Sunday, April 27, 2008 was a stormy day across much of the U.S.A. Strangely, the east and west coasts were unaffected, but the heartland of the country witnessed strong thunderstorms and gusty winds. Some communities even reported tornado touchdowns, but no deaths were attibuted to the storms. One incident in Marion, Ohio completely destroyed the Verizon Customer Relations office there. All eighteen people n staff were uninjured, but operations could not continue. Debris from the building littered the Columbus-Sandusky Road, closing it to traffic for more than seven hours. While itself a devastating event, a group of Marion volunteers who had just returned from the devastation in New York City seemed calmly used to the scene of such wreckage; they had observed damage hundreds of times worse in the past couple of weeks.
Amidst the backdrop of wet, gloomy weather, churches across the nation observed Easter with special celebrations and memorials. Millions of people attended special services which served to give rebirth to people's faith and patriotism. Their were some secular Easter activities, of course: Easter egg hunts for the children, and many community groups gave out baskets of jelly beans and chocolate bunnies. But for the first time in recent memory, the true significance of Easter seemed to be the focal point: Easter eggs, candy, Easter hams, and family get-togethers were a lesser portion of the celebrations this year. It was a Sunday full of worship, thanksgiving, prayer, and solemnity. Even non-Christian churches and synagagues marked the occasion with a certain reverence toward their fellow churchgoers. There was scant evidence of Christians, Jews, and Muslims being separatists; nowadays, regardless of religious persuasion, "we are all in this together," said a Lutheran minister in Boise, Idaho.
Services continued in many places throughout the day, and into the evening. Local television stations broadcast services to those who were in hospitals, or to shut-ins who couldn't leave their homes. Some communities held candle-light vigils to honor the millions of people who had died in the past hundred days.
At O.U.T.R.A.G.E. headquarters in St. Kitts, activity bustled. New political parties were being formed and 'chartered'. In the field, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members were successfully recruited highly capable candidates willing to run for political office in the upcoming November elections. "Career politicians" were, if not extinct, certainly an endangered species. Voters would certainly reject anyone who even toyed with the idea of not imiting political terms in office. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. was serving as a clearinghouse for registering all these candidates and disseminating information to local election boards. The process was going swimmingly without the need for national, regional, or statewide hierachies. Local election boards could function very well on their own, thank you very much. Candidates went through a rigid screening process, and background checks were conducted with utmost thoroughness. It was important that every new political candidate have a clean record, be of good repute within his community, and be severey distanced from the stench of the former system of dirty politics this nation had endured for far too many decades. Accountants, small business owners, nurses, homemakers, bakers, and people from all walks of life wanted to participate freely and openly in this new venture. The 'Children's Party' was just one of many so-called 'splinter' groups devised for a specific passion. Those groups would eventually have to be merged with other groups of similar interests. Most important issues were human rights and equality; the environment and ecology; and global cooperation among the people from almost 200 nations over the globe. Emotional issues such as abortion. gay marriage and flag-burning had always been political pawns designed to stir people into a frenzy without accomplishing anything of any substance; those issues helped candidates because they were not too complex. Most voters could be expected to stand with a candidate on such simplistic values. Now, voters would be casting ballots for candidates who wanted to actually deal with the most critical issues facing America's future.
Easter Sunday was an unorthodox day of celebration and achievement being marked on an Orthodox date for such observance. It was a good day. Even where it had been a bad day.