Enhanced

by Cosca, Paul

  In just 347 words, President Robert Kennedy did what no other government official had done before: he publicly recognized the Enhanced community. He even gave them a name that became the official moniker. What could be seen as a curse or a deformity was now transformed into something different because of these words. From that moment on, they were the Enhanced. And from that moment on, they would not be silenced.

  Unfortunately, our second president Kennedy did not achieve his real goals. A

  deadlocked congress stopped any major legislation in the ways of civil rights. His older brother had passed the Civil Rights Bill, but RFK could not expand on it. And although he worked tirelessly until his death for the cause, history does not have a grand opinion of his time in office. But despite his fruitless presidency, the Enhanced community knows they never had a truer friend than Bobby.

  August 13th, 2001

  Colorado Springs is a lovely place, but I’m not sure I’d ever want to live here. In the six hours I’ve been here I’ve seen hard, driving rain, strong winds, hail, and now it is completely bright and sunny. I don’t know that I’d enjoy living in a place where the weather changes its mind quite so often.

  I’m here today to check the pulse of the evangelical movement. Colorado Springs has become one of the focal points of the movement, with mega-churches cropping up all over the city. I’m visiting one of the biggest and most popular, The Church of the Pure and Sacred Christ, led by pastor David Solaris.

  I grew up around churches, mostly community based things and a couple liberal Methodist churches. This...is not like that. If you didn’t know beforehand that it was a church, you might guess that this was a factory that made some kind of mindless widget day and night. It doesn’t even have the aesthetic appeal of an old factory. Instead, it is a monstrous, huge brick building. I have never seen a building that looked quite so boring and ominous at the same time.

  The inside is better looking, but only barely. The main hall must seat over a thousand people. There is carpet, but it is thin and grey (perhaps that makes the pulpit show up better on television). The carpet even extends up the walls. The pews are incredibly simple, built for utility rather than style. The pulpit is more ornamental, and it is also absurdly large: you could easily do Aida on it, elephants and all.

  Pastor David Solaris is a lot like many other mega-church pastors of today. His teeth are very white. His skin is tan, and his hair is perfectly coiffed. But David Solaris has one thing that separates him from others of his ilk: he comes from a political dynasty. David’s father and grandfather both served in the Senate, representing Arkansas. David had been set to follow in their footsteps, but a few ill-timed run ins with the authorities put a stop to that. Instead he went to rehab, got clean, and found Jesus. He now speaks to nearly a thousand people from his pulpit every Sunday, and hundreds of thousands more when the sermons are broadcast on television. He is a sensation.

  As the sermon commences, I can see why people are drawn to him. He transitions from affable to brimstone-hurling effortlessly. He weaves words as well as any storyteller. Today’s sermon, like many others, is about purity. Purity of spirit and of blood. He has little love for the Enhanced.

  As Solaris says, The Bible uses the word “pure” dozens of times. Whenever God asks for a sacrifice, he demands it is something that can be pure. Abel brings the lamb, and its blood and sacrifice is pure. Cain brings vegetables, covered in dirt, and it displeases the Lord. In listening to the sermon, it seems difficult to do anything that doesn’t displease the Lord.

  He doesn’t come right out and say it, not in this sermon anyway, but the message is clear: only those who have pure blood can get to heaven. And that, in his eyes, means Enhanced are definitely out. I’ve interviewed people on all sides of the issues, but I’ve never felt quite as uncomfortable as I do right now, sitting among people who seem to blindly hate the kinds of people I have spoken to and shared with. They seem to hate people I happily call my friends. I am grateful when the sermon ends, even if it means I have to sit face-to-face with the man who gave it.

  DAVID SOLARIS: Did you get a chance to hear the sermon? Good, good. Now, I know you may not agree completely with the message, but that all right by me. We don’t have to agree. In fact, the bulk of the good work we are supposed to do while we’re here is about spreading the word. You can’t just preach to the choir all the time. We have to get out there, spread the word to those who need to hear it. Like you, I imagine. We could all use some good news sometimes.

  Now, I am of the understanding that you are here about the Enhanced. Representing them or writing about them, is that about the gist of it?

  I explain the project a little more fully. He doesn’t look very interested.

  See, I don’t really understand that. I guess people will write about anything. People will read anything, too. But not me. I’m a little more

  discerning about my reading material. But I am happy to spread the good word to those who need it. And it seems like someone who’d pick up that book could use a dose of The Word.

  The Bible tells us many things. It tells us to be good people. It tells us to honor and obey. The Bible tells us about the kinds of things that God loves and the things he hates. Above all, God loves purity. He is pure, so of course he loves his own. And though we are rats compared to the purity of God, we become worthy by giving everything we have to get closer to that purity. Those who choose to revel in sin...I fear those souls are lost.

  That is how I have always felt. I came from a proud, religious family. My daddy, god bless his soul, should have been a pastor. Instead, he went off to Washington. Fighting for souls is tough work. Fighting in politics is nigh on impossible. My daddy, like his daddy, told those folks the truth and they spit it right back in his face.

  My grandfather, Daniel Solaris, represented the great state of Arkansas for many years. He played key roles in many pieces of legislation, even casting one of the key votes in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Voted for the bill. Mhmm. I see that look. You hear my accent, you know where I’m from, and you assume. Everyone makes assumptions. Easy to assume that just because we hail from the land of Dixie, we must not be fond of minorities. Well friend, that is just not the case.

  There are plenty of unenlightened folks out there who dislike black people because of the color of their skin. To me, that just does not make sense. Science does not back it up one bit. You go skin deep and we’re all on the same playing field. You go deeper than that, right down to all those building blocks that make us up, and we’re just the same. Our DNA, you know it friend? My grandfather knew all that, even if there were others in that congress who didn’t. He was an enlightened man.

  But enlightened doesn’t mean foolhardy. He could see the writing on

  the wall. When that...well, I could just come right out and say that Robert Kennedy was a communist, and I don’t think that would be untrue. But I’m not the kind of man that needs to speak ill of others. When the second president Kennedy made that speech talking about people who were Enhanced, my grandaddy knew right away that what he was really seeing was trouble.

  While everyone else seemed to have their heads up in the clouds, dreaming of heroes or other such nonsense, he knew the truth of it. When you’ve got people there...people who are fundamentally different than us...people with, I don’t know exactly what to call it. Some people say “enhancements” like it’s all politically correct. But me, I don’t see anything correct about it. What they really are are mutants. Genetic mutants. You’ve got these mutants out there, and Lord only knows what they are capable of and...you want to let those people be out there with the rest of us?

  Listen, when you have something dangerous out there, the government’s job is to regulate it. To protect us. You can’t just go down to your local supermarket and pick up a dozen grenades, right? I couldn’t go out and get...I don’t know, plutonium or something. Couldn’t do it. Dangerous things are regulated. Even guns are regulated because, in the hands o
f the wrong people, they can be dangerous. Although many in my congregation don’t agree with that kind of legislation, I can see the use of it.

  So we can regulate guns, put a ban on assault rifles, even. But what’s the difference between a man with a gun and a man who can bend steel with his hands? The difference is that the second man is far more dangerous. His hand looks like any other hand until it hurts you. That’s something my grandfather knew as soon as Kennedy made that speech. He set about making a fine piece of legislation to help keep us all safe. A registration. A real simple thing. You have to register cars. And guns. He didn’t want to cause those people harm or restrict them. He just wanted to know who they were and

  where they were. And looking back on it, would that have been such a bad thing?

  They wouldn’t even hear it, though. He crafted a fine piece of legislation and they wouldn’t even vote on it. The fools. Those terrible, selfish fools wouldn’t do a thing to help the country they were elected to protect. It was more than my grandfather could bear, being with people like that. So he chose not to seek office again.

  My daddy won his seat in 1973, and he took it upon himself to finish the work my grandfather had started. Between 1973 and 1977, he drafted six...six pieces of legislation about the subject. And you know what? Each of those would have done something to help what happened there in Chicago in ‘77. He would have saved lives. Thousands of lives would have been spared, but they didn’t listen. He was fighting for a cause nobody knew existed. They had stars in their eyes, and you know what it got them? Death. Destruction.

  After that horror happened, he had another bill on the table immediately. And finally, they listened. The Enhanced Vigilantism Act was a wonderful piece of legislation. Beautifully written. It was functionally similar to many of the pieces he had introduced before, but this one tied it all together. In my mind, it’s one of the most finely crafted pieces of legislation to come from Washington. It’s a pity it doesn’t have equal standing with the bill of rights. It was because of it that we, as a nation, could move forward. We could heal.

  I do want to make it clear here...I don’t hate anyone. No. There is no hate within my heart. I know there are preachers out there who teach hatred. But Jesus teaches us that love is the answer. He tells us to hold our brothers and our enemies just as closely, and I try my best to do just that. So I have no hatred in my heart for these mutants. What I have is pity.

  If you were on the street and saw a beggar on the sidewalk...would you hate him? Of course not. And if this beggar had some terrible, filthy

  disease, would you pity him? Yes, certainly. But would you take him in your arms, allowing him to infect you? Jesus could do such things, but I am not Jesus. I am a man, and I cannot cleanse someone whose sickness goes right down to the blood. And that right there is the message I give to my flock. We should pity these people. Pity all those who bear the mark of Cain. But we cannot keep the eye that offends. We pluck it out. We cannot give them shelter or keep them close. To do so would just bring ruin on us as well.

  I certainly do not wish these people harm. But I cannot say I wish them well. They are a blight on us. A blight on our society. Like any sickness, it would be best if it could be eradicated. Perhaps that is harsh, but it is what I believe. And it is what I believe the Bible tells us. The more they are allowed to spread their sickness into the world...well, the more they do that, the more people we have on our hands who are fundamentally unclean. The Bible tells us that He loves purity. What can He possibly do with these people, marked as they are? I suppose if there is any force that can help these lost souls, it is the love of God. But God is not just love. God can be wrath. And I fear that if we allow these marked creatures to stay close to us, then we will be subject to God’s wrath as well. May God have mercy on all our souls.

  Data from The United States census report, 1970:

  Of the Americans surveyed in the census, 10,562 United States citizens indicated that they are in a classification that can be referred to as “Enhanced”. Of those 10,562 “Enhanced” citizens, the demographics are as follows:

  57% of “Enhanced” citizens are of Caucasian descent.

  41% of “Enhanced” citizens are of African American descent.

  2% of “Enhanced” citizens are of American Indian, Latin, Asian or “other” descent.

  Of the 10,562 United States citizens that indicate a status of being “Enhanced”, the socioeconomic levels are as follows:

  85% of “Enhanced” citizens indicate they earn an annual income of $10,000 or less.

  12% of “Enhanced” citizens indicate they either wish not to disclose income information, or earn so little as to not qualify for a tax bracket.

  3% of “Enhanced” citizens indicate that they earn an annual income of above $10,000

  November 20th, 1999

  I am in Norristown, Pennsylvania today. The small, cozy town outside Philadelphia is affectionately called “The Borough”. There are less than 40,000 people here, and the whole place exudes a friendly vibe that I am incredibly drawn to. It’s just a few days before Thanksgiving, and I am glad to be in a place that feels like home.

  I’m visiting Dr. Marlene Fosbender, and the good doctor’s reputation far precedes her. She is the head of neuroscience research at Penn State and has single handedly authored most of the information we have about the RGR virus’ effects on the brain. But in the lovely Victorian-style home she shares with her family, she’s Mom. She half-heartedly yells up at the sounds of loud children romping around upstairs and they half-heartedly throw a few “sorry”s back down.

  We sip a little homemade eggnog and watch the snow fall. I wish my own home felt so much like...home. We’re here today to talk about science and history, two of her favorite subjects. Her eyes light up as she begins.

  DR. FOSBENDER: I taught a class last semester that was all to do with this, you know. The History of Neuroscience and the RGR Virus. Not a required class for anyone, I just had some time in my schedule, and I wanted to share what I knew. Maybe I’m out of touch...I don’t know. But I think this stuff is fascinating! I was pretty excited for it, but only three people signed up. Three! Can you believe it? Is it our culture? Does society encourage that kind of...blindness to the past? If we don’t look to the past...if we don’t understand what happened before, how in God’s name are we ever going to get better? And I’m not just talking for history majors here. I think everyone needs to embrace history. Scientists, too. Especially scientists. How the hell do these young scientists think they can go change the world if they don’t know what got them to this point in the first place? Like I said, maybe I’m out of touch.

  The fact is, everything we know about the RGR virus, about its

  effects on the brain, has been discovered in pretty much the last thirty years. That’s it. The way we look at the whole world has completely changed in the past few decades. In Neurology, it’s basically a brand new field. That’s so cool. You don’t get that with math. The Pythagorean Theorem is the same today as it was when Jesus Christ was using an abacus.

  By the time 1970 rolled around, the whole thing was really on a new path. First of all, society had changed a little. You finally had people coming out and admitting that they were Enhanced, which is something nobody really talked about before. They knew it, it just wasn’t a subject that came up. It was still a bit of a touchy subject, but you had some people who were actually proud of it. If you were taller or faster or had joints that moved in funny ways...you could at least laugh about it instead of hiding.

  But when it comes to the brain, there weren’t a lot of people who were proud of what was going on with them. And I think there are two main reasons for this. The first is simply practical. A brain enhancement isn’t something like...running faster, or having purple eyes. you can’t just see it. And the second thing, more unfortunately, is that there is a serious stigma regarding anything that looks like a mental illness. If people think you’re crazy...mental health is a tricky
thing. It’s unfair, but it is what it is.

  Okay, when I talk about brain enhancements, I should probably explain myself a little. When you work in academia, you tend to assume a certain amount of knowledge in those around you, but that’s not always the case. So. Okay. So the brain works with waves. That much is obvious, right? If you get an EEG, you just have to put the sensors on the scalp. It’s not like you have to dig around inside the brain to detect what’s going on in there. Those waves just go right on out. And you know what else works on waves? Everything! Sound is waves. Light is waves. Some physicists like to say that if you break down molecules to the most basic of parts, what you’ll find is that all matter is made of waves. Heck, even wimpy little sound waves can break

  crystal glasses.

  So you and me are working with these tiny little brain waves. Can’t even rustle a leaf with them. It’s like...imagine you’re trying to knock down a wall, and all you’ve got is a feather. Now, someone else comes along, and they’ve got a sledgehammer. Some Enhanced people...they’re working with completely different equipment. Totally different level of waves. But that doesn’t mean that everyone who has Enhanced waves is a superhero. There are people who have Enhanced vocal chords, but they aren’t bringing down the walls of Jericho. However, there are a few whose enhancements are...extraordinary.

  In 1970, even though there was plenty of documentation of people with physical enhancements, there was a great amount of skepticism about those with mental enhancements. And there was good reason for that, because most of the people who came forward were frauds. “Psychics” who said that, because they were Enhanced, they could read palms and speak with the dead. And of course, they’d be happy to prove it for a low, low fee. There were a million wild theories about what mental enhancements might be like, but no proof. Not until a man cried “fire”.