"Sometimes a little ambition can be just what you need to drive you to do the great things in life. You think I would have ever hooked up with your grandpa if not for my wanting to help lead the way towards a better world for all of us?"
I remembered the crazy story of how they met, my grandfather a legal aide in the district attorney's office rushing up the courthouse steps late for a trial and bumping into my rabble rowsing grandmother as she led a protest for women's rights.
"Things are different now, Grandma," I muttered. "You can't just go out and protest and make a difference anymore."
"Don't I know it. Your grandpa's probably rolling in his grave over what we've done with our country's so-called democracy lately."
“What I don't get is why people aren’t trying to do something to stop the government.” I settled back in my stool, crossing my arms over my chest.
“But you did. You freed an entire camp of Clann people.” She beamed at me like I was two years old and had just learned how to walk right before her very eyes.
“That was one camp. There’s probably hundreds of them all over the country. I can’t free them all. We need a change in how the masses think about the Clann in order to force the politicians to change. Why isn’t the media covering these camps and showing everyone what’s really going on inside them?”
“You said Tarah wants to be a journalist. There’s your first inroad with the media.”
I glared at her. “I meant someone other than her.”
“Because she’s not good enough?”
My scowl deepened. “Because it’s not safe for her.”
She snorted. “Sounds like she begs to differ.”
Since glaring at my grandma wasn’t changing anything, I stared gloomily down at my mug instead.
She let out a heavy sigh. “As for stopping the government, well, normally I’d be the first one to advocate that we get a team of lawyers and take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we had to. But the world’s gone mad, Hayden. Things are crazier than I’ve ever seen them, and that’s really saying something. I imagine you haven’t seen the news in a while?”
I shook my head. We hadn’t even listened to the radio, sticking with CDs or an oddly comfortable silence instead.
“People are dying out there now,” she said. “Right there in America’s streets, trying to fight our government over this Clann crackdown. But it’s like trying to stop a tsunami. The more the Clann people fight back for freedom, the more the government and the media portray us as a danger to everyone else’s safety. Now the whole world’s split right down the middle, and either you’re with the government or you’re a threat that has to be locked up and hidden away as soon as possible.”
Her mug shook as she lifted it for a slow sip of tea. She had to use both hands to set it down on the counter again. The dull thud was loud in the kitchen, which was silent except for the ticking of the grandfather clock in the dining room. “No one’s listening to reason out there anymore. All they know is fear and hate.”
A too familiar anger warmed back to life in the pit of my stomach. “What happened to the Bill of Rights and all that? I mean, Tarah and her dad weren’t even given a chance to call a lawyer or anything when they got arrested. The soldiers just assumed she and her dad were Clann too, pumped them full of drugs and locked them up with the rest of them.”
“That's because the police and the military don’t have to worry about first amendment rights anymore. The Patriot Act lets them arrest anyone even remotely suspicious, and if you side with the Clann, that definitely makes you suspicious. No such thing as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or freedom of religion now when it comes to protecting the U.S. government. To them, talking about using magic is the same as if you were talking about assassinating the president herself. There’s no guaranteed phone call, no promise of legal representation. Heck, if someone even demonstrates an ability to use Clann abilities in public, that’s seen as equal to trying to set off a nuclear weapon. You can be shot on sight now for that. The Supreme Court can’t rule fast enough to overturn even a hundredth of what our government’s pulling every single second of the day. Your grandpa would have worked himself into another heart attack over this mess if he hadn’t already passed away.”
We stared at each other as I tried to take in this crazy new world she said we lived in now. But I couldn’t. I’d grown up like every other kid in America with my hand proudly over my heart every morning in elementary school as I practiced saying the Pledge of Allegiance. For years, I’d been taught all about America’s history...how we were a country made up of religious and cultural misfits who’d come to these shores to escape the tyranny of other countries’ restrictions. How the Bill of Rights was sacred, how the government’s system of checks and balances ensured that we’d never be in the kind of situation we were now in, because if the president and Congress went out of whack, the Supreme Court would set them straight again. What happened to “give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? They might as well tear down the Statue of Liberty at the rate our fear-crazed government was headed.
Grandma Letty patted my forearm, making me notice how tightly my muscles had cramped up. “Don’t lose hope yet. America’s been through a whole lot of crap, as you younger generations like to say, and she’s pulled through it all before. We made it through McCarthyism, didn’t we? With enough people like Tarah out there, we’ll make it through this phase too. Or as your Grandpa Mathew used to be fond of saying, ‘this too shall pass.’”
I remembered how Tarah had argued so hotly in World History class with Kyle, despite how it made her look like a Clann member. “You don’t understand. Tarah doesn’t have much of an off switch on her mouth. What she believes, she preaches everywhere to everyone within hearing distance. Even if we got a lawyer to clear her of the existing charges, she’d probably find a way to rile somebody else up. She’ll wind up right back in jail again.” Or worse.
“Then maybe it’s a good thing you saved her when you did. Maybe being with this group is exactly where she needs to be for awhile until things simmer down out there.”
“But I don’t want her with this group!”