Sunday, October 5, 2008: a national political rally was scheduled to introduce all new political parties and their respective candidates to voters. The event, televised live from St. Kitts, would be the beginning of a nation-wide "road show" where candidates would visit communities via bus or train, and participate in public discussions at many of the same locations where O.U.T.R.A.G.E. first conducted its public venues following the catastrophic assaults on January 17, 2008. It had been an eventful nine months full of mixed emotions, tumultuous conditions, and fast-moving changes throughout the nation. To be sure, there were still many millions of Americans who hated O.U.T.R.A.G.E. for its revolutionary tactics. To kill a sitting U.S. President, Vice-President, most of the government's cabinet members, a preponderance of the nation's wealthy and famous citizens, and almost all members of the United States Congress was, in many minds, unforgiveable. Still, the majority of Americans - sometimes reluctantly - came to agree with what O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had done. It was, arguably, the only way for the nation to "start over" and return to its roots of equality, fairness, humility and greatness.
The AROB group was dispatched to strategic points across the country, where support was necessary for specific candidates. Jil Adams, Bob Ryan and Phil Baker hardly had time to chug down a 'cold one'; Ron Oetting was finding it difficult to enjoy his favorite libation - a peapicker, consisting of cheap vodka and lime juice over ice. The sight of a lime green O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bus was commonplace across America, as an entire fleet criss-crossed the country. Trains, also painted in the flamboyant lime green that identified the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. organization, traveled non-stop from city to city. Any candidate endorsed by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. was entitled to the use of these vehicles for their campaigns. Conditions, of course, were stringent: all political parties and candidates endorsed by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. were required to sign an oath of agreement to uphold the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. principles, and were required to take a pledge of poverty, forfeiting any excessive personal wealth and revealing their net worth, to the penny. No exceptions.
Lynn Patrick and Patrick Hamilton, representing the Patrick-Patrick team, were actively engaged in their attempts to legalize drug use, just as cigarettes and alchohol were legal. Legalizing drugs was not about allowing citizens to get "high" without assuming responsibility for their actions. There would be consequences, to be sure, just as there were consequences when you drove drunk or smoked cigarettes until they shortened your life. The principle was simple: drug use was a matter of free choice, just as alcohol and cigarette use was a matter of free choice. But, just as drinkers were expected to 'drink responsibly', so would drug users be expected to 'use responsibly'.
The O.U.T.R.A.G.E. premise was simple in every circumstance. Simplify the laws, eliminate the graft and corruption from politics, take away the power and money that corrupts our public servants, and create a utopia wherein all citizens will be treated fairly and equally in the eyes of the law. One candidate, a self-proclaimed minister from Minnesota, summed it all up succinctly: "The poorest people in our nation will become our richest citizens. Not because they have accumulated great wealth, but because they will now be given an equal portion of power with which to voice their opinions and express their concerns. The richest people - those who have allowed their money and power to corrupt them, and who find themselves emotionally, fiscally and morally bankrupt - will suddenly be taken down from their pedestals and treated as every other citizen in our national society. Those who have allowed their souls to be deteriorated through decadence will be expected to choose a simpler, less excessive lifestyle. Luxury cars, huge mansions, stock portfolios, and bulging bank accounts will no longer be the measure of a man's success. We will not worship the celebrity of movie stars, athletes, and elitists who have clawed their way to 'success'. Instead, we will expect them to share their good fortune with others, and we will honor those who do so. Just as native American Indians revered the land as sacred, and thought it prudent to give their most cherished possessions to others, the most 'successful' in our society will be those who give away all of their wealth."
Why should a billionaire give his fortune to a college in exchange for a football stadium bearing his name? Why should a millionaire try to buy his eternal salvation by donating his wealth to a church? Why do these kinds of individuals distribute their wealth only for 'show' or to be memorialized after they die, but they won't give $10,000.00 a some bum on the street?
Why should those who live in upscale suburbia get better schools, more municipal services, bigger public swimming pools, and greater government attention than those who live in the ghettos of America?
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. - Outraged United Taxpayers Revolting Against Government Excess - was in the final stages of its mission. Its roster of new political parties and fresh political candidates was shaping up to bring the good ol' U.S.A. into a new realm of consciousness, giving citizens more value and less pretentiousness. Government would truly become "of the people, by the people and for the people". Referendums would determine what laws were passed, not lobbyists. The people would decide how government would function, not politicians. America would become a true democracy instead of a republic filled with corruption, graft, and inequality. Politicians would be stripped of their power and their money. They would be expected to be the true servants of the people...not the bagmen for corporations or wealthy individuals. The upcoming November 4th elections would be, perhaps, the greatest outpouring of empowerment ever to touch American society.
The poor would be given power. The wealthy would have power taken away. Change was on its way, and - as could be attested to by the millions who were joining O.U.T.R.A.G.E., now 40 million strong - change was being embraced enthusiastically.