Saints and Sinners

Chapter Thirty-One

Capitol Hill

Washington DC

"My fellow Americans...last November...the people of this country voted for God...for a government who would always stand up for Christian values and deliver the services and the legal environment we all need to live a decent Christian life." President Bill Bateman told the massed ranks of Senators and congressmen gathered to hear his state of the union address from the floor of the House. Behind him, the usual gaggle of former presidents, plus his own wife and some of her ladies, sat listening to his every word, putting on a show for the audience tuning in from home. "But that decent Christian life remains under attack from the ills of the permissive society we have pandered to for so long...the school of thought that says that all people have the right to say what they want and do what they want, as long as it does not harm anyone else. I believe that anyone who believes that is wrong...my America is offended by drug abuse, sexual activity outside of marriage, crime and the parlous state of our public schools. Successive governments have tossed more and more people into prison...at huge cost to state and federal budgets...but they have spectacularly failed to address the problems which cause crime. And that leaves your government paying for two and a half million men and women to rot in jail...slaves to the system...stretching budgets and reducing our ability to deal with many other problems."

"Last year alone, twenty thousand underage girls gave birth...many of them on welfare...I think there were some fifty thousand children taken into state care...there were one hundred and forty thousand rapes...divorce rates have never been higher and marriage is increasingly going out of fashion...and I will not tolerate this level of abuse on my watch. Many of my opponents often criticise my belief in Christian Reformism, both as my faith and my political ideology...but I ask each and every one of you to consider the statistics that the British can put on the table to shame us all...zero underage births outside of marriage, no reported rapes and no divorces...women are not abused in Britain...they are protected and allowed to fulfil God's purpose. Some do become nuns...and they do offer long and faithful service...but the conditions they live in are much better than the conditions in our prisons...and every citizen has access to healthcare that is free at the point of entry. I am not ashamed to say that I want to do the same here...that is my vision...but we have to decide together how we can get there because there have to be sacrifices."

"I have been accused of being some sort of slave trader in recent days...but these so-called slaves are convicted murderers and violent criminals who would otherwise be sitting in a cell for twenty-three hours a day on your dime. I have taken them out of an environment where they are faced with violence from other inmates, access to drugs and even alcohol, and put them into a healthy lifestyle, where they will not drink or use, but work for you...they are paying their debts to society and are being given a chance to do something worthwhile. Yes it is a radical solution...and perhaps the system is not perfect...but the poor people of Boston are not complaining...they have their hospital, where anyone can be treated...regardless of their insurance status or their ability to pay. So...we now know what is possible...and we have to work together to see how we can replicate the successful Boston model across the fifty states...because it is what we need to do...by any means."

Sean Fletcher was the only living President not in the audience. But he was in Washington as it happened, ready to speak to the press after the event, and throw Bateman another few curve balls. One of which was Grace Palmer's idea, and she had accompanied him to judge when and if they should use a video she had been putting together, from the UN interviews conducted by Pan Deacon. They watched the live broadcast in a coffee shop, an old haunt of Grace's when she was at school in the capital, and living at the White House with her uncle in the residence. She commented on the differences.

"The female staff are wearing long skirts."

"Modesty is the new black...with Bateman in power, no one wants to risk losing business by ignoring his preferences." Fletcher shrugged, admiring his niece in her silk blouse and knee length black skirt. She was not a chameleon anymore. She obeyed local laws, wherever she went, but only just, always pushing the limits.