than twelve-year-olds from the world in which I grew up, but then, so was Gav at that age. Amanda would be proud of them both.

Anyway, I suppose Sophie noticed how tired I was looking in the latter days of the rush to get the Constitution in place, and insisted I take some time off.

"Go hunting, Dad," she told me. "Go find a mountain lake and fish, or just sit and enjoy the scenery. For once in your life, take a little time for you. You have done all you can for Phoenicia. Now it's up to us."

"She's right, Dad," Gav agreed. "General Lee can hold the fort until the elections are over. You have done more than could be expected of one man. Now you deserve some time to rest, but if you stay here, you won't get it. You're too well known in Phoenix. Why don't you take that Appaloosa you're so fond of, and go for a ride? Take a pack horse, or, if that's too much trouble, just take one of the Hummers."

Actually, I had a couple of vehicles to choose from, and a number of horses. One of the first things that was done after the constitution was ratified and they began setting up the new government, was to allocate the stuff that had been owned by my government to the citizenry. In practice, there was not that much to distribute. The Central Bank remained a government entity, but central stores was privatized. Anything that people already had in their possession became their property. The government retained the military vehicles and weapons that were too large or destructive for personal use. Livestock was allocated to those who had been caring for it on behalf of the Government, so Matt and Heather became the proud owners of a large herd of horses.

I stayed out of the allocation of goods discussion, so it came as a little bit of a surprise for me to discover that I was, by Phoenician standards, quite wealthy. Besides a small herd of horses, I was given a Hummvee and one of the new Solar hybrids, as well as the house and land that had been allocated for our use when we first came to Phoenix. In addition, the Allocation Committee awarded me a fairly large sum of money, that included what they thought was owed to Amanda, as well.

Thinking of these things, of course, reminded me that some parts of our world were still dangerous, so before taking my vacation, I went down to the bank and made out a will. I left the house and land to Gav and his lovely wife, because they would need it for the twins, and Susan was again pregnant.

To Sophie, I left most of the rest. Between Gav and Susan, there was more than enough money to support them and their kids, but if anything happened to me, I didn't want Sophie lacking for anything. I had General Lee and Ruth witness the document, then left it in my safety deposit box.

The appaloosa was young and strong, but had been raised as a pet and was eager to please, so unlike Humphrey, who had felt it his duty to make sure his rider was qualified to ride him, Spot, as Sophie had named him, was impatient to get me in the saddle. The presence of the pack horse meant only one thing to him - road trip! And he was ready to start.