Mind Blindness

All Rights Reserved © 2002 by Judith R. Thompson

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

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This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, events, establishments, organizations or locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Other names, characters, places and incidents portrayed herein, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally.

Author’s Contact Information: Judith R. Thompson 3 Branch Turnpike Concord, New Hampshire 03301 603-224-0977 rosee@roseewriter.com

ISBN: 0-595-23671-5

ISBN: 9781469748320(eBook)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

PROLOGUE

C H A P T E R 1

C H A P T E R 2

C H A P T E R 3

C H A P T E R 4

C H A P T E R 5

C H A P T E R 6

C H A P T E R 7

C H A P T E R 8

C H A P T E R 9

C H A P T E R 10

C H A P T E R 11

C H A P T E R 12

C H A P T E R 13

C H A P T E R 14

C H A P T E R 15

C H A P T E R 16

C H A P T E R 17

C H A P T E R 18

C H A P T E R 19

C H A P T E R 20

C H A P T E R 21

C H A P T E R 22

C H A P T E R 23

C H A P T E R 24

C H A P T E R 25

C H A P T E R 26

C H A P T E R 27

C H A P T E R 28

C H A P T E R 29

C H A P T E R 30

C H A P T E R 31

C H A P T E R 32

C H A P T E R 33

C H A P T E R 34

C H A P T E R 35

C H A P T E R 36

C H A P T E R 37

EPILOGUE

To my daughter, Sonya, and my son-in-law, Kurt; To Barb and Dick Noonan, Sr., my brothers, Dick, Jr., Dennis, Tom and Dan: my sisters, Donna, Joanne and Maureen; To Daniel Webster Beal, III And to all who live with love and open minds.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This is a work of fiction so I will offer no bibliography. However, I would like to acknowledge some books I found particularly helpful. Snapping, by Flo Conway and Jim Siegleman; The Politics of Gun Control, by Robert J. Spitzer; Contemporary Christian Morality, by Richard

C. Spark; The K.K.K. In America-The Fiery Cross, by Wyn Craig Wade; With God On Our Side, by William Martin; America’s Militias, by Richard Abanes; Rural Radicals-Righteous Rage in the American Grain Belt, by Catherine McNicol Stock; and A Force Upon The Plain, by Kenneth S. Stern. I also inserted some appropriate verses from the Bible.

I would also like to acknowledge Congressman Robert Wexler, whose passionate stance throughout the Clinton Impeachment Hearing provided the inspiration for one of my characters.

PROLOGUE

Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into the pit?—(Luke 6:39–40)

One more day, one more day! said the Reverend Jack Rollins gleefully to himself as he shivered with anticipation. Election day was tomorrow and the Reverend hoped that it would finally open the door to his being in a position to change the nation.

The Reverend was a well fed, portly self-righteous proud man. He still had most of his hair, although totally grey. His face, though heavily jowled and redden with broken capillaries, was still handsome. Although a bit over weight, he felt healthy and believed himself to be in good shape. He had recently celebrated his 69th birthday and considered himself primed and ready to lead America into the new millennium. Jack knew he could never actually be President as his past would surely come back to haunt him, particularly since he had initiated the politics of personal destruction. He had successfully pulled President Clinton down with Zippergate.

Along with his followers, the Christian Confederacy, he had accomplished in exposing the real Bill Clinton to the American People.

The Reverend had worked diligently over the years to increase his Christian Confederacy following. In the process he had established several Christian Universities, where many lawyers, teachers, politicians and computer literate graduates had been pumped out by the thousands. His major goal was to get as many of his people into local politics and local schools and businesses where they could be most effective in getting his agenda firmly entrenched into the mainstream society. In the last eight years, he had seen great success, especially in most of the southern states.

Reverend Jack Rollins had put out the word early on, that ‘a vote for Clinton was a sin against God.’ He had started this mantra well before the 1992 presidential election, and well before his private investigators had dug up the women in Clinton’s past and present.

Lucky for Jack, his parishioners listened and obeyed him.

Too good a job, he said to himself with some regret. Oh well. There was a price on hypocrisy. But Jack seldom allowed himself to dwell on the deep dark truths that probed his subconscious now and then. He’d gotten too far into his quest for power and control of the United States of America to turn back now. He couldn’t if he wanted to. There were far too many other people now involved in his plan. His Christian Confederacy had taken on a life of its own. Some of it was very good, very, very good. But some of it was just plain awful.

But again, he was more optimistic and had learned to squelch the periodic negativity effectively. Being a reverend, he knew he still had plenty of time to repent, but not today.

* * * *

Congressman Rick Wentworth, a young democrat from Florida, a mostly republican state, was also anticipating the next day’s election results. He was one of the luckier politicians. He was running mostly uncontested in his district. But he knew that this election day was basically just a lull in the political battle of the century happening in Washington, D.C.

The republicans, especially those of the hard far right, had been successful, so far, in their attempt to over throw the ’96 election of President Clinton. In fact, the impeachment inquiry process was already under way.

Representative Wentworth was on the Judiciary Committee in Congress. Being a 35 year old, fairly liberal congressman and a democrat, was proving to be a plus and minus factor on the Hill. He was young enough to still feel passionate about his ideals, hopes and plans to work and help make America a better place. Lots of room still, for improvement. He strongly believed in tolerance, inclusion, equality, peace, choice and personal freedoms in general.

Although gravely disappointed in the President, he didn’t particularly trust the messenger trying to bring him down. There had been much talk behind closed doors about a far right wing conspiracy of sorts, that had been dogging the Clintons for years. He did not understand why so many people, not just disliked or disagreed with, but absolutely hated and despised Clinton. Rick had never seen such animus against a public figure, at least not since O.J. But he recognized that as with most charismatic people, they are either adored and loved or hated. No one seemed neutral on this issue, especially not in Washington, D.C. Rick firmly believed in Clinton’s political vision and he was determined to carry on that vision of better education, saving social security and health care for everyone.

Representative Wentworth knew that tomorrow’s voting results would be a referendum, one way or the other, on which direction America would take. In Rick’s mind the direction could be down right dangerous if the republicans sweep up the elections as they have been predicting.

* * * *

It was a chilly breezy November afternoon in Concord, New Hampshire. Rose Thomas, the older sister of Congressman Rick Wentworth, walked briskly along the scenic wooded Merrimack River trail. Rose was in her early forties and had been divorced since 1976. She never could get that relationship thing right. But she accepted that and actually loved her more mature single life style. She was in good shape, kept the gray out of her hair with Clairol or L’Oreal, ate properly, practiced her new age spirituality regularly and ran her own home-based needle point business. Her time was her time and she loved that.

As she walked she thought about her brother. She hoped that he would win his Congress seat again tomorrow on election day. Rick had told her that it was going to be a difficult battle as a last minute republican opponent who was heavily backed by the Christian Confederacy was also now running. Florida was known to be mostly republican, largely due to the large senior citizen population that resided there. He had originally thought that he would be running uncontested, but at the last moment a new republican candidate had been placed on the ballot.

Rose hadn’t seen her little brother since last Christmas. She had invited him and his family up for the holiday this year. Nothing could compare to a New England Thanksgiving and Christmas; picture postcard perfect every year. He had agreed to come.

She had missed her brother a lot over the years, especially since their parents had passed away two years ago in a freak accident. Rick had moved to Florida, ten years ago after graduation from Florida State University. He met his wife Susan there. Rose was amazed at how quickly Rick had settled down. He had two boys and another baby was on the way.

She smiled fondly as she remembered what a wild and crazy little brother he had been. In fact, there were times when she had worried about his future. He was always such a free spirit. It would not have surprised her if he had decided to travel and do extreme sports for the rest of his life. But remarkably, once Rick was accepted at Florida State University he straightened out and seriously studied Political Science, History Law, Sociology and other similar courses. He became extremely interested and concerned about all the social injustices that plagued minorities and the impoverished. His observation and awareness of the many problems in American society cinched his niche and his future. Immediately after graduation he started working with the democrat political party in local elections. The rest was history. In his first run for a political office, he was elected as a local Senator and was the youngest senator ever to win the populace vote in Florida.

Rose was very proud of Rick.

Rose had been following the impeachment hearings on C-SPAN and wanted desperately to talk to her brother who was on the Judiciary Committee. She had been a Clinton supporter and was quite upset at some of the allegations that were coming out against him. She was convinced that there was a right wing conspiracy and wanted to share her observations with Rick. It was so hard to get in touch with him. He was so busy. She decided that she would send him an E-Mail when she finished her walk.

Now if she could only find her daughter. Rose hadn’t seen or heard from Sophia in over six months. They had had a terrible fight over Sophia’s newest boyfriend, Lucas. Rose did not approve of this latest guy in a string of young men, but for some reason her daughter had fallen hard and fast for this guy and had chosen Lucas over her mom.

Rose couldn’t do much about it as Sophia was 20 years old. She was sadden that their last words were so hateful. She desperately wanted to set things right with Sophia. No man was worth losing her daughter over. And now with Christmas only a few weeks away, Rose wanted what was left of her family, Sophia, Rick, Susan and the kids, with her for the holidays.

She had no idea where or how to find her daughter. She could only hope and pray that Sophia would call her.

* * * *

The snow crunched loudly under her boots.

Damn! It’s only November 3rd. Too early for this shit, grumbled Sophia as she lugged wood up the steep driveway. Her face was bright red and swollen blue, a result of the latest beating she suffered from her boyfriend, Lucas. She dropped the cut wood on the rickety porch as she struggled to open the broken back door of a run down old log cabin. Before she entered, she turned to look about. The gorgeous scenery of this small mountain town of Pleasant Valley, Montana, never ceased to take her breath away. Although the name of the town filled her with ironic wonder. The Rocky Mountains, now covered with snow and edged by tall dark green pine trees, reflected off the icy lake located a few yards from the cabin, were awesome. At some past time the cabin may have been a love nest or a hunter’s paradise retreat. Now it was so run down it was only an eyesore, a scar amongst the majesty and beauty of mother nature. But it was home to Sophia and Lucas.

Sophia grudgingly went into the grungy, sparsely furnished, old fashion kitchen and added a few logs to the almost dead fire in the old rusted cast iron wood stove. She wanted to warm up a bit before she trudged down to the lake to get water. There was no in door plumbing in the cabin. There was no electricity when Sophia first arrived with Lucas. She had fought bitterly, insisting that if there was no electricity she was out of there. It was the last thing Lucas ever did for her and that was like pulling teeth. He had changed so much. She didn’t dare ask for a real toilet. The out house would have to do, as horrible as that adjustment had been.

Occasionally, Sophia would think about and remember the nice warm modern, beautiful home, where she grew up in New Hampshire. It seemed so long ago. And it felt evil to allow herself even a moment to wallow idly in day dreams. When she caught herself day dreaming she would quickly open her Bible and admonish herself for getting side tracked. She also knew that as long as she was reading the Bible, Lucas wouldn’t hit or bother her. The Bible was her only real comfort and protection.

Comfort for your sorry soul, as Lucas would say. You need to repent for your sins.

Her biggest sin was having had to get an abortion because Lucas wasn’t ready for marriage or the responsibility of a child. He blamed her for getting pregnant and therefore, the sin of abortion was hers to bear. Lucas was totally against abortion. It went against his Christian beliefs. He told her that if his reverend ever found out about Sophia’s secret…Sophia shuddered to think about what Lucas would do to her.

The Bible was her protection from Lucas. He so respected, revered and believed in the Bible that to him, just holding one was worthy of reverence. He would not touch her, sexually or hatefully, if she had the Bible in her hands.

I wish I had one of those itty bitty Bibles, she thought to herself. She had seen an ad on television a few years ago about a pocket size Bible. The one she now had was too big and heavy to carry with her at all times, for permanent protection.

She put the Bible down and headed to the lake to get the water for the day. Any excuse to get away from her penance, Lucas’s demand that she read the whole book because of the abortion, was welcomed.

In the deepest recess of her heart she hated the Bible, and Lucas.

C H A P T E R 1

Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.

—(Matt 24:11–12)

It was November 4th the day after the elections.

Reverend Jack Rollins was very disappointed that his Christian conservatives didn’t vote the way he had hoped, and instructed. In fact, only 29% turned out to vote at all. In that spread the majority, 57% of the 29% voted democrat. In the presidential election two years ago it was almost totally reversed. What happened? he wondered.

He was angry at the republican leadership. They had assured him that they would blast many of the democrats out of Congress. With the many negative ads and all the money he had pumped into several at risk districts it should have happened. Millions of dollars had come directly from the Christian Confederacy.

Jack was convinced that his pro-life, moral and ethical messages would have encouraged a major response at the voting booth. Especially where the democrat president had lied and committed adultery. God knows the republican ‘independent’ prosecutor did his damnedest to dig up as much dirt on Clinton as he could. Jack had several of his own investigators spying and informing the prosecutor of more indiscretions.

He knew he had to regroup. He was determined to, if nothing else, stop abortion and amend the United State’s Constitution to include the Ten Commandments. It just had to be that way. He had promised God that if He would bring him great wealth and power, he, in return would make every American a Christian-come hell or high water.

He now had to admit that this task was going to be much more difficult than he had originally planned. The Reverend had thought that since he was the leader of the ‘Moral Majority’ his success would be inevitable. Apparently he had miscalculated the numbers behind him. Maybe there weren’t as many Christians out there as he had expected.

He stood up from his big antique mahogany desk in his private study and walked to the French patio glass sliders that opened out on to his huge deck that over looked the seemingly never ending back yard. He had the wealth, his Christian Confederacy had been very generous.

How do I get the power? he whined to himself as he fell to his knees sobbing and praying to his God for guidance and redemption. He was running out of time. Being 69 he knew he only had a few more years to make good on his promise to the