“If you didn’t get your answers, it’s too late,” The doctor said, pulling off one of her gloves and placing her hand on his shoulder. “Plus I doubt you would have gotten any more info than your partners did earlier.”
“Partners?” he said, raising one eyebrow. “Did you happen to get their names?”
“No, sorry.”
Chaz left the hospital that day with more questions than he had when he got there and was no closer to what was happening. If this Ricky was working with the feds, why was he arrested? Why is he dead? What ties does he have to this Armscorp?
The ride home was wet and rainy.
Chapter 7
Kona High School, 2022
Mrs. Athena looked to the five groups and asked that one person from each group give their reasons for agreeing that Chaz was a traitor and deserved to be jailed or worse.
Tristan volunteered to go. First, he shuffled over to face the class and pulled up his sagging pants.
He said, “We have decided it would be more powerful to give a simple list of reasons.” He paused, looked around the room, then began. “Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, none of these would have the same meaning if guns didn’t exist.”
He smiled, pleased with himself, and made his way back to his seat, high fiving and laughing with his friends.
“OK who’s next?” Miss Athena asked.
Sara’s group all raised their hands and Sara was pushed up. She fidgeted and looked down at the floor as she began to speak, “I think….”
“Um...Sara,” Miss Athena interrupted, “we can’t hear you honey.”
“Oh…yes…”Sara stood up taller, remembering the public speaking lesson from earlier this year and began to speak louder. “The world is different now from when the constitution was written, Our fore fathers couldn’t have foreseen it.”
She smiled and returned to her seat.
Andrew didn’t wait to be called on. He was up and ready to go. “Former President Clinton said about the founding of our country that it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly. He added that when personal freedom is being abused you have to move to limit it.”
He smiled and looked across the room at Reed, and added, “The school shootings and rampant murders in our largest cities are a result of Americans not using their freedom responsibly. As a citizenry, the majority has decided that guns are not safe and should not be a part of our society.” He smiled and a few claps could be heard as he made his way back to his seat.
“Last group,” the teacher requested.
A strikingly gorgeous young blond girl with deep blue eyes bounced up and made her way to the center of the room and looked at Mrs. Athena.”
“Go ahead, Shanti.”
She smiled, flipped her hair to the side, and began speaking. “Well…like…the thing is, guns are just plain mean you know… I mean… it’s like, these people, are like crazy and my group wants to feel safe… you know…like… secure.”
She fidgeted her feet and stared down at the ground. “I mean they have a right to a gun but don’t we have a right to feel safe?” She conclude. Then she gave a slight smile, looked up at Reed’s group, twirled around, and returned to her seat.
Mrs. Athena stood up and addressed the class. “Ok you have five minutes to discuss the opposition’s argument and then you will be given an opportunity for a rebuttal.”
Chapter 8
Southern California, 2022
Chaz needed to find out which one of the agencies Ricky was working with and if he was indeed an informant or worse, a co-conspirator. He already called in a favor with a friend in the FBI to see if there were any ties there. The DEA showed up a couple of hours late wanting to question Ricky and were very upset that he wasn’t still alive. This alone doesn’t cross them off his wall but his gut is telling him to put his energy elsewhere. First, stop at the state of Californians former Attorney General’s home.
***
Seven years ago the then freshman supervising deputy attorney general put all his eggs in one basket in the high profile case against Ricky Cisneros. The case fell apart, but Chaz was betting that Bobby Taylor was still holding a grudge and possibly some files or some leads. He knocked on the door at the attorney’s personal residence in LA. The doorman rang up so it was no surprise, but the time it was taking to answer started to make Chaz feel uneasy. He ran his palm across the inside of his jacket and over his gun.
The door opened, “Agent Hyland.” Bobby Taylor said.
“Yes sir. Thank you for seeing me sir.”
“You can call me Bobby. We’re not in the military here, son.”
He stepped out of the way opened the door and waved him in.
***
“So what is it that brings you down here on a Sunday?” He lifted an eye and leaned back on the couch in his great room.
“Well Bobby, it’s about Ricky Cisneros.”
Bobby sat forward, “I’m listening,” he said.
“He’s dead, died today after a prisoner fight in county.”
“What?” He turned around, shook his head, and said with a somber tone, “fitting end.”
“But that’s not the reason I’m here. I need to know if you have any files for that case that blew up with him?”
“Why bother if he’s dead?” He asked without turning back around.
“I have reason to believe that he was working as an informant and thought your case files may point to who it was he was working with.”
Bobby twirled around, stalling, “Because his case was dropped you think he may have copped a deal.”
“That’s exactly what I think.”
“Pretty dam good instincts. Here, come with me.”
He walked Chaz into a nice study loaded with books.
“Drink?” he asked as he poured a dark liquid into a crystal cup.
“No, thank you.”
“Let me see here.” Taylor thumbed his way through binders on a shelf behind the bar. “Here it is.”
He pulled out a white binder and blew off the dust, saying, “Ricky Cisneros.”
He opened the binder, set it on the bar and turned it to the back, “Yep, here is my note, ‘today Slick Willie the Vice President and the Head of the CIA all came to see me. Seems Ricky is of vital importance to national security and all charges must be dropped. And just like that years of my work was snatched away from me.” He closed the book, saying, “He was released to the CIA.”
“Why?” Chaz asked.
“I asked that same question.” He took a swig off his cup. “You know what they told me?”
“What?”
“ ‘You don’t have the clearance.’ I was young and naive, and I thought taking this job ment making a difference… I was wrong.”
***
Driving home that night Chaz got a phone call. He answered through the car’s Blue Tooth system, and said, “Hello.”
“Chaz, this is Noel. I checked up on that Ricky Cisneros and found some pretty interesting things.”
“I’m listening.”
“He has been off and on one of our watch lists for years and hasn’t officially been an informant for us at any time. But unofficially five years ago, he was caught up in one of our busts and an Agent Snow from the CIA hand-delivered a ‘get out of jail free card’ from the head of the CIA and the Vice President himself,” Noel said.
“Great! Noel, thanks for the info.”
“Look, I’m not sure what you’re caught up in, but the names were talking about, if you bring any of this out into the open, your career will be over.”
“I know,” Chaz said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“The son of a bitch is dead, right?” Noel asked.
“Yes.”
“So what does it matter?”
“Do you remember when we were snipers back in Iraq and I showed you that picture of me with a gun when I was eight?” Chaz asked.
“Ye
ah the one with the old 22.”
“That old 22 was my first gun given to me by my grandfather. I loved that gun. First he taught me about respecting it and showed me how to be safe with it. Then…” Chaz stopped.
“Then what?” Noel asked.
“There is no more ‘then’. Guns are illegal, and now the only people who have guns are criminals. I need you to listen to me and listen carefully. My country comes before all. Do you understand me.” Chaz asked.
“Yes, sir. Take care, sir,” Noel responded.
“Will do. Over and out.” Chaz pressed a button on the steering wheel cutting, off the call.
Chapter 9
Kona High School, 2022
Katrina Sanchez twirled around, looked back at Reed who gave her a nod of encouragement and began to hold forth. “In a country of free people we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the false hope of safety and security.”
She stopped smiling, looked at each of the four groups, took one step closer, and began to whisper.
“Ben Franklin warned us, saying, ‘Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserves none.’ Have we listened?”
“Yes, we desire to be secure,” her voice began to rise as she continued.
“But if this security was to infringe upon our freedom or liberty than we cannot do it. Taking away guns is an attack on liberty. George Washington said, ‘Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance; they are the people’s liberty teeth.’ Have we listened?”
She paused. “And as for Clinton’s quote about not using freedom responsibly,” She rolled her eyes. “Washington also said, ‘It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.’ Many of you will argue that the world has changed and that we must adapt, that the founding fathers couldn’t have foreseen this world that we live in. Jimmy Carter said, ‘We must adjust to changing times and still hold onto unchanging principles.’
She paused and asked, “Can anyone tell me the first two principles in the constitution?”
Reed blurted out, “Freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.”
“That’s right,” Katrina said and continued. “We cannot break from its foundation which is a set of principles that trust the people to govern themselves, even when the majority of the populous agrees. If a law in any way inhibits a man’s rights, it’s unjust and cannot stand. This is why the Supreme Court was created, to make sure we couldn’t create laws that take away freedom and liberty. Finally, we would like to talk about the school shootings. We asked around our group and no one knew the answer, so we will pose this question to you. Has there ever been a shooting where there was no human involved? In other words, has a gun ever done anything without a human?” she asked her class.
The class went silent.
She didn’t wait for an answer, continuing, “Never! Yet we don’t hear anything about making humans illegal.”
She turned to Mrs. Athena. “That’s all we have.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Athena said, looking up at the clock. “I know we’re just getting into this, but the bell is going to ring in a few minutes. Get out your planner.”
She walked over and grabbed a stack of papers. “This is your assignment for the night: read this article and come prepared to continue this discussion,” she stated.
“What’s the article about, Miss?” Tristan called out.
“It was the op-ed piece Chaz wrote in the LA times to explain his actions just before he was arrested.”
When the bell rang, she looked down at her watch, and by the time she looked back up her class was empty.
Chapter 10
Kona, HI, 2022
That night Reed sat down at his computer and logged into The Black Board online chat room his teacher had set up so the students could discuss their work and collaborate without being in the same room. “Hello, group 4.”
Within seconds, Megan, Leila and Katrina all joined him.
“We’ll read the article and meet back here in 10 minutes.”
“Ok,” Meagan answered.
“No problem,” Leila responded.
“Will do,” Katrina chimed in.
Reed leaned back in the leather office chair placed his feet up on the large wooden desk, and began to read from the article.
“On Dec. 20th, 2017, I found evidence that our former Vice President and former Speaker of the House were involved in a conspiracy with the head of the CIA and a number of large banks to manipulate and profit from the prohibition of firearms. As a concerned citizen and ATF officer, I went straight to my superiors to lay out the evidence I thought the people deserved to know. My Supervisor to his credit passed it along to his supervisor, but we were quickly shut down and warned not to push the issue. This was murder and treason. How could we just drop it?
When I was in the military we valued the life of our fellow soldiers and never abandoned them even in death. Ricky Cisneros was no angel, but he was a CIA informant who died because of his knowledge of the following situation.
The private security and Arms dealer company Armscorp has a revolving door to the highest positions in our government. Former Vice President Slick Wille is the acting CEO and he alone has profited over five hundred million dollars since the prohibition started two years ago. This alone proves no wrong doing, but add that to what the world saw in my leaked emails about the former Vice President ordering the death of an American citizen because he knew too much and we have a compelling case. What’s more the attempted assassination on my life last week was the fifth in the four weeks. Had I not been wearing a Kevlar vest I would surely be dead.
Calls for me to turn myself in are misguided and ignorant of the facts, but don’t blame yourselves, I wouldn’t have believed this either. And in the beginning I didn’t want to believe it. How could we the people vote for a corporate run government whose laws are up to the highest bidder? Cloaked behind fear, the Fascist rise to power has been slow and methodical, creeping its way into the fabric of our existence.
Our country spends more money on defense than all of the other top ten countries combined. What does that defense buy? On the surface, we play the humanitarian card but under our façade, the real reason is, “corporate security.” That’s right. The cost of our current defense bill is actually a form of welfare for the top 1% in the world. How does this work? Let me explain. Corporations find a country where they can either exploit the natural resources or the human labor of a country and then use the IMF and the American military to maximize their profit and minimize their risk. In 20% of the emails I released the then Vice President and the top ten defense CEO’s in the world discussed how a collapsed Iraq could open up the oilfields to American companies. The rest or 80% lead up to and discuss their plans to dismantle the 2nd amendment for short term profits and long term control.
Every party involved was heavily invested in Armscorp and all of them began dropping stock for Armscorp competition six months prior to the legislation being written. In the legislation they drew up proposals to eliminate one of the biggest road blocks to making the manufacturing of guns illegal in the US. How do we arm our military if our guns can’t be made in our own country? Playing on fear they refused to deal with any country that may be seen as a threat and struck a deal with Armscorp who because of tax purposes and a higher profit margin moved to Mexico after NAFTA.
The papers ran the story as if Armscorp was a Mexican company and failed to point out that this so-called deal purchased our weapons at one and a half times that which it would have played under the free market. They also failed to report that the legislation had no reach beyond our border and didn’t take into account how our prohibition would affect other countries.
This is not an isolated event, but rather a regular occurrence where big pockets drive our policy and ignore the devastating effects they have had on our society and the world. The cheap goods we purchase a
re nothing more than welfare for the rich. Our tax dollars or at least 80% of them are spent on protecting and propagating the spread of slave labor and sweatshop economics. None of this is new to the world as every empire that has ever existed has used the same model. Why then is this a problem? Our country was founded in part because the people here felt the sting of oppression as mother England exploited our natural resources and cheap labor. Add to that in the founding of our country we adopted a unique and isolationist view of economic growth called “The American System.” Under the American system, economic growth and free market capitalism are limited to the confines of our borders. This was not to say an enterprising business man, wasn’t allowed to venture beyond our border, but rather to say do as you please but expect no help in the form of subsidies, security, military backing and the easing of our high tariffs. The American system worked and we became the greatest country on the planet because we were the first to value a new class of people called the “middle class.”
Unfortunately, over the past one hundred and fifty years we abandoned our system in favor of an imperialist system which again has never lasted the test of time. This is where we find ourselves now, powerless and lost, stuck in a broken two party system that has divided the populace enough to allow a small group of people to destroy and conquer us. Fear is the weapon they used and we gladly gave up our freedom for a false sense of security. The 2nd Amendment rights advocates, seemed crazy when they pointed out that cities with the highest violent gun deaths in the US, also had the strictest gun laws. It seemed unreasonable for them to point out that the war on drugs didn’t stop drugs and in most cases made drugs more available and lucrative. No one listened when they pointed out that guns would still get to the bad guys even if they were illegal. Statistically speaking the prohibition of guns has been a failure at every corner.
There has been talk and speculation that I went into this job looking to bring down the ATF and the American Government, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I served my country honorably in Afghanistan and Iraq and I considered my activities a last ditch effort to save the country I love. We have been manipulated and lied to and the action of some of our highest officials is high treason.