Lone Star Rising

by Kurt Winans

  While preparing for bed with Ashley nearby, Savanah asked her, “Hey mom, when will Jason be coming home?”

  “He will be here in a few days honey. But before he can leave West Point, he has some paperwork to fill out with the United States Army.”

  Traditionally the Memorial Day Holiday would be recognized on the final Monday in May, much like Thanksgiving would always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. As a consequence those federal holidays, along with a few others, floated with regard to an actual calendar date unlike the fourth of July. Memorial Day had been established as a holiday which would acknowledge and pay respect to those within the various branches of the American military forces who had given their life for the United States. During the spring of 2027, that holiday fell on Monday the thirty-first.

  While many citizens across America typically treated that or most any other holiday as a reason to escape either their workplace or school, and would accordingly take advantage of a three day weekend to enjoy some fun or adventure, others would use Memorial Day for solemn reflection. For those who chose the latter, various traditions had evolved over time so that proper respect could be given to those who had sacrificed while serving. One such honored tradition of the holiday involved Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C., which included a brief service taking place at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The site maintained a vigilant twenty-four hour military guard throughout the entirety of the year, and depending on the time of year, would perform a changing of that guard every thirty minutes or hour in part for the viewing public. However the events of Memorial Day provided an additional spectacle. The established typical routine for every year was that the current President of the United States, as the Commander and Chief, would visit the tomb. Then with the seemingly ever present cameras of the media buzzing about, place a wreath of flowers near the markers depicting various foreign wars. For Jordan Harwell it would be his third such ceremony, but unlike his two previous years while in office, he would also be attending two other events of significance which had been added to his schedule.

  For those in the Secret Service the schedule of May thirty-first for the President had been known well in advance, and had initially posed somewhat of a logistical challenge. The process involved with securing three separate locations away from the White House during a single day was not exactly the norm, but if that was what their duty called for, then so be it. Agent Bishop realized that if one looked upon the intended visits and logistics of the day, it resembled a typical day on the campaign trail. Although the supposed normalcy of such hectic events during President Harwell’s re-election bid of November 2028 wouldn’t begin in earnest for several months, a comparison could still be drawn.

  With advance teams which included additional personnel and hardware already in place, and the media present at each location to record the memorial services, President Harwell emerged from the White House with Agent Bishop faithfully at his side. They, along with a minimal entourage, then arrived at the first stop of Arlington National Cemetery via the motorcade roughly ten minutes later. After the proceedings had been completed in the same customary fashion as previous years, the President prepared to depart for site number two. Upon returning to the White House via the same route, the President and his entourage were quickly transported from the south lawn in Marine One via an aerial shell game of three helicopters to nearby Annapolis Maryland. That added security measure of moving the President to and from the White House for reasons when a motorcade would not suffice had been employed by the marine helicopters for decades, and there was no apparent reason to deviate from that strategy. Although it would be relatively easy for an onlooker to know which one of the three the President had boarded, once the birds took flight and began a random switching of positions within the formation, such knowledge would become more difficult. Therefore in order to be moderately confident in the identification of the prime helicopter a person would need to observe the entire flight, but additional security measures had made such a task nearly impossible.

  Once upon the grounds of the Naval Academy where former United States President Jimmy Carter had been a midshipman, President Harwell would be joined by several other high ranking dignitaries. The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, Rear Admiral Ellis who was serving as the current Commandant at Annapolis, and finally, Vice Admiral Rutherford as an invited academy alumnus would be seated on stage with the President. After the ceremony had been initiated via an opening prayer, President Harwell would give a brief speech in remembrance of November fourteenth. Then he would request that the Secretary of the Navy unveil the memorial which had been designed and built to honor those four hundred and three midshipmen who had been killed on that horrific day.

  At the conclusion of the ceremony, the President would have lunch at the academy along with the present dignitaries, and then be on his way. The helicopter shell game would be played out again, only instead of returning to the White House, the three birds would head for nearby Andrews Air Force Base and the home of Air Force One. President Harwell would then take a short flight north to New York, where he would be met by a different set of marine helicopters which would perform a separate shell game for the jaunt up to West Point. The President’s helicopter would land upon the historic parade fields of the military academy, which had been trod upon during countless drilling and parade occasions by former cadets Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In much the same way that President Harwell had admired Jimmy Carter as a Naval Academy graduate, he maintained a special place in his heart for those two particular cadets. President Carter had chosen a diffident path during his years of military service, but both Grant and Eisenhower from West Point had ascended during their life to the high rank of commanding general before eventually becoming President of the United States.

  A similar ceremony to that of Annapolis would then take place at West Point in honor of their three hundred and eighty-one cadets who had perished, with the Secretary of the Army being the one to unveil the memorial. Scheduled for the sake of fairness, President Harwell would then have an early dinner with the West Point dignitaries before his return trip to the White House.

  The entirety of the day went off without a hitch, which could be directly related to the organizational skills and extreme level of focus by those within the secret service and the representatives at each of the three sites. Both of the memorials, although different in appearance, had been beautifully sculpted and positioned for easy viewing. As directed, each memorial was adorned with the name of all fifty states and the District of Colombia, along with those young men and women from each who had been slain. President Harwell, although once again saddened by the need for it, had been pleased with the ceremonies and presentation of the memorials. Accordingly, he made sure to publically compliment and thank those responsible for delivering their outstanding work on time. However during the viewing at both Annapolis and West Point, Agent Bishop had noticed something that stood out, at least to him, as being rather unusual.

  Heath had looked first at the overall memorial before naturally shifting his gaze toward his home state of Nevada. In each instance the list of names, even if that list had contained only one, was longer than it ever should have been. Varying from first to fourth class, each academy had lost between four and seven bright young minds from Nevada, and it struck him deeply. Continuing on he glanced at every state beginning with Alabama and ending with Wyoming. Some had lost more, while others less, but when he viewed the names from Texas, Heath was amazed. In spite of the size of Texas as second largest within the fifty, and a population base with the same ranking, there was only one cadet from West Point and two midshipmen at Annapolis which were listed as having been killed. Mathematically such a figure just wouldn’t make any sense, as Texas would inherently have more attendees than states with a significantly lower population base or total square mileage.

  In his mind Heath believed that something of such magnitude should have be
en noticed by others. If not first identified by those clerks preparing the list of names, then certainly by their superiors who would approve the list. If each firm or individual who would design and build the body of the memorial didn’t notice, then why didn’t those who would be carving out the names notice? If those receiving the finished product hadn’t noticed during the positioning of each memorial upon the grounds, then why didn’t either commandant recognize that lack of Texas names when they most surely snuck a preliminary peak at it? Finally there was President Harwell. Although he most certainly had a myriad of more pressing items on his mind, the President still should have noticed the glaring imbalance with regard to the slain individuals.

  Perhaps his particular oversight had been due to a general disgust over Texas, and how they had decided to separate from the United States while he was the man in charge. For that matter the President may have never looked at the names from Texas as a result of those personal feelings. Whatever the reason for missing the obvious, Heath was surprised by the apparent lack of awareness by any of those whom he had mentally listed, as it just seemed impossible to him that not one person other than himself would have noticed. On the other hand perhaps someone did notice throughout the process, but due to the time constraints of the project or simply not caring, had never mentioned their discovery.

  When the Republic of Texas introduced its version of the dollar to the world on March first, an agreement had been struck with each of the major stock markets in various financial centers throughout the globe. That temporary pact was based primarily upon the United States willingness to accept that the fledgling Texas dollar would have an equal opening value to that of the long standing American dollar. What was further agreed upon for that Monday of more than three months prior to the current date, was that the two currencies would remain at an equal value for at least the entirety of March in order for Texas to obtain some level of financial stability. However as of April first, market forces would take over in determining the respective dollar values and how they fared both towards each other and the wide range of additional currencies throughout the globe.

  The plan had helped Texas per the hope of her Legislature, and until recently had produced no negative impact upon the United States. Just like the promise of March, April had also come and gone with no change in the value of the dollar. However on Tuesday May fourth, there was a slight nudge. With Texas having successfully established multiple trade agreements with neighboring nations in Central and South America, along with several more countries located across vast stretches of ocean, an increased belief in the ability of the republic to build a strong singular economy began to take hold within various markets.

  Following the lead set forth by both Asian and European trading, Wall Street in New York bumped the value of the Texas dollar to .99 against the United States dollar. In simple terms, it would only take ninety-nine cents of Texas money to purchase an American dollar. At the time what was interpreted as a minor blip meant nothing in the grand scheme, but it was a sign of things to come. By the middle of May the rate had changed again to .98, and the republic then announced that it had decided to halt its export of oil to her former parent nation as of June first. That action had been a serious blow to the intentions of the United States and in particular Vice President Sutherland. He had just days before announced his intent for the Presidency in November of 2028 instead of remaining on the current ticket as the running mate of President Harwell. The man had badly miscalculated the savvy of the Legislature in Austin, as well as his ability to exploit their oil interests for his political gains. Beyond that the Vice President had introduced the possibility that his political party would be fractured over who to support, and that could very well leave him out in the cold.

  As for his country in general, the United States would also feel the effect from decisions made in Austin. What President Harwell had preached in his most recent state of the union address was not coming to fruition. Although it was true that many more jobs had been created in various sectors throughout America as a result of Texas production and manufacturing being taken away, the country had indeed been impacted economically by the loss of all that her former lone star state could offer.

  Aside from those factors was the ability of Texas to streamline many of her programs and policies. It had been an area which the United States never seemed to be able to get a firm grip upon, and the new republic was giving them a lesson in how to accomplish more than what was expected in a short amount of time. Texas cut away many of the social programs which America had become financially encumbered by, while actually providing an avenue for many of her citizens to become more self-reliant. That was not to say that the republic didn’t care for her citizens which were truly in need, but the Legislature had eliminated many of the aspects which gave people an easy excuse to believe that they were in need.

  To further bolster the republics economy, no jobs or manufacturing were being exported by companies to other countries in quest of higher profits for a select few. The long-term result of that policy would be that more employment positions could be held by either Texans or those who lived in neighboring communities and commuted for their jobs. By doing so the financial burden placed upon the republic for any unnecessary or often exploited unemployment benefits could be minimized. Then there was the military, and as its forces were extremely minimal in both size and scope to those of America, the cost of running the associated military machine was mere pennies on the dollar comparatively. Finally the gold standard came into play. Not only did Texas have a cache of gold which had been transferred to Austin from the Federal Reserve way back in 2015, but that supply had recently been added to in exchange for the wealth of American dollars which were sold back to the United States throughout March and April.

  When all of that was taken into account, it was little wonder to those within the markets that another bump was forthcoming. Then true to their predicted form, a few days after the Memorial Day weekend a bump which equaled that of the previous two occurred. The new value stood at 0.96, which caused some citizens within the United States, especially those who lived or worked near the border with Texas, to take notice. As nearly two more weeks passed and the value hit 0.94 by the closing bell of Monday June fourteenth, some of the powerbrokers within various state Legislatures began to look at what had transpired with a more discerning eye.

  The United States had just completed a nationwide celebration throughout the July fourth holiday weekend of 2027 to commemorate her two hundred fifty-first birthday, but many of those celebrations paled in comparison to the previous year. The noticeable decline in the festivities could perhaps be attributed to a non-milestone year when put against that of 2026, but many people in different quadrants of the country believed that it was the result of something more significant. The country as an entity just didn’t feel quite the same as during past years, while the progress to which the Republic of Texas had demonstrated during her first six months of existence was perceived by many as bordering on phenomenal. As a result, the leadership within their capitol city of Austin had gained a measure of respect from other legislative bodies.

  Upon reconvening for session on Tuesday the sixth of July, discussions were begun within several other state capitols to explore the possibility of their respective states becoming separate nations as well. Although for many the move would not be practical for either a singular or a wide range of reasons, a considerable amount of positive reaction quickly developed within the capitols of Sacramento and Carson City. In the days and weeks which followed, several lawmakers in those California and Nevada Legislatures bantered over the fact that the two states could break off from the United States to form a singular nation in much the same way that the republic of Texas had done. It was felt by some that with the combined abundant natural resources and an economic base which exceeded those of Texas, their proposed new nation could actually outshine what had become known in legislative circles as “the lone star rising”.<
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  Word of that belief from the west coast reached Washington D.C., and soon after, a report had been forwarded to the White House. When President Harwell heard of the proposal on July twenty-sixth he blew his cool and began to clinch and unclench his left hand in rage. Fortunately for the President, the only ones to witness his minor tantrum were trusted associates which included Heath. Then after regaining a moderate level of his composer, the President asked, “Are California and Nevada really serious about this, or is it just idle talk?”

  Christopher Westin responded with, “Sir, my sources tell me that they are only in the discussion phase. However unlike a few other states who entertained the idea of separation for little more than an hour or two, those in California and Nevada have been in talks about the possibility for three weeks.”

  Throughout the next several minutes the President ranted over why such an act of treason toward the United States must be prevented. In his mind California, as well as Nevada, could simply not be lost from the union. The nation had already been fractured with the loss of Texas, and it was unthinkable for any further crumbling to occur while he was in office. President Harwell pointed out that he had been aware during his many years of living in or near Seattle Washington that there was a general dislike for California, and of those people who lived within it. Such a perception was not just a provincial view for many who resided in the Pacific Northwest, as it was generally shared by many within other regions of the country as well. In some cases that distain of California may have been justified, because some who resided within the state had certainly not done anything to squash the perception of their state being extremely self-centered. With that being said, the President also pointed out that a portion of the reasoning behind such an attitude toward California was unfounded and perhaps centered on nothing more than a level of personal jealousy. President Harwell could speak truthfully to the point, as he had personally met and developed friendships with native Californians throughout various decades of his life. By also visiting the state several times, he knew that it possessed a wide range of genuinely warm caring people and natural beauty. Beyond those factors there were the business opportunities that lay within, which included a vast scope of employment potential not to be easily matched.