On a long flight, after periods of crisis and many hours of fatigue, mind and body may become disunited until at times they seem completely different elements, as though the body were only a home with which the mind has been associated but by no means bound. Consciousness grows independent of the ordinary senses. You see without assistance from the eyes, over distances beyond the visual horizon. There are moments when existence appears independent even of the mind. The importance of physical desire and immediate surroundings is submerged in the apprehension of universal values.” – Charles Linbergh
The aircraft was cleared for landing at Baltimore's BWI Airport. An ambulance met the Greenes and whisked them to Johns Hopkins. Kris' daughter had passed the hours watching the Disney 'Princesses' movies on the plane. Now she wore Pat's robe like a royal one as she was hurried off to Baltimore. Though the administration had tried to put institutions like Johns Hopkins Hospital under government control, the administrators of that institution had skillfully avoided it. Kris carried a sizeable amount of Alaska Petrodollars, handed to her by Rupert, in order to ensure her treatment under the "Private Option."
Zimmerman planned to remain on the plane and quietly slip out when they were no longer needed. Unfortunately he had parted with his Petrodollars before they might possibly have come in handy. This was no small airport where Zimmerman-friendly staff ignored the bounty on his head. This was Baltimore Washington International -- thirty minutes from the nation's capital! Some officious little weasel of a security official ran the obligatory check on the plane's tail number. He was not satisfied with the Calgary registration and started cross-checking the recorded flight plans. Obtaining a warrant, he and a small detail of security stormed the plane on the tarmac. Zimmerman's crews were required to be expert marksmen... and women, but Zimmerman ordered them to surrender. No one should have to die when Rupert's surrender would end any need for force. Besides, Zimmerman knew the lower 48 depended on the fruits of his labor for their economic survival. Negotiation just might work.
Zimmerman was taken into custody and the plane seized by the IRS. A tax charge had been fabricated by the administration in the hopes of just such a moment as this. While Rupert was incarcerated, Kris' daughter responded wonderfully to her treatments. Elizabeth O'malley provided them and the plane crew with commercial tickets home on Alaska Air. Alaska Air even 'loaned' the BSB a temporary replacement for 'BSB One.' Elizabeth's mercy flights continued even as her father languished in a US Federal Prison.
Elizabeth O'Malley pressed the Alaskan Autonomous Republic to pursue diplomatic measures to secure Rupert's release. Zimmerman took advantage of the time to write her lengthy letters in which he mused on how quickly a great culture like the United States could be reduced to the state she was in now, unaware of her heroic past, anxious for an uncertain future, she had sold herself out all too quickly to the rhetoric of "Hope and Change." Indeed there had been change, but now things had become all the more hopeless! A great nation that had rolled up her sleeves and faced obstacles with Faith and Tenacity was now reduced to the status of victims who blamed others for their lack of progress. Liberalism had moved from advancing mankind's condition to warring against the noble instincts of man... and man was being reduced in the process.
Pastor Greene was concerned about this too. An interesting round of correspondence between Elizabeth, Greene and Zimmerman ensued where the three thinkers opined as to how best address the problem. Zimmerman valued Greene's insight, as both men had a low tolerance for most of the bull-crap that passed as 'modern thought.' Elizabeth, who saw most of the world's suffering as a direct result of bad political choices, wondered at the revolving door of revolution, where the people overturned their rulers, identifying those in power as oppressors, only to establish regimes that were even more oppressive than the ones that they'd replaced. The great universities had been established to bring Christianity to the wilderness, but now they spurned their beginnings and promoted this endless cycle of violence. [1.]
A year went by. Kris' daughter grew strong and became the darling of the Big Diomede community. Elizabeth became the acting president of the BSB organization in her father's absence, presiding over the reconstruction of the Eastbound span's 'blind hump' into a more gradual ascent and descent. The president of the trucker's association gave her a plaque, but the burly presenter's sincere bear-hug represented more accurately the drivers' deep sentiments!
"Eschewing the notion of high and noble ideals for humanity to aspire to, modern thinkers sought to recreate institutions rather than enlighten the heart. Their notion that 'man was basically good' and that the institutions were the problem did not resonate with a man like Zimmerman, who needed no-one to remind him of the dark places of his own heart." Greenstone Replacement, St. Francis' Church, Staunton, Virginia.
Photo by Bob Kirchman
Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda, Clad in Scaffolding for Reconstruction.
Photo by Bob Kirchman
Capitol Dome in Scaffolding. Photo by R. S. Kirchman
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