Dreams of the future

When California seceded, Washington, Oregon quickly followed declaring that their new union to be the Peoples’ Republic of America. The New England states, Michigan, Minnesota , Illinois, and Pennsylvania followed suit and joined the PRA, as did New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. Parts of California split and denounced the secession and formed a new state called Jefferson and applied for statehood in the old USA. Eastern Washington and most of Oregon also left the PRA and the rural parts of Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania divorced themselves from the left wing lunacy of Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Chicago.

The remaining states in the US called for a Convention of States and made several very important changes to the Constitution. Among them was a repeal of the 16th and 17th Amendments, dissolving the income tax and returning selection of senators to the state legislatures, term limits for representatives and senators, the ability of the states to overrule a Supreme Court decision and federal laws, the elimination of government regulations imposed by federal agencies and specifically prohibiting Congress from creating agencies, bureaus, departments, etc, and giving them power to create rules with the weight of law. Also was a clarification of the “health and welfare clause” that prohibited giving public assistance to able bodied and able minded people except on a short term basis. Along with it a narrowing of the “interstate commerce clause”, which had long been used as an excuse for thousands of federal regulations and laws. The 2nd Amendment was changed to read, “Every free person, being a necessary member of the militia, shall not be debarred from the right to keep and bear arms suitable for use in the militia”.

A form of Social Security was kept but was ended for persons under 50 with whatever they had contributed going to an IRA. Everyone older was given the options of a payout to an IRA or to keep their existing benefits. Once the movement to deport illegal aliens from the United States began, the PRA immediately began their predictable cries of racism. The United States, or the Free States, as they preferred to be called, offered to send them to the PRA, but the PRA didn’t take them up on the offer.

But most important was the Life Amendment which stated that unborn children were legal persons and had full protection under the Constitution. The sole exception for abortion was if the mother’s life was at immediate risk because of the pregnancy.

Recognizing the problem of a declining birthrate in the West, the Free States offered incentives such as government subsidies for housing and education and food for families with four or more children. On the other hand, the PRA had gone the opposite direction, forming was essentially a totalitarian socialist state. The first thing to go was the right to keep and bear arms. The few law-abiding gun owners in the PRA either turned their guns in, moved away, or hid them.

Once the population was disarmed, all the other freedoms fell, too. Anything determined to be “hate speech” was punishable by heavy fines and mandatory “re-education”. The government openly censored websites that were reported to be intolerant. Any church or private school that spoke out against homosexuality or Islam or taught any other politically incorrect topic was closed down. Calling a person by something other than their “preferred pronoun” was considered a hate crime. Any church or private citizen ir company that spoke out against homosexuality or Islam or taught against any other politically incorrect topic was closed down. Virtually all Christian churches and schools were shut down.

The 4th Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure was eliminated and the state could inspect your home or business at any time for any reason. Illegal aliens were given instant citizenship and the right to vote. Many of the new PRA citizens were uneducated and unskilled and immediately applied for public assistance.

Free college education and free health care was guaranteed in the PRA as well as free money for anyone unable or unwilling to work. This caused resentment among the ones who did work and as a result production and quality plummeted. Recreational drugs were legalized n the PRA, which turned out to be a blessing to the Free States, drawing in drug addicts from all over the continent. Sadly, the right to abortion paid by the government up until birth was included in the guaranteed health care portion of their constitution. This quickly degenerated into infanticide of “undesirable” children born with birth defects and euthanizing the elderly with dementia and other incurable diseases.

Taxes went up to pay for all the ‘free stuff” and businesses and the wealthy fled. To make up for the revenue loss, taxes were raised even more which in turn caused more businesses and people to leave. Within three years inflation was in the triple digits. Laws were enacted that prevented people emigrating from the PRA from removing more than $5000 in assets but there were ways around that. Houses and bank accounts of emigrants became property of the state, as did anything of substantial value. Still, people were eager to abandon the PRA and their mortgages. Mortgage holders folded under the weight of defaulted loans and the homes were made into public housing for the instant citizens. Decent neighborhoods became third world almost overnight. The same people who had publicly opposed the wall at the southern border proceeded to build walls along the PRA’s borders. But this time the barbed wire and guns were facing inward.

The PRA became a cesspool of high unemployment and crime, higher taxes, and the standard of living plummeted. The only people left were idealists who believed that socialism could work if only the “right people” were in charge, the sick and dying, the elderly too set in their ways to move, the poor, and the stubborn. Rob had been one of the latter, refusing to admit he was witnessing the disintegration of a culture and a country.

The following is the opening chapter of the story:

“Get up, girls! We have to leave!”, Rob said urgently. It was some time before daybreak when the network alerted him that he was in danger of being discovered. Kathryn, or Kat, his wife, was busily packing the few belongings they had that weren’t already packed. The girls, Abby, 14, and Emma, 8, both pretty redheads like their mom, groaned at being awakened at such an early hour but recognized the urgency in his voice but immediately got out of bed and began getting dressed.

“How did they find us?” he wondered to himself. He had returned the old burner phones, stayed off the Internet, and had not contacted any family or friends from his previous life, and paid for everything with multi-vendor gift cards or a prepaid debit card or cash donated to him by the network in small bills. But they managed to find him anyway. His only contact with the network was through a burner cell phone. If it ever rang, he knew someone from the network was trying to reach him. The message had been simple, the caller had said simply, “Acadia”, the code word that meant the call was from the network, followed by, “Code red. Jasmine. Repeat: Acadia, code red, jasmine.” Condition red meant that he and his family were in danger and to evacuate immediately. Jasmine was to be the next confirmation code word to verify the next call.

The sun was peeking over the eastern horizon when the girls were dressed and had their things packed. “Dear Father”, he silently prayed, “Protect us from those who would harm us.” Jesus had never said that being a Christian would mean living the high life on Easy Street. If fact he had said the opposite. Matthew 24:9 says. “Then they will hand you over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name.” That was not one of Rob’s favorite verses and definitely not his wife’s or girls’. He made a last sweep of the two bedroom extended stay motel to make sure nothing was left behind and herded everyone out to the 10 year old minivan, also provided by the network, loaded up everything, checked to make sure everyone was buckled in and left, turning right out of the hotel parking lot along the pre-planned route.

After a the first right he started watching for the contact person. He saw a homeless man at an intersection with a backpack and a sign that said, “Anything helps, God bless”. There were a lot of homeless people since the states had split. Rob stopped near him and Kat gave him $5 with the name “Jasmine” written on it. The homeless man looked at the bill and gave her his backpack. Kat gave him a similar backpack with their old cell phones, gift cards, and vehicle registration inside knowing the network would dispose of them. The man said, “God bless you on your journey”, and they drove away.

Inside the backpack was a manila envelope containing a temporary New York license plate, $500 cash, gift cards, and a new burner cell phone. Also was an old-fashioned paper map with a route marked and scrap of paper with an ad for a motel about 400 miles southwest in Louisville, Kentucky. The road was still empty this early so he pulled around to the back of small gas station and quickly changed the license plates and threw the old one into a nearby dumpster. “Looks like we’re headed to the Free States finally”, Kat announced, taking up her usual role as navigator.

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