by Mark M Bello
“The third order of business will be to beef up law enforcement in this great country of ours. We will increase border security and immigration and naturalization enforcement. We will create a new federal police force within the Department of Homeland Security answerable only to its secretary and to me. This force will be the finest of its kind and will be tasked with protecting our citizens from foreign interests seeking to destroy our country and our citizens.
“We will make America beautiful again. We will modernize our airports. We have the worst airports. Third world countries have better airports than we do. We will make our country’s airports the biggest, brightest, most technologically advanced, and beautiful airports in the world. We will repair and replace our crumbling roads and bridges. Our crumbling infrastructure will be replaced using state-of-the-art equipment manufactured right here in the good ol’ USA.
“We will put America back to work again, as these tasks will be performed by American-born workers. Advanced technology systems will require workers with twenty-first-century advanced technological skills. In with the new, out with the old, I say. Our natural resources will once again take center stage in the global economy. No more political correctness in energy production. We will put people back to work in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and produce energy for our people at a fraction of current cost. How will we do this? By producing energy right here in America and curtailing our dependence upon foreign sources, especially those sources that sponsor terror. We will focus on price and American pride rather than the junk science and political correctness that has driven up the cost of our energy and ignores resources we can mine for-profit and supply to all corners of the globe. It is high time for America to assume its rightful role as a global energy leader.
“Finally, we will round up and deport all of those who have entered into and remain in this great country illegally. Round them up and toss them out. I have no use for criminals, and these illegal immigrants are a huge part of the criminal element that makes our law-abiding citizens less safe.
“We will combat terrorism and the global terrorist threat by taking the war to the shores of the terrorists and by banning all current and future immigration from any country I deem to be a sponsor of terrorists and terrorist activity. And, we will create jobs by assembling and training the best and the brightest national immigration and deportation force in the world. We will beef up federal, state, and local law enforcement departments, which will create more law enforcement jobs, manpower necessary to tackle the problems of local, state, national, and international crime. It is time to prioritize safety in this country. We will be the law and order capital of the world.
“We will make America safe again. We will make America strong again. We will put America first again. We will make America secure again. We will make America prosperous again. We will make America pure again. With your help and God’s will, we will succeed in making America a shining city on a hill once again. Thank you . . .
Chapter Two
“ . . . God bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.”
Arya Khan watched the Ronald John acceptance speech again and again on her laptop. Who was he talking to? She had been glued to the national television news stations for months watching every report she could. She was fixated on social media and reviewed real news, false news, or any news she could find that would help her understand the issues and calm her fears that this man could actually become the President of the United States.
She tried to provide reasonable commentary when an article permitted comment. She engaged her friends and fellow students in thoughtful conversation. The polls seemed to favor Secretary Goodman, a decent, inclusive politician whose campaign slogan was “We are one America.” The polls, as Arya had feared, were dead wrong.
The campaign battle was waged along racial and ethnic battle lines. John seemed to be the candidate of white Christians who, he said, were being shoved aside by politically correct politicians seeking to promote the rights of minority interests. The “minority interest” that bore the brunt of the new president’s rage was the Muslim population. Throughout the campaign, he referred to terrorism as “Islamic.” He vowed to stop the flow of Muslims into the country and to “weed out” those Muslim criminals that were already here.
But whom was he talking about? Not Arya and her family? She was born in the United States. She was an American citizen. Her parents were naturalized citizens and as loyal to the United States as any Christian person. Weren’t they all endowed by the Constitution with the same rights and privileges as Ronald John? Didn’t she have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Could this evil man make good on these campaign promises?
Arya was an American citizen, born in Dearborn, Michigan, the daughter of devoted parents who fled war-torn Yemen in the mid-1960s for a better way of life in America. Arya’s parents worked hard to establish roots in the multi-cultural Dearborn community. They owned and operated a popular local fruit market, purchased and built from the ground up with the sparse remnants of family money earned in the old country.
Arya’s ancestors fled Northern Yemen at a time when the small Middle Eastern country was involved in a series of conflicts with Egypt and then-President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Nasser sought regime change in Yemen as far back as 1957. In 1962, he offered the Free Yemen Movement financial support, office space, and airtime on the radio in an effort to bring about the change he sought. Nasser’s prestige took a severe hit as the result of his falling out with Syria and the dissolution of his UAR (United Arab Republic). He sent expedition forces into Yemen, concluding a quick victory might assist him in regaining a leadership role in the region.
A quick victory was not achieved, and the country became embroiled in a war waged on multiple fronts, involving several governments, and political and geographic interests. By the middle of 1965, approximately 15,000 Egyptian men and 40,000 Yemenis were dead, and Egypt was facing a financial crisis. Despite billions in foreign debt, Nasser implemented his “long-breath strategy.” He planned to reduce troop size from 70,000 to 40,000, withdraw from the east and the north where his positions were more exposed, and to concentrate on two particular border areas. The United States threatened to revoke some or all of a multi-million-dollar food and infrastructure aid package and, still, Nasser refused to pull his troops out of Yemen. He vowed to stay in Yemen for twenty years if he had to. The “twenty years” never happened. Significant economic and political pressure prompted Nasser to negotiate a treaty in 1967 and Nasser withdrew his troops shortly after that.
In 1966, multiple gas bombings were reported, along with numerous injuries and fatalities. The most significant attack occurred in their own village, Kitaf, where gas attacks caused 270 casualties and 140 deaths. Arya’s family was safely in America by then, embarking on a new life in the land of the free.
The family settled in Dearborn, home to the largest population of Arabs in the United States. The city’s Arab community has been growing for at least a century, a growth that accelerated simultaneously with the Detroit area automobile industry.
Henry Ford, in the early and mid-twentieth century, recruited thousands of Middle Easterners to Dearborn to work at Ford’s mammoth River Rouge plant. Contrary to the stereotype, many of those who fled the Middle East for a better life in the United States were not Arab, they were Iraqi Christians, Chaldeans, fleeing Muslim persecution. Dearborn, however, seems to be one place where Muslims and Christians have been able to live and thrive in harmony, peace, and prosperity.
The community has certainly not been without conflict and controversy. Orville Hubbard was Dearborn’s most famous and longest-serving mayor. He served from the early 1940s to the late 1970s and embraced segregation. In 1985, a man named Michael Guido won the mayoral election in Dearborn after mailing pamphlets to constituents promising to address the city’s “Arab problem.”
A few decades before, the introduction of bilingual education was controversial,
as were halal options in school cafeterias and the sight of traditional headscarves on Muslim women. Not so today, however, as the city, informally known as the Arab and Muslim capital of the United States, has elected its first Arab-American city council president and added its first Arab-American chief of police. Dearborn is the home of the largest mosque in the country, and a third of its population is of Arabic descent. Its crime statistics and its average annual citizen income figures are slightly less than the state median.
In the midst of all of this local peace and harmony, a man named Ronald John was now the President-elect of the United States. He campaigned on a platform that promised to “rid America of the Muslim scourge.” What does this mean? Arya pondered. Does this man seriously intend to engage in the process of deporting all Muslims, whether here legally or illegally, whether citizens or non-citizens? Isn’t that unconstitutional? Arya Khan was inspirited and . . . terrified.
Other Books in the Series
Betrayal of Justice (Book 2)
Betrayal in Blue (coming soon)
About the Author
Mark M. Bello is an attorney and award-winning legal thriller author. After handling high profile legal cases for 42 years, Mark now treats readers to a front-row seat in the courtroom. His ripped from the headlines Zachary Blake Legal Thrillers are inspired by actual cases or Bello's take on current legal or sociopolitical issues. Mark lives in Michigan with his wife, Tobye. They have four children and 8 grandchildren.
Connect with Mark
Website: www.markmbello.com
Email: [email protected]
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To request a speaking engagement, interview, or appearance, please email [email protected].
