Chapter Three - part two

   Then he had gone to church and seen how few people were there. There were almost no kids, few youth, and very few people under the age of forty. Even Pastor David had changed. He looked older and almost worn out. The vibrant energy and youthful joy seemed to be almost gone. The message had still been a good one, but it hadn't been the same kind of message that James remembered hearing while growing up. Sometimes Pastor David had almost sounded defeated as he spoke, but he still knew his Bible. When he was talking about the people he seemed to be weary and worn out, but he had the same fire in his voice when speaking about God. It was as if he had lost his faith in the people. Pastor David did show some of that old energy and joy once during the service. He did that when he spoke about James and Sarah, when he talked of tiny Joseph Paul too. Then he had almost sounded the way James remembered him sounding. It had been a troubling day for James in many ways.

   That was just the beginning for him though. It was the next day that he began to learn just how much things really had changed in America. His folks still raised produce, but they no longer ran the produce stand. James hadn't been aware of that. They had closed it down a couple of years earlier. They couldn't afford to keep it open on what they were able to sell. That made James ask why they raised so much produce, if they couldn't sell it. He soon learned that while selling it was nearly impossible, bartering with it was another matter. Most people left around the area were barely able to make enough cash to pay the bills they had to pay with cash. Groceries were outrageous in the small town stores now. Unless you had a very good job, or were on at least some government support you couldn't afford to buy much in those stores that was fresh. That is if you could even get fresh stuff. Fresh produce was often hard to get anywhere. James had thought that should have helped his folks, but there were other problems too.

   It seemed that they now had to have a license and a permit to grow fresh produce to sell. They even had to have those to raise livestock for sale. They also were subject to federal guidelines for the proper ways to grow and harvest their produce for sale. They had those guidelines for raising livestock for sale too. There were inspections and fines to go along with the license and permits. It was all but impossible to run a small farm of any kind now. If you weren't big enough to employ a lot of people, then it was hard to make a profit. If you were that big, then you usually had some kind of contract with either the government or a corporation. They told you what to produce, as well as how to produce it. They told you how much to produce and where you could sell it too. They often even set the prices you would be paid for it. Most small farms had been closed or gone broke. If the rules and regulations hadn't gotten them, then the taxes had. That combination of problems was why his folks had stopped selling produce.

   Even now, if not for help from the girls, they couldn't have possibly paid the current real estate taxes for their farm. If you owned more than an acre or two of property you would be paying almost more every few years in property taxes than it would sell for. James had been stunned when his folks had finally started telling him about all of it. In fact he had to actually see the bills and old letters from the government before he could believe what he was hearing. He talked to his sister Jackie, the lawyer, about it. When Jackie told him that it was even worse in a lot of other states he was too shocked to talk any more. James hadn't understood how this could be happening. America had been built by farmers! It had once been the bread basket of the world, feeding the entire world. But that had changed. Now America was actually importing almost as much food as it produced. As bad as that was, when his mom told him they were just grateful they had a daughter who was a doctor or they wouldn't be able to afford to see a doctor or buy their medicines, James could hardly believe his ears. What had happened and how had it happened?

   Finally his father had said something that had really hit James hard. Joshua said. "Son, I am sorry that this seems to have been such a shock to you, but it shouldn't have been. Do you remember when we talked about you going to the Academy? Do you remember why you wanted to go? You saw the changes coming. You knew then that this was coming. Oh, maybe not exactly what would happen, maybe nothing like this at all, but you still knew change was coming! You went there to try and do something, but I am not sure there is anything that can be done, not now. Son, it is here, the changes have come and are a part of our daily lives now. The world outside our nation has changed too and you were there to see that. But son, your nation has changed just as much while you were gone. Maybe it has changed even more. I just don't know anymore. I do know that we the people of this nation no longer seem to have any control over this nation's future. It seems that we have already accepted this new way of life. We do the best we can with what we are allowed to do, but our freedom is very limited now."

   They had talked for hours more before he had finally gone to bed. Even after he went to bed those words had been repeating themselves over and over again in his mind long into the night. James and Sarah had talked too. She had known some of what was going on before she had left to serve overseas that last time, but had no clue it would become so bad at home, so fast. James did a lot of thinking about all of it, but he didn't do much praying. He just didn't know how to pray about something like this. What did you pray for when your nation had completely changed? His nation was built on a foundation of religion and freedom. It was the search for a place to worship freely that had originally brought people here. A nation had been built on the principal of a government of the people. It was supposed to be a government by the people and for the people, a government that gave them the freedom to choose how they were governed. If that was no longer true, then what kind of foundation did his nation's government have now? If the people no longer had control of the government then who did? How much longer would the people have any freedom or justice? Did they even have those now? James didn't sleep a lot for several nights. His mind was filled with those thoughts and concerns. His heart was filled with sorrow.

   Sarah had watched his reaction to all of this. She had seen him shaken as she had never seen him shaken before. This was the man who had faced General's when still a boy in their eyes. As a man he had even faced King's and President's without fear. He was the man who had won some of the highest honors for courage and bravery the military had to give. A man who had brought peace to a nation that hadn't known peace since before he had been born. He had faced threats to his career and even to his life. None of that had shaken him or his faith like this. James had been as strong and solid as the rock upon which he had built his faith, but now he wasn't strong or solid. Now he was clearly uncertain and afraid. She had, for the first time, seen real doubt in his eyes and perhaps even fear. She had seen questions and even uncertainty before, but never real doubt or fear. James was a warrior and a hero. He didn't seem to know the meaning of fear. But now she had seen the doubt in his eyes. She had seen something more than that too. She hadn't really been worried about all the changes. She hadn't been paying much attention to those changes. She had been too excited to be home and be starting a new family, but now that had suddenly changed for her too.

   Now Sarah was paying attention and she was worried. She was also afraid! Her father had talked of leaving the Senate before his last election. Now she wondered why? Had he seen all of this too? Had he been afraid of what he saw happening behind the closed doors inside Washington? Sarah had as many questions as James did. They talked about things a lot after they went to bed each night. How could all of this happen without them even noticing? How could it happen at all? America was supposed to be the land of the free! It was supposed to be governed by the people! Now Sarah was realizing that freedom had become a very relative thing, not only in the world, but also in the United States of America... the home of the brave and land of the free. Unless the people woke up and started to do something very soon; Sarah was afraid it might soon become the home of the frightened and the land of the tyrants.

   As they talked, James and Sarah slowly began to realize how it had all happened. For them it had happened while they were overseas, but they figured it had worked pretty much the same inside America too. They had watched world news and tried to be aware of world events, but as time passed they had begun to realize that the news they saw wasn't always accurate. In fact it was often totally wrong or worse purposefully misleading. They had gradually begun to learn how to tune it out or even turn it off. They were often directly involved in the events on the news. They didn't need to hear the news coming from people with a particular agenda. They could see what was going on and make their own, informed, choices. Only as it turned out, they weren't so informed after all. Over time they had become just like the people who had once irritated them so much. They had just went on with their daily lives and not paid any real attention to the world they weren't directly involved in. The result was a world they didn't even recognize when it had been so suddenly revealed to them in all its vast new glory.