Double Twist
Chapter 176
“Don’t go getting offended my friend, I have much worse things to say to you.”
—Riley Amos Westbrook, Journey from Atremes
CINDY AND I flanked Desi in the reception line after her performance Friday evening. Aside from some irregularity in the accents, I thought the production of Twelfth Night went very well and Desi had an opportunity to show off her comedic timing playing Maria that she wouldn’t have had if she’d been cast as Olivia. Behind us, the rest of our pod crowded close. Sophie and Brittany had hands on her shoulders as they massaged the tension from her.
It wasn’t the tension of the show. Approaching us was Ava Parrish, the director of theatre at the National School of the Arts. Mr. Henderson intercepted her when she was a few feet away and invited her to join him in greeting the leads, of whom he was very proud. He had Viola and Olivia in tow. Dr. Parrish was cordial and congratulated the girls while Desi stood between us shaking.
“If you will excuse me, Mr. Henderson, I need to speak to this young lady. You and your cast should all be pleased with the success of your production. Shakespeare can be tricky for a young cast. You certainly put it on stage.” Henderson was still thanking her and going on about how it would not have been successful without the effort of his leading ladies when Parrish turned her back on him and stepped up in front of Desi. Desi curtseyed to her.
“Welcome, Dr. Parrish,” she whispered. Parrish reached out and took both of her hands.
“I had to come and see you in something non-musical,” Parrish said. “We’ve been having a bit of a territory dispute at the school over whether you are an actress or a vocalist.” Desi’s mouth hung open. Dr. Parrish moved closer. “You overcame a good many directorial flaws with your performance, Desiree,” she whispered. “You should be very proud. At least it wasn’t Hamlet.”
“Thank you, Dr. Parrish,” Desi choked.
“You wouldn’t consider coming out to DC early, would you?” she asked.
“We are planning to be in Washington next week,” Desi said. “Jacob and I will take our NSAT at the Capital Testing Center.”
“Oh, yes. In fact, we have you scheduled to interview and audition Friday afternoon after your test. You got the information on what to prepare for your audition, did you not?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m afraid I’ve been a little tied up with the show here the past few weeks but I’ll be prepared for the audition.”
“Good. Now what I was referring to was the possibility of you moving to DC before our second term begins in January. You would not need to start your service early if you wish to maintain the timing of your pod, but before then, there are things we can work with you on that will improve your blending with Marvel and Hopkins. You will become a force to be reckoned with on your own, not just as part of this fine company.”
“I… January?”
“We can talk about it next week when you are at the school. I wanted to put the idea on the table so you can discuss it with your pod, as I know it is an important decision for all of you. Now, I’m sure you have a party to attend tonight and would like to get out of your stage makeup. You did a fine job tonight and I know we will have a great time at the National School.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I look forward to seeing you next week.” Parrish sidestepped around Henderson who was still hovering nearby and left. Desi sagged against Cindy and me.
“You might as well go to Washington,” Henderson growled at her. “I doubt you will be cast here again. I don’t have room for prima donnas in my productions.” He spun and walked away.
“What a jerk!” I said.
“Let’s get out of here,” Donna said. “There is, in fact, a party waiting for you at home.”
I felt like we were suddenly under intense scrutiny at school. I’d had a practice room assigned to me for first period all semester. It’s where I had mandolin and viol lessons, where Cindy and I met with Ms. Devine and practiced. This week, I had the room to myself for the entire day Monday through Wednesday.
We’d discussed the process in our pod and Donna made arrangements with the school. My big issue was missing school. I didn’t mind missing classes but it was too easy to get distracted at home alone. Or at home with Emily between her bus runs. I decided it would be more conducive to writing the report I was preparing to be at school. It would also show, to anyone who noticed, that I was indeed working and not just skipping school.
Mr. Richards had discussed the possibility of having all his senior constitutional government classes review the law and manual outline. When I sat in front of my computer with thirty annotated copies of the file, I was thankful he’d limited it to one class. They’d done a good job and had divided up the content so only two or three people were annotating any given segment. I needed to copy the relevant notes for each section into a single file that I could return to the commission Thursday afternoon. And it wasn’t just blindly copying what people had to say. I had to evaluate each note and decide if and how to incorporate it into the report.
In another practice room, Desi had been given the same time as me to prepare her audition material. Even though Henderson was the official head of the speech and drama program, he wasn’t the only one in the department. Desi got along great with her acting class teacher, Ms. Perkins, and was getting coaching during one period each day. The rest, she was on her own. I guess actors are used to preparing audition material on their own.
Getting the compilation of notes into the PDF file for return to the commission was only part of what I needed to accomplish this week. I wasn’t going to just read my notes on the 200+ pages of the file. I wanted to get a point across to the commission.
“It’s a good first draft,” Mr. Richards said after school Tuesday. “Will the commission let you present your case straight through or will they interrupt with questions?”
“The typical process when something like this is involved is that the expert witness—me—is allowed to make a presentation of up to thirty minutes, after which the panel asks questions or seeks clarification. Dr. Donahue said I should be prepared to defend my points but to keep my presentation under half an hour.”
“Good. My concern was that you would never get to your final point. In a setting where discussion comes as part of the presentation, you want to put your most important argument first. In an uninterrupted presentation, you put the most important thing last. This is, I assume, the most important thing you want to leave them with?”
“Yes, sir. We have to do something about this now. It can’t wait until the law is passed. It needs action now.”
“Good. Three points. One: Establishment of domestic rights for plural relationships nationwide and honoring them in service placement. Two: Establishment of volunteer service so service management is done by service personnel and not by outside organizations. Three: Immediately review the agricultural service conscripts and release everyone who has served more than six months unless they volunteer for extension. Provide psychological counseling, improve housing, provide drug abuse counseling, and provide advanced medical and psychological services for all members of the service who are in hard labor occupations, including agriculture, mining, forest and road construction and maintenance, and other physical labor occupations. Are we right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay. Let’s look at revising the words for your presentation to make them more compelling. Since this last point is the most important, I suggest you allot half your time to it and really hammer it home. They’ll expect the first one based on your family life. You won’t need to emphasize it as much. The second is the most technical and you need to make the points clear regarding who is doing the management of the National Service. This is some good research. Let’s start at the top.”
I was thankful for Mr. Richards’ help. We worked for two solid hours after school was out. By Wednesday night, I felt I was as prepared for the Thursday meeting as I could get. I got up early Thursday morning and ran ten miles before I showered and dressed. Desi and I headed for the airport and by noon we were in Washington, DC.
“Jacob, it’s good to see you again,” Governor Adamson said when we’d all taken our places in the meeting room. I was once again thankful for the number of times Mr. Richards had put Cindy and me behind a table like this while our classmates drilled us on what was in the manual. The difference was that everyone at each table had a microphone as the proceedings were to be recorded. Desi and I sat at the table facing the commission—or at least the members of the commission who would be asking questions. Behind us, there were a variety of spectators, which Dr. D told me were other commission members, their staff, a few congressmen, and some others who had a vested interest in the National Service reform. Dr. D herself sat on my right as my sponsor before the commission. It was good to have her on my side of the table instead of as one of my interrogators.
“Thank you, Governor. I know you don’t spend all your time in these meetings. I’m honored that you chose to be here for this session.”
“We’ll call this investigative session of the National Service Review Commission to order,” he said, tapping the table with a gavel. “Our session today includes Jacob Hopkins, known as the guitarist in Marvel and Hopkins. He is sponsored by Dr. Edna Donahue of the National School of the Arts. With Jacob is his pod mate, Desiree Whitcomb, also known for her vocal renditions in many Marvel and Hopkins performances. Jacob is among 500 persons selected across the country to review and comment on the first draft of the National Service Reform Act and the outline of the Operations Manual. Mr. Hopkins, the floor is yours. Please keep your initial comments under thirty minutes, at which time we will open the floor for questions.”
“Thank you, Governor. Commissioners and guests, I’m afraid I don’t know the names of those at the table or your positions other than by the placards in front of you, so I cannot greet each of you formally. I thank you for your consideration of my comments and review of the Reform Act and accompanying materials. I have submitted a copy of my review in electronic format which I am told has been distributed to all members of the commission. Since the comments are all embedded in the file, I will refrain from reading them to you. I’m sure you all have assistants who can read and will gladly summarize the contents for you.”
At least there was a little laughter at that. The commission, unlike the hostile environment of Senate hearings, had no political axe to grind, so they were allowed a sense of humor.
“I will mention that this was not a singular effort on my part. The material was reviewed by thirty members of my senior constitutional government class, who took their role very seriously. It was also reviewed by the twelve members of my pod. I want to thank each of them for their input. That brings me to the first point of my prepared notes.”
I’d practiced the presentation all afternoon Wednesday and half the night in my sleep. I knew the content, so I wasn’t tied to simply reading from the paper. If I had been, there’d have been no sense in presenting it. I could have just distributed it like I did the commented Act. But now I was off and into the material. I looked down the row of nine commissioners and took a deep breath.
Constitutional amendment twenty-eight and the enabling legislation that followed fundamentally disrupted the fabric of our society in ways no one anticipated. At least, no one who voted for the amendment. After eight years, we are only now seeing what that disruption has meant. Last year, we reached a point of zero population growth in the United States for the first time in our history. This was achieved through mandatory birth control for all teens from puberty until National Service was completed. Teen pregnancy prior to the National Service Act accounted for ten percent of all births in the United States. Further, teen mothers were informed that they would be separated from their children during their term of service. To many, this was heartrending. To others it was a relief from the burden of single parenting.
We further saw an immediate reduction in college enrollment as teens exiting high school went directly into service rather than to college. The two-year delay in enrollment crippled many institutions of higher learning. Some closed. Others opened their doors to a higher percentage of foreign students. What we have seen in the past five years is that enrollment of American students emerging from service has continued to be abated. Colleges report three reasons for this. First, the increase in international enrollments has shown that American students are behind their counterparts after a two-year interruption in their learning. Second, many people emerging from service elect not to continue in school because they have learned a profession or skill in service that they feel is adequate. Third, by the time corps members leave service, they are interested in stabilizing their relationships as quickly as possible and college is of secondary importance.
That latter is my principal concern. The National Service by design or implementation has disrupted the establishment of families and economic units through sending members to unpredictable locations without regard to maintaining relationships that form most readily in the late teen years. This has given rise to a new phenomenon in the establishment of family units, what has been legalized in some states as Plural Domestic Partnerships. The colloquial name is ‘pod.’ Pods are formed in order to compensate for the instability of individual relationships. My own pod has twelve members. We range in age from sixteen to forty-three. Three are service exempt due to age, one is post service, three are in service, and five are pre-service. This arrangement has allowed us to support each other through trying times of separation, given us the ability to have a pod mate visit in-service corps members to keep them encouraged, and to support those who are left at home.
We recommend two things. First, national recognition of plural domestic partnerships at the same level as marriage equality. Second, service recognition of relationships in occupation and station assignment so established relationships are supported rather than intentionally destroyed.
There were some nods at the table and a couple commissioners were scribbling down notes. But, like Mr. Richards said, they were expecting this recommendation from me. The commission had a full briefing on expert witnesses and knew all about my pod.
The next point, though, would not be expected.
We need to increase the volunteer aspect of the service. When it was created, expediency dictated that someone had to manage it, and do so quickly. That job was given to our armed forces. This led to a militaristic approach to a civilian corps. That has proven ineffective. We can’t let this continue. Most people are not cut out to be soldiers and blindly obey an arbitrary authority figure. In addition to creating resentment and friction in the service, it has created a master/servant class structure that is wholly outside the principles of our constitution.
One surprise to new corps members is that despite being told they were management material when they took the NSAT, they were then told that to be on that track, they must ‘volunteer’ for six more years of service. It’s understandable. Military service includes a mixture of active duty and reserve duty totaling eight years because it is expensive to train even the lowest level of soldier to the point where he or she is effective under fire.
No one, however, is encouraged to make a career of the National Service. Where would they go? The management of the service comes from outside the service. I believe a transition must take place over the next five years so that National Service management rises from the ranks of the National Service and is not imposed from outside. There are now people who are completing eight years of service for the first time and we are losing those resources and their perspective on how the service should be run. If they have successfully moved into management at this stage, they should be encouraged to volunteer for a longer term and moved into service management, not simply into management of the various occupations.
That will put 250,000 external officers of the service who decide—with the assistance of the artificial intelligence computer—where inductees will be trained, what occupations they will have, and where they will serve, out of a job. I’m sorry, but they should never have been given those jobs under the present conditions in the first place. If a man or woman wants to manage the National Service, he or she should join the National Service. That person should be treated the same as any other service inductee, including basic training, occupational training, and assignment according to aptitude. Not one National Service manager has taken the NSAT to determine if he or she has an aptitude for management in that field.
The United States Military branches do not determine the need for a general and place an advertisement in Forbes for a new CEO. Every general in the army started as a lieutenant and worked his way up the ranks. In today’s army, officer candidates are not even recruited from colleges like they once were. They start out in the ranks and if they are approved for officer candidacy, education is included. The only academic institutions that have truly thrived in the past eight years are the five military service academies.
Opening the service up to volunteer recruitment means we would accept a broader range of age groups, something we have found especially useful in the creation of our pods. A forty-year-old volunteer brings a different set of skills and aptitudes to the table than an eighteen-year-old. Not all better ones, but different. If taken through service basic and occupational training and given two years to prove themselves in their field before being placed on a management track for an additional six years, these older volunteers could greatly improve and enhance the management of the corps.
I understand the conceit of older people who ‘have experience’ and shouldn’t need training. Those are not the people we want for National Service. I also know that through economic changes and limited areas of advancement in corporate America, thousands of people are held back from achieving their potential.
I would like to suggest that a separate new federal election law be proposed and passed that requires every candidate for federal office to have served two years of National Service. If that law were in place now, there would be no question regarding the passage of the National Service Reform Act before the end of the year.
I could see a few people were indignant at that comment, but there were several people in the room nodding their heads vigorously. Not that there was a ghost of a chance of that being passed until a majority of congressmen had served.
I was pretty wound up at this point and plunged ahead without pausing.
The greatest injustice… The greatest shame of the National Service began a year ago when a national emergency was declared and corps members were moved carte blanche from wherever they were serving to do manual labor in the fields and farms of America. Those laborers came from all walks of life without regard for aptitude or skills testing. I do not demean the honorable profession of farming and ranching. I know people in my community who provide for their families and communities in the agricultural industry. For a substantial part of America’s food production industry, however, we depended on migrant labor from Mexico and South America to do the hard, back-breaking, and mindless labor of the fields. When we found we could no longer enslave foreigners to do our labor, we enslaved the corps.
But what is most shameful is that now, ten months after the national emergency was cancelled and a new president was inaugurated, many of those same corps members are still enslaved in the fields, doing labor the landowners could not pay other Americans to do.
Ladies and gentlemen of the commission, the agriculture occupation of the corps has the highest rate of depression, the highest rate of drug and alcohol abuse, and the highest suicide rate of any occupation in the service. This is closely followed by other high danger and high physical effort occupations like mining, road building, construction, and forestry—where isolation is often the cause.
The National Service is supposed to enhance the lives of those who serve, to prepare youth to take an active role in the American economy, and to increase ownership in the freedom of America. Instead, hundreds of thousands are being demeaned, enslaved, and worn down so that when they do finally leave the service, they see America as a cruel and unjust society, are depressed, addicted, and hopeless.
The service needs to immediately reassign anyone who has served in this capacity for six months, replacing them with aptitude-appropriate corps members on three-month terms in the fields. Basic necessities for field workers need to be upgraded. My sister served as a truck driver—excuse me, in the words of the National Service, a logistics engineer—in central Kansas. I visited her accommodations both in Kansas and in her former location of San Diego. The rooms weren’t fancy or elegant, but they were the equivalent of what any college student puts up with in a dormitory. In fact, they were on abandoned college campuses with educational resources, entertainment, and social events.
The housing for field workers is largely platform tents with eight to twelve cots, no privacy, and outdoor bathrooms. We have created a slave class to replace the Mexican slaves we lost. Where is our national ideal of complete equality in that? We need new housing, shorter terms of service, entertainment, social services, enhanced medical care, psychological and substance abuse counseling, and suicide prevention and awareness.
Commissioners, this is not something that needs to wait for the National Service Reform Act to be presented to congress, argued over, watered down, pork barreled, and possibly passed. This is something the president can order.
And she needs to do it right fucking now!
“Jacob!” Dr. Donahue exclaimed softly next to me. “This is a federal hearing. You can’t just start swearing at people. You need to apologize right away.” Oh, shit! I’d gotten pretty wound up there and was way off base with my demand.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the commission, I apologize for my outburst and for breaking the honorable decorum of this session. I plead, in this instance, the inexperience of youth and the tremendous emotion I feel when I think about my friends working the fields in California. One lost her best friend and co-worker to suicide just a few weeks ago and was on the brink of suicide herself when her pod mate literally slept her way through layers of National Service management to be united with her love. Together, they are struggling against the mind-numbing daily routines of the field laborer.
“When I heard her story last week, I left my home in the middle of the night and ran the roads of our county, screaming out my horror and frustration for three and a half hours. And today, I find it affected me even more than I thought. Please, accept my apology.
“Let me conclude by saying the work of this commission is of vital importance to the young people of America, most of whom like the idea of serving their country but hate the implementation of it. You hold our hope. And since every person serving or having served in the National Service is eighteen or older and was automatically registered to vote when they took the NSAT, perhaps we hold your hope as well.”
“Thank you, Jacob. On behalf of the commission, apology accepted,” the governor said. “We will recess for fifteen minutes and then proceed with questions.” He tapped his gavel and I sagged in my seat, Desi’s arms wrapped around me.
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