Have you ever had one of those days?

There are so many thoughts running through my brain it is hard to keep track of them. So, to try and clear them out, I am going to put a few thoughts on paper and see where we need to go with them somewhere down the road.

And there is a bit of some themes in all the below. And the topics are in no particular order of relevance.

I heard of a study that states 90% of children will go to the internet before they will go to their parents. And you can see the obvious problems with that. Remember when we use to go to our friends for advice and well, how did that work out? Ha ha ha … now imagine the amount of misinformation kids are receiving between their friends, social media which includes a mountain of opinions not even their friends, and of course all the wildness that makes up the internet.  The internet is valuable and dangerous at the same time and kids not having the experience to be able to put things in perspective are receiving inordinate amounts of information that is doing more harm than good. So, how do we redirect our children back to looking for value and values in their lives?

And speaking of above and I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but what would you rather your children hear? Some certain types of Rap music or death metal music or Anthony Scaramucci? Seriously! With some of today’s music even the kids have some knowledge of what this is all about and you can teach your kids values and respect and show why maybe this music isn’t in their best interest. Now you have a man representing our country spewing vulgarities like he is on a ship at sea with no one around him. What is this teaching our children? He is supposed to be a man that represents the best of our country… someone people want to look up to and respect. This is the communications director of the White House. And yet, here he is making a spectacle of himself and insulting the office and the country with his behavior. How have we come to this?

And to attempt to answer the above question would take books it seems like nowadays; however, we can blame ourselves. Don’t you hate it when I point fingers? Seriously though, it is our responsibility as parents, citizens, neighbors, etc... to try and make our world better; not just palatable, better. One philosophy says everything starts at home. Which is true, however, it also needs to continue from home. It is up to us to make sure we do not accept the destruction of our culture, values, and country. It is not a matter of accepting or rejecting fringe lifestyles, it is a matter of emphasizing who we are as a society.  Norms will always be pushed by someone, we need to learn to differentiate where we need to allow us to accept changes and where we have lost touch with reality. This is part of the push me/pull me of liberal vs conservative in modern politics and our society, or well it should be. Nowadays the parties representing the conservative and liberal viewpoint no longer represent conservative or liberal philosophy. Yet, we need to have this constant back and forth. It is like a headline I saw the other day. Scientists say we need to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI) before it is too late. Well, duh. This is where the liberal/conservative ideologies work for better. Robotics can be a benefit to mankind, yet we have no idea where we are headed with this technology. We do need to sit down as a society and make rules, maybe even restrictive rules for now till we know more. How does AI fit into society? What are the benefits and what are the drawbacks? Does everyone benefit? If not, how do we achieve that goal? And of course, by benefit, it is used in the general sense. Some people never want to move forward, but they cannot be ignored.

We have for far too long, let others make decisions by default. We, as citizens and people, need to retake control of our lives, society, and country. Mr. Scaramucci doesn’t happen by accident. We have let him happen. We must not accept his behavior or anything similar from our government or other prominent members of society. How can we teach our children to be better, to know the importance of contributing to society, if our leaders are no better than street thugs or violent anti society proponents?

As always in my humble opinion, the path forward is through us. We need to recruit and elect leadership that better reflects who we are as a society. The vast majority of the people of this country still have strong values so this is why I am perplexed. Why do we let this behavior dominate our country? The values may differ a bit from culture to culture or group to group, yet overall most people want a positive world for their children to grow and thrive, a respectful place to work, education that is education, leaders we can respect, not run from, general respect for each other, work that is rewarded appropriately and recognized for its worth, safe neighborhoods, safe environments, a clean world, etc….. so why do we let the ugly rule. Again, I am perplexed. There are many fledgling organizations starting to develop. We need to find and join them. Listen to what they say, yet are they also following through in their actions. The big problem with Mr. Trump was he had much verbiage that sounded good, yet in his actions we see something different. We cannot make these types of mistakes again……it is called good education which we need to make a priority going forward.

I could go on, but better stop here for now.

No one is going to do it, if we don’t.  I keep trying to get some interest in a National Political Convention for Independents. Just another way to get started. Cheers

And in case you are curious, we are getting a tad bit of relief from the normal high heat here in North Texas today and forecasted for the rest of the week. So, come on down and enjoy Dallas for a spell. 

A comment and then more story (part 3)

I am completely befuddled as to how the alt right and fringe right are carrying so much power in this country. They are not a majority, in fact far from one. They are very active and vocal. Yet, for some reason the Republicans keep moving farther and farther to the right. And I mean right wing, not conservative.

In some ways, the populist alt right goes counter to the Republican establishment’s agenda, yet the establishment keeps courting them at every step. I would say this is a political standoff or a tug of war, yet, the alt right etc… is slowly winning.  Obviously, Trump’s victory shows they are winning.

Did this start with Trump even a few years ago when he started his birther movement? No, we have always had an element of the far right in our country. It is how emboldened they have become and the Republican leadership acquiescing to them that is amazing. You have to think and I have mentioned this before that the alt right has some major league funding from some money sources in our country.

And this is a backwards way of showing how much of a failure the Democrats have become because quite frankly most Americans are not this far to the right. Most are moderately conservative, yet a moderate Democrat can carry the country in an election if they had a message. And that seems to be the Democrats problem: no message, no direction, no leadership, no personalities except for Biden and Sanders and both of them are in their 70’s so no future.

Anyway, the alt right seems to be winning by default because no one is rising to leadership in either party that resonates with the vast majority of the country. There are many conservatives who support Trump for reasons I cannot wrap my mind around and I wonder what would it take for them to break ranks. Even rational conservatives are moving to the right in the wrong direction.  As I always say, we need new parties and new leadership. And right now, we could lose our Constitution to a minority group that does not give a rat’s backend for our Constitution, but yells the loudest about being American and patriotic. I just do not understand.  Time to step up America.

And now back to the story

Twenty-one days before Congressman Greg was shot about half way around the world a young boy realizes it is almost dinner time and heads down to the corner where the market is to meet his Dad. He had been doing this for years. He waits for about an hour. Dejected he walks home. Every now and then his Dad would have to work late. His Dad worked in the Capital of their country and they lived in a quiet suburb or what in America would be considered a suburb. Here this is more of a village that the Capital had grown and was devouring.

He went home to tell his Mom he was okay and Dad hadn’t come home yet. His Mom was crying on her bed and when he walked in she grabbed him and hugged him tight. She had just received a call that her husband was missing. And in this country, missing meant missing. She knew she would never see him again. No one from the government said it. She knew he was dead and that their government killed him. She was extremely angry at him, yet extremely sad he was gone. She held the boy for quite a while crying the whole time. The boy had no idea why, but stayed with his Mom even though he was very hungry.

She knew her husband’s dreams for their country. And she always feared he might try and do something about them. Apparently, he did.

Most nights when the boy would go to meet his Dad there were other men waiting for his Dad. Many nights his Dad would have stopped and spoken to one of them. The others just watched and observed. By the time his Dad reached the market the two men had shared what they needed to discuss and the other man disappeared. The boy never saw any of the men.

Back in the States the day after Greg was shot, someone was working on hacking into Greg’s phone. He was also employed by the same people that employed the two groups of men that were in Greg’s hometown. It was assumed the men in the SUV had failed since there was no news of Greg either being shot, dead, or missing. Something was up and they didn’t know what, but they didn’t like it so other plans needed to be put in place.

Later that evening “Paul” was talking to his employer on the phone. His instructions were clear. The next morning the group in Paul’s car headed back to Washington D.C. They shouldn’t have, but they did. The other men who had gone to the hospital and their SUV were at the bottom of a lake two hours away and there was enough weight in the car to keep it there for a very long time.

The people in D.C waited. They did want to hear what Paul had to say. They wanted some idea of any possibility that Greg might be injured or missing. They got their news or what little there was to report. Paul and his group went back to their homes etc waiting for their next assignment. Over the next few weeks, they were the assignment. There were some very angry people that Greg might still be alive.

Greg was barely hanging on. Moving him was very dangerous and having to take him off the IVs and chance tearing open his wounds even more was not the best care, yet for some gut feeling both Samuel and Daniel knew it was the best plan. Separately they started to wonder who Greg may have crossed in D.C. There were rumblings in the news about certain elements trying to consolidate power. Did Greg cross the wrong people? Or maybe some crime syndicate? He always supported tough anti-crime legislation. Could this have been an organized crime hit? The Sheriff wasn’t ruling out anything, yet for some reason this made sense to him. Or at least gave him a logical reason for the dread he felt.

The man the little boy’s Father had spoken to had run across some hard times. Basically, he was passed out cold on the floor of a prison located deep within the bowels of the government buildings. Not too many people knew there was a prison down there. Only the few that needed to know. He had been interrogated. Since he was trained on how to be interrogated he had not said anything as to why he was in the country. As expected this did not go well for the man.

The division head of the internal police admired the man as he lay on the ground. He had overseen the interrogation and knew this was a strong man. Unfortunately, he was caught so one of two things were going to happen in the next day or so. He would talk and die or just die.  Two days later he died.

This did not bother the division head since he hadn’t expected to get answers from him once he had sat down with him for a full day. He was intensely curious why this particular foreigner was in his country. Just from where he was from was high danger for the man, let alone what he might be doing here. He had checked everything out with the little boy’s Father. He was an idealist and when they tortured him, he too did not give details, but would scream at him there could be something better. start mumbling or scream gibberish about changing he future. Never said specifically what he meant, which bothered the division head. Idealists usually spill out their thoughts so he was very curious as to what this was all about. This warranted more investigation, however, he had no place to start since the only two people he knew that were involved were dead. None of his officers had ever heard the conversation between the two men, nor could they read lips. He had put people along the path that were good lip readers and still nothing. The division head never realized they were speaking a different language and if he knew what language he probably would have had an aneurysm. They were speaking Hebrew. Both men knew they could be watched and lip readers might be employed. The man was a spy and listened to Israel communications. The foreign man did business in Israel. It was easier to get away with Hebrew in this country, which was highly dangerous if anyone recognized, than the native language of the visiting man. Many people anywhere would have recognized the language of the Great Satan, including the lip readers. Both men knew there were others so they had hope for a better future.

The man who spoke to “Paul” received a phone call and turned to his boss. He just received a strange update. An agent had disappeared and his contact at the CIA was concerned. No one seemed to know what mission he was on and where he was, which had caused some general confusion amongst his contacts at the agency. No one was sure what to make of it. Yet there were some who were very distressed. These agents were not part of the agency they had good relationships. Something completely different was going on and they didn’t like it one bit. They paid good money to make sure things went their way.

I have a real radical idea

And I must tread real cautiously here. I still remember 1979 and that still holds much water in how we should view Iran, nor do I say we should elevate them in world politics.

Yet I think we should start taking a neutral stand when it comes to the House of Saud and Iran. We need to maintain a strong presence in the region for many security reasons, yet we do need to make some overtures to Iran for a variety of reasons.  They need to come back and offer something in return for what happened in 1979 and I doubt they will offer much if anything, yet we need to open that door. I know Israel will not be happy, yet in the long run this may benefit Israel. There is some delicacy needed here. 

The House of Saud takes us for granted. I am not saying break relations, but they need to change some of their ways and we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the House of Saud in how they treat their people just to have their oil.

It is time to start changing the geopolitical landscape a bit and make sure we know who are allies versus who is taking advantage of us because of our self-interest.

And this post is some foreshadowing to what a person might learn when I get back to my story. The story though is fiction; this post is to get people thinking. 

Just some additional comments

Let’s put some context into the statement Donald Jr.’s meeting with the Russian lawyer is not illegal (a recent headline).

First of all, people are right when they say illegal immigrants cannot vote in our elections.  Illegal immigrants have no right to vote, there should be no argument about it.

Or think about the Citizen United decision. There should be no way foreign governments or even foreign money of any type be allowed to be donated to any organization that sponsors money for a campaign, or advertises on their own for an issue or candidate. Just like it is illegal for illegal immigrants to vote; the same rational applies to foreign money being involved in our elections. Citizen United basically opens a Pandora’s box for abuse of our elections if we cannot know who is donating to some of these funds this ruling allows. This ruling should be overturned.

And so, it goes for any discussion or information from any foreign entity to influence our election.  You have a right to hold meetings with anyone as long as laws aren’t broken. Once you entertain using foreign information to influence an election, which on a side note how can you trust, you are engaged in illegal activity. This is subversive to our national security and the election process.

No foreign body has our best interests at heart. So, whether it is an illegal vote, foreign money, or foreign influence, any American engaging to help this activity should be held accountable to the people of this country no matter who.

And why cannot the Republicans pass healthcare reform? The answer is simple. They are trying to reform the ACA which wasn’t healthcare reform at all. It moved money around and required people to have health insurance, yet it did not do anything to reform healthcare. We will not have healthcare reform until the patient is the primary focus.  Doctor’s must be allowed to put their patient’s health first and not the financial well-being of everyone else and unfortunately including themselves.  Yes, doctors should be paid well, yet their bills should reflect their services not a mountain of other people because of how dominant the insurance industry is in the process.

Healthcare is care of us. It Is care of our health when we are sick, and yet it should also be care of our well-being and preventative health. Republicans or Democrats have not done this yet. Any bill focused on the money first, will always fail. And with lobbyists from the AMA, insurance companies, for profit hospitals, and groups that represent specialists etc… competing or protecting their special interests, how is the patient going to be the primary focus of Congress?  Healthcare reform will be a misnomer until healthcare is the actual focus of any legislation.

And I add my usual rantings about how both parties are failing us. Seriously, things will not get better until we make it better. Congress has completely forgotten that the primary focus should be the people and the Constitution. Everything else should be discarded.

I will add to my story soon and I promise to pick up the pace a bit with some action. Some ideas are developing in my head.

Comments then more story

I am sure you have heard the phrase don’t cry over spilled milk, well,,,, what about spilled Crown Royal. Ha ha ha ha ha

Don’t you get tired of working with people who kiss _________ then when you point out a problem and fix it, management treats you like the bad guy.

I have seen more families fight over nothing. No one is happy and nothing gets resolved.

I am on a campaign to get people to realize there is a difference between alt right and Russian trolls versus people who voted for Trump because they are just flat our angry. Sooner or later when the deal goes down on Trump we need to walk them back to regular America or they will be prime candidates for the real crazy alt right characters.

One of these days people will realize the Democrats have nothing to offer anymore. Nothing. Republicans have the responsibility of Trump and yet Democrats won’t win because there is nothing inspiring about them. Think about it. Clinton and Pelosi were the leaders of the party for a while. And it is not about them being women, it is about they just do not have a clue as to leadership, nor do they have any ideas to move this country forward. And ask yourself this: who do you think are the Democratic leaders? Especially on any type of youth front?

Now the story continues______________________________________________________________

Samuel had called the clinic and was told they could handle a patient for a few days. The problem was and Samuel had forgotten this, someone had to register and be responsible for the patient. This meant there would be a trail to follow. He had tried explaining to the Doctor the need for privacy and quiet, yet the Doctor would need to explain to corporate management what was going on, if they found out. Samuel again was glad he ran a local hospital and had large amounts of autonomy.

Daniel walked into Samuel’s office. Well, he asked when are we moving Greg. Samuel said he was still working on the details. He got an idea and called the clinic. The doctor there agreed. Basically, anything and everything that would be used from a band aid to medicine to any emergency procedures would either be replaced by the hospital or would register as done in the hospital. He could then bill Greg’s government insurance through the hospital and bill as a hunting accident. This much was already in the system. This allowed him to show Greg as a patient while in the clinic and if anybody checked on him at least all the bills would be coming from the same entity. He could rectify with the clinic later and the doctor agreed.

Now how to sneak Greg out of the hospital. He needed to load him into an ambulance quietly. The SUV was still in the back of his mind. The night admittance employee knocked on his door.

What? Did they show you ID? How did the FBI find out about Greg? The employee said he didn’t know and they were at the front. Daniel went to check.

He asked them for ID. They told him they were FBI and had heard a prominent person had been shot. Daniel asked them again for ID. They said they would be back and the FBI didn’t have time for local hacks like him.

Daniel knew they were not FBI. He had worked with them before and knew this was not how FBI agents acted. Now Daniel and Samuel felt a real sense of urgency. Did someone tap into the computer system and get the information that a hunting accident victim had been admitted. They had not entered his personal information yet just because they did not want the locals to swarm the place. Now they really wanted to keep his info private.

Daniel walked around the hospital and saw no signs of any SUVs on side streets or the couple of local restaurants near the hospital. He didn’t feel reassured.

Samuel spoke to Sandra about moving Greg and the need to be ultra careful.  He told her he didn’t feel comfortable about the Greg staying there because it may cause a stir either with the press or the local community that would make it difficult to run the hospital. He did not say anything about the so called FBI agents.

Greg was moved very carefully through the back of the hospital. He was taken down a freight elevator to the back door. Samuel had briefed the head nurse and a couple of others they were moving Greg and he needed their silence. They willfully agreed. Greg is still very popular.

He also had called the nurse that knew Greg from their youth and she agreed to meet at the clinic. He was glad she would meet there. Better to have less traffic in and out here. He was ahead of himself now. He was moving Greg before he really took over what he needed from the hospital, yet the urgency of getting Greg to the Clinic was paramount. He called and orderly to a different floor and asked him to load into one of the vans some equipment. The orderly knew something was up but agreed to quietly load half the equipment from the room. Samuel asked him to wait about thirty minutes then bring the van to the food loading area and load from there. It was late now so most of the kitchen staff would be gone. The rest probably wouldn’t care so better not to say anything to not peak their curiosity.

The back of the hospital had employee parking and behind that some side streets without much development, a few doctor’s offices and a pharmacy. Mainly the streets leading away from the back of the hospital could be easily viewed. Daniel left out the front door and got in his car. He headed away from the front of the hospital headed west, made a wide circle around town always checking his rearview mirror and then patrolled the streets behind the hospital.

While the sheriff was driving, Greg was taken down the freight elevator, and brought up to the loading zone entrance. The sheriff called the ambulance driver directly. The ambulance also left from the front of the building, turned back and entered the emergency area. The shift nurse had been watching from a room on the top floor. She did not see any vehicles react to the movement of the ambulance and let the Doctor know. He called the ambulance driver and then this time he very quickly went around to the back of the building. Greg was loaded into the ambulance in less than a minute and the ambulance drove off towards the streets behind the hospital; drove for a bit; all the while the sheriff watched from a distance then followed. No other car or vehicle moved. The ambulance made it to the clinic and circled once before heading to the back entrance. Greg was unloaded into the clinic, however, because the doctor was by himself and still not sure what to do it took some time. The sheriff never actually went to the clinic, just kept a watch around the streets near the clinic.

And luck was with everyone. By chance a person was there who needed a ride to the hospital. He had been waiting up front so had no idea of Greg arriving. The doctor asked the ambulance driver if he could give the person a ride. The ambulance driver agreed, but called the doctor and let him know what was going on. The doctor was glad because if anyone saw the ambulance drive from the clinic they would see the person get out and enter the hospital. The patient was showing signs of having a heart attack, yet if one, very mild. The ambulance will be able to arrive with lights and siren thereby causing quite a distraction and maybe might flush out the SUV guys again so he could get a good look at them himself.

Also, while this was going on, Sandra and the daughter could ride with the orderly and the equipment.

Daniel knew Greg was going to have to stay at the hospital a bit longer and he both hoped the SUV characters would come and not come. He didn’t need any more anxiety about this situation. No one showed.

Soon everyone was at the clinic that needed to be there, the doctor agreed to stay till Samuel arrived and he also generously allowed Sandra and her daughter to use his office couch if they decided to sleep. The nurse and the doctor were going to be up all night.

Daniel drove around for a few more hours then went home to sleep for a few hours. He knew tomorrow was going to be a long day and better if anyone was watching for him to act like nothing was wrong.

The two black SUVs were parked at a motel in a nearby town. Two groups were debating if not fully arguing if they made a mistake when one group of them had entered the hospital. They were not one hundred percent sure Greg was there. They never found him, but they didn’t know the terrain and they had no idea if they had even hit Greg. The uncertainty had put them on edge. The sheriff being at the hospital led them to believe Greg might be there, but no idea if any injuries existed or the extent of them, if anything at all.  They could not spend too much time looking for him because there were hunters walking through the area throughout the day. They did not know he was found by the one person who could keep something like Greg being shot quiet. He had stumbled upon Greg almost right after he was shot and called the sheriff. Unfortunately, he also picked up Greg and carried him to his truck which aggravated Greg’s injuries. He rushed him to the hospital and was met at the door by the Doctor and a nurse and was rushed upstairs to the first room immediately. Hardly anyone realized what happened.

For Greg, outside of getting shot, his luck was with him in keeping his assailants unknown to his condition and whereabouts.

The two groups were to the point of fighting. Their assignment was to assassinate Greg, make it look like an accident and be gone. So far, they had no idea and now the possibility of some of them being on any hospital security cameras, which they were, ramped up the tension. The tension jumped even higher when Paul’s (his real name?) phone rang. He looked at the phrase unknown number on his phone and answered. Everyone went silent. All he said was “ongoing”, no other comment; listened for a couple moments more then everyone heard the click of the other line, even though the cell phone was pressed hard to Paul’s ear. Paul looked sick. Everyone knew this was a very delicate operation and they were picked because there was faith they could pull this off without leaving a trace. Now they knew the people on the other side were having doubts. And they feared for their own lives. They needed to give a better answer tomorrow than ongoing and then leave. They had to confirm or they would be gone by now, not worried about success, but their own hides. And quietly they all started worrying about the local sheriff. He also got a good look at them. They all wondered how good security cameras inside and out were at that hospital. Only one group had gone, so the other group felt slightly better. Yet not much since their employers knew them. 

Read me a story Grandpa.. read me a story Grandpa

As regular readers know every now and then I attempt to write a free style story on this blog. Most of the time it comes in parts and sometimes I add other commentary on the same post. I do not know if anyone believes me or not, however, I write this as I feel at the time of the writing. I usually have some type of concept or a beginning or ending, yet the majority is based on me just sitting down at the time and working on it. I do not go back and rewrite it. I just sit and type whatever portion of the story is next and then move on.

I also try to write stories from start to finish that are rewritten or reworked to actually flesh out a theme, point, or just the story. I wrote my first one years ago and put it on Smashwords. I have other stories and other ideas I would like published to see if I can make money. Unfortunately, to get on Smashwords where it will sell on the Kindle type devices it takes some cover art requirements that I just cannot seem to manage to produce. Every now and then I crawl out of my shell and try speaking to people to find someone who might work on computer graphics. Hopefully my last foray into asking someone if they know anybody will be a bit more productive. For now, though I just post these free style stories on the blog just for fun. I hope you enjoy.

And a couple of secondary comments before I begin. If you make a mistake while driving such as missing an exit or turn the wrong way or get in the wrong lane, please do not inconvenience half the world and try to fix it by doing something horrendously wrong. Too many accidents are because someone just made a mistake then tries to correct it at the expense of others. Yes, it may take you three minutes to go somewhere and turn around, however, that will save you and thousands of others hours by not having the accident. Better to arrive late than dead.

And working downtown I see much pedestrian activity. So, if you cross the street against the grain of traffic/red light you have no right to yell at the driver who just slammed on their brakes to avoid killing you.

People just think they are more important than other people.     Where on this wonderful planet do they get that idea?

And now to begin the story

The sheriff entered the hospital room of a lifelong friend. He looked at him laying on the bed; tubes everywhere, machines bleeping, lights dim, what family he had in the waiting room for the time being, and for the first time felt fear. He did not know why. There was no reason for Greg to be here, he thought. No one was sure what happened. Best guess so far was a hunting accident of some kind. Maybe a stray bullet from someone else who didn’t realize Greg had been out in that spot of the woods. Truth be told, he didn’t like that answer. So much so that he immediately decided he wanted Greg moved to a different hospital and moved very quietly. How could he arrange this right now?

The Sheriff went and found the Doctor in charge. Luckily for the Sheriff it was another lifelong friend, who also felt some dread as to what happened. They all grew up in a rural county. Everyone knew each other and all the boys had grown up hunting together.  This is one aspect of the accident that bothered the Sheriff. Everyone knew Greg and knew he had come home to vacation, which always included hunting. His wife and daughter were at the family home when they got the news and had rushed to the hospital. They were both very distraught and were more worried about him surviving than what had happened. The sheriff wished he could think the same. Greg had always been a great friend and a blessing to the community as whole.

Greg had started his business right after graduating from the University, He earned his business degree and did the usual search for a job right away. Greg discovered he didn’t want to work for anyone else after trying to bullshit his way through a few dozen interviews. He had done well and had received many offers. He just didn’t find a company he liked. So, he came home and within a few years had one of the county’s most thriving businesses selling and financing farm and small construction equipment. Everyone loved him and he did well by his customers. His business grew to the point where most of the western portion of the State was a customer of his in some way or another. He had met his wife in college, yet when he brought her home she was just as loved as he. His daughter was prom queen in high school and was currently attending the same university as her parents. He was the American dream and he heard this all the time.

A few years ago, he turned fifty and decided he needed to do more. He had come to the Sheriff, an old friend to ask his advice about running for a political office. Daniel joined the sheriff’s department right out of high school, eventually went to the community college, then attended a small college at night while working with the County Sheriff’s office. He was as liked as Greg and as soon as he graduated college he ran for the office of Sheriff and won. He had held the office ever since. Daniel was about the only person Greg knew that had run for office. Greg had put so much time into his business he had never given any aspect of politics any thought. He didn’t even know what office he could try to win. Daniel and Greg had talked for hours and Greg left still unsure as to what he wanted to do. The memory of that night was haunting Daniel since he had encouraged Greg to run. He knew Greg would be just about the best representative the people of their county could ever have. He was hard working, successful, always gave money and time to the local charities, fair in his business, and flat out just a high-quality person. Daniel had joined the Republican party because he thought he needed to be in a party to run and he felt he was conservative. Daniel himself was someone of good character and very community oriented. He didn’t need a party, he just joined one. Everyone knew him growing up, just like Greg and the other boys who played sports for the high school. As a team, they were well rounded and loved. More than a few local hearts were broken when Greg left for the University and worse when Greg came home engaged and got married soon thereafter.

The Doctor, also of the same high school group, was not an athlete, yet everyone knew he was going to be something special. He was voted most likely to succeed and people said he was going to be a doctor. He worked as the team manager, yet spent most of his time working with the local doctor when someone got injured. He came home to practice after finishing school, internship, and residency because he was quite shy and practicing where he grew up was quite all right by him.  Many others stayed, some left, yet all kept in touch. When word started getting out, Greg wanted to do something it didn’t take long for everyone to tell him what to do.

The local Republican party jumped at the chance of having him run for office, however, Greg wasn’t too thrilled about Party politics. And because Greg was so popular, he pretty much won by acclamation as an independent. Yes, in just a few short months of campaigning Greg garnered enough support to win the District for House of Representatives in D. C.  And he never campaigned in the traditional sense. He just talked to people that wanted to talk to him. He was and still is a political neophyte. The culture in D. C. was a shock to his wife and him. Yet he managed to grind his way through his first term and now was in his third term. He was both liked and hated in D. C.

And very well respected. Since he was an independent his vote was courted on just about every issue. At this point in time Congress was just about evenly divided. His vote meant something. He heard from the Democratic and Republican caucuses, the lobbyists, people back home that needed something and even people who just came to visit D.C. In some ways, he was put off by all of it and in some ways, he loved it. He knew he was in a unique position to affect legislation so he worked hard to study the issues and vote based on what he thought was the better idea. Sometimes his constituents applauded him, sometimes that got upset, yet he had so much respect he was able to work through it all and win handily each time he had run.

There were a couple of other independents, however, they were different people from different parts of the country and they had very specific agendas. He did not always socialize with them, however, in the press and in the party machineries they presumed all the independents acted in a similar capacity. This was far from the reality. Each of them were very independent and if the national press and everyone else had really paid attention they would have seen the disparity in their voting records.

Even though the Doctor felt something himself, Daniel didn’t know how to really address his fears. Was he just overly concerned and once more information came to light the story would become complete? He didn’t want to tell Sandra, Greg’s wife, that something was bothering him. He was trying to figure out how to convince people they needed to move Greg quietly somewhere else. Daniel looked out the window and saw a few people outside the hospital he had never seen before. Could the national press have already heard something and were down to check on this situation? He hoped not. He figured this to be a high possibility. A Congressman was a national figure and people do keep tabs on them.  The Doctor addressed Daniel. You seem overly worried about something. Daniel was silent on purpose. Even though he was Sheriff of a rural county, you eventually had to do investigative work and he knew being silent was the greatest way to find out things. The Doctor kept wondering aloud about the type of wound and even the bullets that were taken out of Greg. BulletS. Daniel heard that and hadn’t realized Greg had been shot more than once. He looked at Samuel. Samuel continued. There were three entry wounds in the upper left shoulder from behind. One barely touched the heart, one punctured a lung, and one grazed through the top of the shoulder. And the Samuel mentioned it was probably someone chasing after a deer running and had stopped to fire through brush. There were traces of leaves and such in the wounds. Yet Daniel was thinking that is serious coincidence that all were so close. Yet he and the doctor knew if it was a hunter and had fired quickly, yet what type of rifle did the hunter have, to fire that quickly to put them all in the same spot if trying to hit a deer running through the brush. They both discussed the hunter must be from out of the area. Not because he hit Greg, but the conditions of the accident were of someone who did not know the area since where Greg was found was a known trail and most people would not shoot in that direction. Most people would be headed to deer blinds and other spots from the direction Greg was found. Daniel looked at the Doctor and said I want to move him. Now!

Samuel was perplexed. At this point he had no reason to believe anything other than an accident by an out of towner who should be beat publicly because this was Greg, but just needed to be found to clarify what happened.

A nurse approached the Doctor and said there were some people in the lobby who were inquiring about any accidents that may have happened and if everyone was okay. Daniel asked her if she had answered and she said no. She didn’t like the looks of them and told them today was just another routine day. Samuel turned to Daniel and said he is in very critical condition and waited for the nurse to walk away. He had asked her to continue to keep the news quiet so the hospital didn’t get overrun by too many well-wishers. The nurse knew Greg and thought this was a good idea. Neither man tried to let on to her the amount of apprehension that both felt grew dramatically. Samuel continued. He is very critical, yet stable. I know a small emergency clinic that is not too far. It is more of a doc in the box, but they can keep someone stable for a few days if necessary. We might be able to move some equipment over there also. We could load a small truck first and set it up. I know the doctor there. I will call him and ask when he shuts down if we can bring a patient because the patient needs quiet and the hospital has too much traffic. He is from out of town, but is a pretty good guy. We might be able to convince him to stay quiet. I am not sure though if some of these people or if press start asking questions what happens. Right now, it is our best hope for movement. I can call another nurse to stay the night with him. You might remember her, she was a few years behind us in school. She had a huge crush on Greg so she could be trusted to keep quiet.  Even though there were quite a few girls that liked Greg Daniel knew immediately who is the nurse and immediately worried that Sandra didn’t find out about this girl from high school. Sandra was going to need to stay the night also he figured. He hoped they didn’t talk much.  

Daniel looked out the window. The SUV and the men that were there earlier were gone. He decided to drive around the hospital and the block just to make sure they were gone before moving Greg.

Samuel went in and looked at Greg. He was scared to move him. He didn’t tell Daniel that Greg was barely hanging on. Barely. Yet for some reason he didn’t like that Greg was shot and now there were strange people hanging around. It could be the national press. Or maybe it is another hunter who may have realized he shot someone and is trying to find out something without giving away he was the shooter. The Doctor’s fears subsided a bit. That would explain much, yet he still decided till we know and especially if the press, better to keep Greg's injuries quiet. Sandra still struggled a bit with D. C. so she would not tell anyone unless it was absolutely required.

Now how do we move him? He ran the hospital and knew everyone so he knew the staff would keep quiet. Thank God, we are where we are.

To be continued….