It had been a hundred days since O.U.T.R.A.G.E. rebels blew up the White House, the Capitol Building, and thousands of other structures around the country. As in most Presidential elections, an incoming President is given the first hundred days to get his act together, so to speak; after that, he's fair game for criticism from all comers. The raw devastation it had inflicted on the nation was reason enough to despise this well-financed group of revolutionaries. Then they - as the country's only structured organization of any authority - found themselves dealing with the after-effects of a massive west coast earthquake that had virtually leveled Los Angeles County, and a destructive hurricane that had ravished America's east coast. This was no simple transition; it had been the worst hundred - day "honeymoon" American voters had ever been through.
Friday, April 25, 2008 was a gloomy day over most of the country. Rescue and recovery teams were still actively searching for bodies, cleaning up mega-tons of debris, and trying to open roads, restore communications, and care for the injured. Clergy and psychologists were working 'round-the-clock trying to console those with family members who had been victimized by the explosions, the hurricane or the earthquake. Considering all the destruction, there was surprisingly little looting; people all across America seemed to have come together to help each other instead of thinking only about themselves.
Undoubtedly, there was an undercurrent of resentment among those who had been affected by the 'Rebellion of '08', but it seemed to be quelled - or at least subdued - by the fact that the nation was in turmoil and there was no time for vendettas or vengance. There were sick and injured to take care of; rebuilding to commence; and restoration projects galore. Every available able-bodied man, woman and child was recruited into service. Volunteers poured in from all over the country to help in the most devastated areas. Police, fire, and emergency personnel traveled from thousands of miles inland to help tend to the municipal needs on both coasts. Hospitals were filled to overflowing; doctors and nurses worked 36-hour shifts without complaint or compensation. Many municipal governments were allowing authorized individuals to raid pharmacies, pharmaceutical warehouses, and clinics destroyed by the disasters, in an attempt to obtain as much medicine as necessary.
The O.U.T.R.A.G.E. telecasts continued from St. Kitts without stopping. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there was special programming being fed to television stations across America that were still operational. Interviews with Colin Powell and John McCain were played and re-played. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members, expert in their respective fields, conducted workshops and seminars on how to deal with different side affects of the disasters. Call-in shows were popular as citizens either phoned or e-mailed questions, asking what to do about anything and everything - from how to free a trapped family member's body from tons of crumpled concrete to how to get enough drinking water and food for individual families. Soup kitchens and shelters were identified continuously, with addresses scrolled across the bottom of the television screen. Millions of victims were virtually homeless, having lost all of their possessions. People in the 'heartland' - which had not been affected by either the hurricane or earthquake - were quick to help with generous donations of clothes, food, money. The American Red Cross was overcome with those wanting to give blood, or help put first aid kits together, or make up bandages.
Churches were full, sometimes day and night, all week long. Business remained opened; employees continued to go to work; yet, employers dutifully allowed their workers to come and go as they pleased if they wanted to volunteer or if they needed to tend to personal matters.
Insurance companies, banks, government facilities, and big business Taj-Mahal headquarters - all pretty much obliterated - were impotent to react. Local insurance agents, local community banks, local government operations, and small businesses, however, were functioning at extraordinary levels of competency. It was becoming apparent to most that "big" wasn't better after all. The "big" organizations only created too many levels of meaningless authority and supervision. 'Small' was much more manageable, could react with much more flexibility, and with much more compassion since they didn't have tiers of hierachies to answer to, or worry about this quarter's bottom line. Activity was streamlined, functional, and far less interfered with, sans mountains of paperwork, useless 'reports', and nit-picking data collection. It no longer mattered that a unit of product had to be sold at a 36% profit margin; it no longer mattered that a professional white-collar worker valued his or her time at a hundred bucks an hour. All that mattered was getting a job done and helping others - a venture that millions of Americans had lost sight of for decades. Bean counters and lawyers would no longer rule big corporations. Politicians would no longer rule without total accountability to the people.
The 'Rebellion of '08' had struck a blow at the very heart of what ailed America. It had cut out the gangrene at a terrible human and material cost. Earthquakes and hurricanes helped complete the process. Innocents had died. Not-so-innocents had systematically been eliminated. With the cancerous tissue removed and dead, the healing process could begin in earnest and a healthy restoration and reformation could take place.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members like Phil Baker, Ron Oetting, Lynn Patrick, Patrick Hamilton, Jil Adams, and thousands more had every reason to be proud of what they'd done. In an uncivilized world, they had helped detonate the most uncivilized acts of evil. But from that evil could come - and would come - good.