A PARABLE OF LIBERTY LOST AND FOUND — Part 9 of 10: Resistance and Renewal
An upsurge of resistance to Bull’s authoritarian policies and personality, finally even among core supporters, helps the opposition party in bi-elections win a slim majority to control both houses of congress. Multi-prong investigations of the Bull presidency proceed. Criminal prosecutions are pending. Articles of impeachment advance in congress.
Bull is desperate and dangerously erratic. One of the president’s men, acting on conscience, leaks to the press a secret memo summarizing the covert operation to bomb the Unity Tree and blame the nature nuts, all a ploy to control state security.
Noisy public outcry! Hundreds and then thousands of peaceful people gather around the Unity Tree in a safety circle. “Occupy Tree Week” stretches into months, inspiring encampments in all the districts. “Occupiers” visit every congressman and senator to demand the immediate impeachment of President Bull.
At hearings in the lower house, a lowly data clerk admits to keeping copies of memos and recordings. Evidence proves Bull and his aides, plus the vice president, conspired with a northern district crime boss to bomb the Unity Tree. The parties then obstructed justice to hide the plot. High crimes and misdemeanors!
The house impeaches President Bull. The senate convicts him, a foregone conclusion. He’s removed from office, tried for treason, found guilty by a jury. The vice president falls next. Marshals haul them to jail amid chants, “Lock them up!”
Congress takes remedial steps. A constitutional amendment is proposed and adopted that removes all private money from public elections. Candidates and elected officials are banned from accepting any kind of gift or bribe or job offer.
Another amendment cuts the power of the presidency. Aside from administrative directives to carry out laws passed by congress, the president loses the right to issue executive orders or decrees that become law. Presidents should be trusted servants; they should not govern like kings.
Adoni Rafi and other activist women play leading roles in the Occupy movement and efforts to curb government abuses. Still disenfranchised, the “Suffragettes” now suffer abuse for demands to restore every woman’s natural right to vote.
An ally of Adoni is their inspirational leader, Clio Devi, a descendant of Shakti and Kodesh. Suffrage campaigns stall in the districts and in congress until women start withholding sex. They file criminal assault and rape charges against men who don’t accept no means no. A woman is killed. Public opinion shifts.
Voting rights regained, women comprise half the electorate. Women are elected to public offices at all levels of government, from town council to congress. Decades pass before a woman is elected president, but the barrier finally falls.
Related events invoke a deeper cultural shift.
A famous actress, standing with Clio Devi and Adoni Rafi at her side, denounces sexual harassment by a major movie mogul. They say the man has abused his power for years to silence his victims. More women step up and say, “Me too!”
Women expose predatory sexual misconduct by men in politics, media, the arts, the trades, business, religion, and beyond. Women are believed. Time’s up for sexist male dominance. Top men are made to step down. Men feel defensive.
In the reckoning, women say their bodies and their wombs belong to themselves, not men. Women declare men never had a valid right to rule them. Women claim the right to be mothers only if they choose, not because any man says they must.
Working women demand and get equal pay for equal work. They demand and get equal access to executive jobs. Gender equality extends into equal rights for homosexual, transgender and other forms of humans. Within two generations, marriage and workplace equality applies to people of all descriptions.
Some men can own their bias and its disadvantages. They gradually shift their life focus from being in charge to being themselves. Men gather in circles to share their discoveries. A men’s movement begins, one man at a time gaining momentum.
Now “new men” with raised consciousness go public with their relief at releasing the need to dominate women and run the world. Men are fed up dying younger than women from the stress and strife of male rule. New men want to be their real selves. They yearn to live from their hearts along with their heads.
Gender equality revives love for the sacred feminine and sacred masculine in nature. A cultural shift stirs ecological awareness that prompts environmental protection and healthy lifestyles. Organic food is usual fare. Homes and businesses yield zero waste. Landfills are harvested for recycling. The bleached reefs around the island rebound with teeming life. Abundance blooms.
Spiritual renewal ignites within all religions. Sages and mystics, long shunted aside, regain influence. For the first time in generations, mindfulness methods are taught to the young in school and practiced by adults in life. The new spirituality yields social benefits. Racial prejudice and injustice decline and nearly disappear.
As new men cease competing for dominance, the gap between rich and poor narrows. Wealth stops being a testament of male potency Most people enjoy ample abundance from their talent and industry. Inherited wealth fades as a high standard of living becomes common.
As awareness grows, crime declines. Punishment is replaced by restorative justice. Humane confinement is a last resort. Ex-offenders are forgiven, embraced back into civil society. Since law enforcement is still necessary, police are respected and trusted in their communities, not feared as in the old days.
As dread of “the other” fades, military spending drops. The all-volunteer armed forces shift to help in recovers from natural disasters, like a season of oddly severe typhoons. Young adults enlist for civilian national service, too, such as tutoring and healthcare support. The military and public service veterans earn full college tuition, low-interest loans for homes, and healthcare for life.
Eventually, society decides healthcare, like education, is a natural right of all, not a privilege of a few. People are willing to pay higher taxes for “universal” healthcare covering everyone. The return on this social investment blesses the whole economy. Most people are healthy, productive, and going after their dreams.
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Excerpt from the published preamble for MAKING GLOBAL SENSE Grounded hope for the 21st century inspired by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. (http://globalsense.com)
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