by David Hearne
“Mr. Hill, I’m totally aware of the futility of our current programs, but my administration would produce biodiesel from algae that is absolutely doable and financially feasible. We will also promote the use of solar and wind to produce electricity.”
“That is a great plan, but by the time you could get elected and get anyone to even listen to your ideas my colleagues will have the price of diesel so high that no one will own or want to buy a diesel vehicle. The market will just be a bunch of big rig redneck truckers who will just keep buying our product because we won’t let biodiesel into our pumps. And as far as wind turbines and solar energy goes, we have enough members of congress on our side to stop any projects that we want killed. Look at the Cape Cod wind energy project our friends in high places have totally stopped. The truth is Senator you will have to work with congressional members like that. Power hungry pompous blowhards that don’t do shit for their constituents, but with our money keep getting re-elected.”
“So, Senator your election would not hurt us at all because we have so many friends in congress that your pet bills would not pass unless we approve them.”
A red faced Frank Payne pointedly said, “Mr. Hill, I am sure you already know that Senator Laforge could not accept any contributions from your group, so we really are just wasting each other’s time. I do thank you for your candor, but we both know we have nothing in common and any association with your companies would hurt our campaign. So, Mr. Hill I think our conversation is over.” Frank stood up to bid Mr. Hill good-bye.
Mr. Hill stayed seated momentarily and then with a wry smile began to rise, “Frank, Katherine, I think you need to think more about this because you are dealing with an industry that has more money than most countries and supports enough of congress that your interference is not just a threat to profits, but also to your national power structure. I am sure you have read the story of Pinocchio. Remember wicked Honest John and his companion Gideon, who work for the evil puppeteer, Stromboli. Well, you have many Honest Johns and Gideons in your midst so be careful or Stromboli will be pulling your strings for free.”
With that he picked up his briefcase and walked toward the exit. At the exit, he turned, waved and mouthed “See you soon!” and then exited.
“That was an interesting meeting,” Katherine said. “What in the hell did he mean by his Pinocchio statement?”
“He means to divide us and make us paranoid. Between threats, telling us how hopeless our cause is and planting the seed of distrust between all of us in hopes of destroying us.”
“So Frank, was this just a chance to threaten us before we get things rolling or do you think they actually thought we would be interested in their offers?”
“I think it was both. But the whole thing is more of a threat than anything else. Katherine, enough talk. This is your first day back, go upstairs and spend some time with Ira and your daughter. Tomorrow is another day and we will do better if we have some time to digest some of what we have discussed.”
“And I am sure you need to spend some quality time on the phone with your new wife.” Katherine said as she winked at Frank.
She felt a bit of relief as she stood in front of her hotel room door. It was her first day back working on her campaign, and she saw a ray of hope again. She opened the door and walked into her suite. She froze as she saw a blond hair woman standing over her husband holding a pair of pointed scissors. Their eyes met and Katherine tried to rush to her, but her braced leg prevented any speed. Suddenly, Ira said “It’s time for you to start looking Presidential. I called Felicia and begged her to come and get you looking like your old self again.”
“Felicia, I’m shocked to see you. How have you been?”
“Well, Senator, I think it’s more like what has been happening in your life. My life has changed a bit since I last saw you. I now have my own hair salon in Beaumont, Texas called Felicia’s Studio West, and I am doing quite well.”
“That’s fantastic, Felicia. I always thought you would have your own place. This is wonderful that you came. Do you think you can really salvage any of this rat’s nest?” Katherine tousled her hair with her hand.
“Senator, your husband asked me to come here and give you a makeover and that is what I intend to do. When we are done, you will look beautiful and very Presidential.”
“I think you have the makings of a politician, with big promises like that.”
“Katherine, sit down and relax,” Ira said, “and let her get going so she can get home before midnight.”
“I am so excited to help you, Senator.” Felicia smiled as she unfolded a smock to cover Katherine. “Since the last time I cut your hair, I have been worrying about you. I can’t imagine how hard it was for you in Iraq. Now, please sit back and close your eyes, while I work.”
Katherine obliged, and as she relaxed, she thought how wonderful it was to have a husband so thoughtful to have arranged for her favorite hair stylist, Felicia to come to the hotel to give her a makeover. She loved him.
The next few weeks were a flurry of meetings with various groups. Katherine met with congressional groups, grass roots organizations, union representatives and others that could give her a better vision of the direction she needed to take to get elected. During the same period, Ira had commissioned a ghostwriter to draft her book detailing her Iraq experiences. She now had the fun of constantly recording tapes of her experiences for the book while trying to assemble a campaign team that exuded confidence and professionalism. But all this was necessary if she wanted to win the election.
Finally, the real campaign trips began. Frank Payne had scheduled Kat to appear on July 15th at a very interesting event in Round Rock, Texas. It was the start of the Dell-Winston Solar Car Challenge, a 1500-mile race with competitors from Colorado, New York, Indiana, Mississippi and Mexico. The Round Rock, Texas to Cocoa Beach, Florida race is unique, because the solar powered cars are designed, constructed and driven by high school students. It’s a great spotlight on renewable energy and helps educate the public to the potential of solar power. It was an event that expressed Senator Laforge’s deep-seated belief, that the sun could provide much of our energy needs.
On a warm overcast Tuesday morning, Senator Laforge was introduced to a frantic Danny Lantrip and Keith Reese who were busy trying to assure that the Houston, Mississippi team was up to the challenge. Kat’s campaign manager had read about their team’s inspiring accomplishments and had relayed the Senator’s admiration of their successes. Her pro solar power stand won her a personal invitation to accompany their team on the race circuit.
An odd looking vehicle stood In front of her, stretching out about seventeen feet and standing four feet high. Perched on top was a six-foot wide solar panel resembling a magic cape flowing out behind the seven hundred pound car. The solar vehicle was named Sundancer, and was the car that all the other teams would target to beat. At its controls sat Cody Spenser, who would drive it the first leg of the race.
The threat of Claudette, a category 1 hurricane swirling off the Texas coast had intensified the normal race jitters. The news had reported that its 80-mile an hour winds had spawned dangerous waterspouts in the choppy waters near Galveston. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) was predicting five to eight inches of rain in affected areas. Another looming problem for the race, was a huge dust cloud from the Sahara Desert that was hovering over Texas causing hazy skies. The dust cloud was driven by the same easterly trade wind that carried Claudette to the Texas coast. These two phenomena had the potential of shutting down the Dell-Winston Solar Car Challenge. For the time, however the threat had energized the event, increasing the level of excitement for the teams and viewers.
A team of 8 students headed by Mandy Davis raced Sundancer. The team consisted of four girls Mandy, Sherrie Springer, Jessica Sykes, Angel Kilgore and four boys Justin Black, Jesse Lal, Matt Mangrum, and Cody Spenser. The students, this morning, were all on edge. This event marked the pinnacle of their life and each felt their
share of competitive anxiety. Much could happen in this eight-day odyssey giving any of the four competing vehicles a chance to beat them. The Solar Stealth from Columbus, Indiana and the Sol Machine V from Newburgh, New York, however, were their biggest concerns. They felt that these machines had superior design and posed their biggest threat.
Kat was feeling troubled also. Recently, she had started receiving disturbing “Hello Kat” phone calls and then silence. They always registered private on her caller ID. The voice was always a woman, and she thought it was the same voice each time. No threat, just a simple ‘Hello Kat’ and then silence. That horrible sensation in her stomach was back. Maybe it was the call, or maybe it was a fear that she was exposing others to something more than they had bargained for when they invited her to their race. The rhetoric and protest against her were becoming much more hostile as her campaign gained momentum and her views taken more seriously by voters. She hoped her presence at this student event would not be marred by protest or worse. This was their event and she wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible, just another spectator.
Despite the menacing hurricane and the Sahara Dust Cloud darkening the Texas sky, a large crowd had gathered waiting for the race to begin. Sundancer would start the event. At precisely 9 AM, the green flag descended and Sundancer whined away from the starting line. Its destination was Palestine, Texas 161 miles away. Fifteen minutes later, all five solar cars were scurrying along 79 to Route 84. People lined the route to see these apparitions of the future. Some resembled a Jetson bubble car while others had the alien look of a Star War’s creation. But these vehicles were real, not movie props or inventions of big industry, but the realizations of teenagers unfettered by the politics of profit. Their creations were a window into a tomorrow of new energy innovation.
Senator Laforge and Frank Payne in their rented Honda Hybrid joined the caravan of vehicles trailing the five solar cars buzzing down Route 79. Local news crews lined the road reporting the minute-to-minute action of the event and describing in detail the solar cars and the teams behind them. The five schools and fifty plus students involved in the event provided many interesting stories showcasing education and youth with character. For the national networks, with their penchant for the morose, good news is not news and their school related news of the day became the death of a sixteen-year-old Dallas, Texas high school student who shot and killed himself on campus.
The competition was fierce, with each team trying to log as many miles as possible in the shortest amount of time. The Sundancer struggled to maintain its lead position and behind them the Solar Stealth followed like a foreboding shadow. The day was hot and the small cockpits were stifling under the Texas sun. By mid afternoon, with miles and miles behind them, the perspiring drivers with their eyes stinging from sweat had the town of Palestine, Texas finally in view. As the sun-powered vehicles whizzed into town, they were welcomed by curious looks and excited kids who were enthralled to see these colorful strange contraptions.
After 161 sweltering miles, the evening’s top priority for the exhausted team members was the removal of sweat soak clothes, refreshing showers, meals, and rest. For some, sleep would elude them as they lay in bed, eyes wide open speculating on their team’s probable placement and watching a swollen orange moon creeping slowly across their window. Tuesday’s results would not be announced until the following morning at 8 AM, when the judges would report their observations and any penalty miles assessed against a team for infractions of race rules.
The same night, Senator Laforge was taking in the quaintness of the Wiffletree Inn. Frank Payne picked this lodging because it was famous for its ghostly apparitions. The low orange moon cast another dimension of eeriness to the two-story house built in 1911. The ghost haunting 1001 N. Sycamore Street was said to have appeared as a filmy apparition descending the staircase and expressing itself with a tirade of door slamming upstairs. Frank did not believe in ghosts, but found the stories entertaining. What he really liked was the Wiffletree’s promise of a homemade breakfast of eggs benedict, freshly baked bread and coffee.
Senator Laforge looked forward to a relaxing shower, meal and hopefully good news on her campaign progress. She was not particularly thrilled that she was staying in the only haunted Bed and Breakfast in Palestine, Texas. Her main goal was to stay focused on the immediate problems and the progress of her campaign.
Frank Payne did have some good news for her, but along with it a bit of bad news. The good news was private citizen contributions to her campaign were drastically up. Her campaign coffers were also receiving money from alternative energy companies that would benefit from her election. Contributions now totaled in the millions yet trailed her opponents. The best news was that Libertarians were seeing her as the most viable candidate representing their views of the two major parties.
“Now the bad news!” Frank Payne grimaced as he spoke. “A large protest by “Citizens Against Sales Tax” led by some big name Hollywood stars have planned to stage a protest in Macon, Mississippi on Saturday. The latest we have on it is that pro oil and nuclear energy groups are being bussed in also.
Large donations from oil industry, nuclear energy companies, lawyer associations and the Hollywood crowd are providing a media blitz about how your sale’s tax will ravish many businesses that survive solely because of special tax breaks. Hollywood claims that their industry will suffer immensely because movie tickets will cost more and movies will be more expensive to produce because of loss tax breaks.
It is really sad that the greed of a handful of Hollywood elitist would trash an event that these kids have put so much into and their communities have supported so well.
Well, that is four days away. I want to get more information on it before we make any decisions.
Wednesday morning a ground mist hovered over the Palestine High School’s parking lot. It rippled like a ghostly veil around the shimmering metallic vehicles. By 8 am the five solar cars were joined by their respective teams. Some members busied themselves wiping away the tiny crystal like droplets that sparkled on the solar panels. Others just gazed attentively at the assembled judges. Wispy tendrils of mist spiraled about them, as they anxiously waited for the results of the previous day’s race; finally, the presiding judge held a list in his hand and asked for everyone’s attention. An instant hush fell over the group. The judge glared down at the list and started reading what everyone had been waiting to hear. The results of yesterday’s race are as follows: Fifth place position. “Chamizal Solar Car Team.” In fourth place was the Colorado team “Sunshine Mountain Traveler.”
Now the knots in the stomach of the Houston team were tightening. They knew that the race had to have been tight, and they could really be in virtually any of the remaining positions.
The Judge read off, “Third place is “Hudson Valley Solar Car Team”
Now it was between Houston and their archrival the “Solar Stealth”
Who would be read next….?
The judge looked up at the teams and announced that the two remaining spots were only less then eighteen miles apart in their overall score. A very close race at this point. Another long pause as he looked out at the competitors. “Ladies and Gentlemen second place goes to Solar Stealth.”
The ecstatic yelling of the Houston team drowned out the announcement that they were now in first position.
By 9 am, the sun had melted away the mist and Sundancer stood waiting for the fall of the green flag to start the race. The solar cars would race from Palestine, Texas to Natchitoches, Louisiana a 171 miles journey. They would follow US 84 and pass through the towns of Maydelle, Rusk, Reklaw, Mount Enterprise, and two towns Tex Ritter immortalized, Timpson and Tenaha, Texas in his 1950 song “Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair.” At Tenaha, Texas they would cross over the Sabine River and be in the Pelican state about halfway to Natchitoches.
After the last vehicle disappeared from sight, Senator Laforge and Frank Payne hurried back to the parking lot for their re
nted car. They would be trailing the Houston Team and wanted to be as close to the Sundancer as possible. Just as Senator Laforge reached the gate of the lot, her cell phone rang. She looked at it with a bit of trepidation and was relieved when she saw that the call registered a real number. The call was from Las Vegas. Senator Laforge snapped the phone opened and gave an inviting “Hello”
“Hello Senator, this is Judy Treichel with the ‘Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force’, we met a few weeks back!”
“Yes, Judy. It is so good to hear from you again.”
“You asked me to keep you informed on any news about nuclear waste issues. Well, I think today’s dismissal of a ten billion dollar lawsuit for the Paducah, Kentucky uranium plant workers meets that criteria.”
“What is the story behind the lawsuit?” The Senator asked.
“The workers who were exposed to plutonium at the Paducah plant filed a lawsuit back in 1999 to compensate them for their health problems and for management’s decision to expose them without warning to much more radioactive material, plutonium and neptunium. Former plant operators, Lockheed Martin and Union Carbide Corp., as well as General Electric Co. were also named in the suit.”
“Judy, are you saying it was all dismissed?”
“Oh yes! The U.S. District Judge ruled the plant operators were exempt from any liability because they are protected by the 1957 Price-Anderson Act that limits the liability of private operators of nuclear facilities ‘in the event of a nuclear related incident.’ It is a protected industry unlike any other.”
“That is awful!” Exclaimed Senator Laforge.
“Until you see places like Paducah, Kentucky or Hanford Washington, Senator, it would be hard for you to imagine how nuclear waste can affect a community. It is an industry that preys on the poor and communities that offer little else for employment.”
