Chapter 44

Throughout the United States, the most spirited, intense and issues oriented political campaign in years was developing. The voters insisted that the candidates address the issues that were important to them, and on the whole, those who ran smear campaigns lost support among the public. The campaign what it should be - a debate about the issues of the day. People throughout the nation felt that they had a once in a lifetime opportunity to clean up the mess in Washington and they were going to take advantage of it. They were tired of the same old bullshit as usual and they let the candidates know that. Those who had ideas for resolving our problems tended to attract the most support, whether or not they had the support of the local parties. This resulted in many first time candidates leading going into the primaries.

Candidates throughout the country were astounded that when they attacked President Lehrer's policies on drugs or the economy, their own standing with the electorate fell. Polls showed that the American people had an overwhelmingly favorable opinion of their new President, and that they admired her courage and her willingness to experiment to try to address problems that had been ignored for far too long. The polling data also made clear that the American people would not tolerate politicians who would try to block action designed to begin addressing these problems.

Primaries throughout the country were scheduled for the following week, and many, many races were too close to call. Party endorsements were not necessarily an advantage in many areas, even where there was a strong party organization. Many Americans felt that part of the blame for the lack of political courage to do something in the past was linked to the political parties' leaders being more interested in protecting their own power than taking the political risks needed to solve the serious problems plaguing the country. It would be a very interesting election.

President Lehrer did not take an active role in the campaign beyond urging people to be informed about the candidates and to support those who would help her turn the country around and getting it moving in the right direction again. Between her injuries and the numerous crises she was trying to juggle, Kathleen Lehrer did not have the time to go around the country campaigning, although she did tell some people that after the primaries, she would make radio and television ads for them as long as they pledged to support her positions.

The President's daughter Sara came home from the hospital on Tuesday, February 17th, and the President tried to spend as much time with her recovering daughter as she could. Sara was still very sore from her wounds, and she tired easily. A physical therapist saw her every day at the White House, and each day Sara showed a little improvement. It would still be months however, before Sara Johnston would be completely recovered from the injuries she had suffered during the assassination attempt on her Mother.

The doctors treating Marty Johnston had been hoping that he would be able to come home from the hospital by the following week, but his wounds developed an infection which pushed back his release. The doctors felt now that if they could control the infections, Marty should be able to go home by the end of the first week of March.

Either Kathy, Steve or Sara tried to visit Marty every day, and the three of them made sure that at least one of them stopped in to see him each day. Marty's and Sara's Father, Ray Johnston, had taken a leave of absence from his job to be near his children while they were in the hospital, and visited them every day. Ray and Kathy had agreed long before to be civil toward each other for the sake of their children, but neither could bring themselves to be cordial toward the other. Steve also tried to be civil to his fiancee's ex-husband, but he found that he became tense whenever he was around Ray, and as a result, Steve put up a barrier between himself and the older man.

Sheila King also visited Marty everyday, often staying for hours to talk to him and hold his hand. The more Sheila and Marty got to know each other, the stronger their affectionate feelings toward each other grew. In the beginning, Sheila would give Marty a quick peck on the forehead or on the cheek. Eventually, she began giving him a quick kiss on the lips, which then grew longer and more intense.

When Marty was first allowed to sit in bed, Sheila would sit next to him and put her arm around him and hold him. When Marty was allowed out of bed to begin walking around, Sheila was the person he leaned on for support. As he got stronger, Marty would still walk with his arm around Sheila, and she still had her arm around him, but it was not for support, but for affection.

Ray Johnston liked Sheila from the start, but was a bit nervous about his son becoming romantically involved with an African-American woman. Ray saw a number of interracial couples in the school where he taught, and knew the problems they often had with people of both races who frowned on the practice. He had personally intervened to stop a gang from assaulting one interracial couple and had seen some of the vandalism done to the lockers of another and the car of another White man who was dating a Black woman.

During one of his visits, Ray saw Marty and Sheila hugging each other and decided that it was time he had a serious discussion with them. The evening before, he had watched the old movie, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" Ray felt almost like Spencer Tracy as he closed the door to Marty's room.

"I think the three of us need to talk," Ray said after he had greeted the young couple. "I hope you two don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way, but I feel I need to say something."

"About what, Dad?" asked Marty.

"About you two."

"What about us?" asked Marty, defensively.

"Marty, I'm not blind. I've been around a bit and I can tell when two people are really attracted toward each other."

"Are you opposed to Sheila and me as a couple just because we are different races? Because if you are, you can leave right now and go back to Philadelphia! I thought you were more open minded than that!"

"Marty, will you calm down for a moment and let me talk? You are not supposed to be getting excited and I don't want to upset you."

"Well, you are!"

Sheila was very quiet, glaring at Ray Johnston during this exchange. "Maybe I should leave, Marty."

"Sheila, you won't be the one leaving," answered Marty.

"Marty, Sheila. Will you both calm down for a moment and let me explain?"

The two young people continued to glare at him.

"First, I want to tell you that I am not opposed to you two as a couple. I like Sheila a lot, and I think she is a fantastic woman. I just want to let you know that a lot of people are going to be violently opposed to the two of you together as a couple just because you are from different racial backgrounds."

"We know that, Mr. Johnston," replied Sheila. "Marty and I have already talked about that. I told him that what those closed minded bigots feel is not important to me and Marty feels the same way."

"I wanted to warn you about some of the things that could happen just because the two of you are from different backgrounds. I know. I have seen some of these things happen to interracial couples myself. Once in school, I stopped a gang from beating an interracial couple. The only reason they were attacked was because she was White and he was Black. I have seen other couples whose lockers and cars have been vandalized with words such as "nigger lover" and "honky lover" spray painted where it couldn't be missed."

"Dad, we know there are closed minded bigoted assholes out there."

"Yes, Marty, but you are in the public eye now because of who your Mother is."

"That shouldn't have anything to do with whether Sheila and I go out or not!" exclaimed Marty.

"I agree that it shouldn't, but I also live in the real world where things like that do matter to some people. I just want the two of you to be careful and to think about what you are getting into. For your relationship to survive and grow, it's going to take a lot of commitment and effort from both of you, more than it would if the two of you were the same race. You two will face some pressures most other couples don't have to worry about, and that could strain your relationship. There will be Whites who will oppose you just as strongly as Blacks. Your relationship will have to be twice as strong as others if it is to survive. That is what I wanted to be sure you were aware of."

"I've already talked about all of this with my parents," said Sheila. "They weren't so much opposed to us because Marty is White as much as my Father was upset because Marty's Mother is his boss. He was afraid of how that might look."

"I didn't even think of that," replied Ray. "I forgot that your Father is Secretary of H.H.S. I can see why he might think that."

Ray looked at his watch.

"Well, visiting hours will be over soon and I've got to get going. I want the two of you know that if you two do get serious, and you both feel that the other person is the right one for you, and you feel that you have the strength and commitment you will need for your relationship to thrive, then you have my blessing, and my wishes for the best of luck."

"Thank you, Dad," answered Marty, standing up and embracing his Father.

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Johnston," said Sheila, as she too stood and hugged Marty's Father. "You don't know how much we appreciate it."

Ray Johnston then left the room, followed a few minutes later by Sheila.

Since the assassination attempt, when President Lehrer had to temporarily sign over her powers to Nebraska Senator David Burns, there had been very little talk of a new Constitutional Convention to deal with the Balanced Budget Amendment. The consensus had developed that it was more important to get a new Congress that could then confirm the Cabinet and a new Vice President so that there would once again be legal successors to Kathleen Lehrer. After the confirmations were through, the new Congress would be busy reviewing the President's very full agenda of policy changes. Only after those items were addressed would Congress begin examining the ramifications of a Balanced Budget Amendment or other changes to the Constitution.

Steve Stone continued reviewing the briefing materials Kathy had obtained for him on the international banking system, the Federal Reserve, the I.M.F., the World Bank, and other banking and economic issues regarding Mexico and other third world debtor countries. He had been intensively cramming this information into his head in the week since he had written to Maria Velazquez.

He still had not received any indication that she had received his letter. He figured that it would take at least a week or two before he heard anything from her because of the way in which he had sent the letter. Now he was beginning to wonder if his letter had been such a good idea. Well, no sense worrying about that now. What was done, was done.