Chapter Eight - part five

   One of the biggest changes for James was his schedule. He no longer worked day after day without a break. James might spend long hours working, but he made time almost every day for a real break; a time when he just let things go for at least an hour and spent that time relaxing and having fun. This was extra time, above and beyond his quiet time each day with God. James also started watching those around him and even the troops closer. He had nearly burnt himself out before. He didn't intend to let them do the same thing. James now understood that they had to take care of themselves before they could take care of the people around them. When he was in D.C. James made a special effort to get home at a decent hour. He still spent a lot of days and nights out in other parts of the nation, but he tried to spend at least his weekends with his family. The changes he had made in his schedule and routines had a direct effect on the schedules and routines of those working with him too. The change in attitudes was noticeable. Everyone seemed to be more relaxed, but they were if anything more driven than before as well. The results were just as noticeable. Things began to come together more smoothly all across the nation.

    It wasn't all smiles and sunshine though. The more things changed; the more problems there were to be dealt with. They weren't all just inside the country either. America was slowly getting back on its feet. The warmer more stable weather of summer allowed tremendous progress to be made in getting things operating again. There was major work of all kinds going on in the cities where the worst damage had been done. There were also lots of factories coming back online. That was partly due to the fact that many factories overseas had been virtually shut down due to the chaos in America. They had done a majority of their business with America and that business had suddenly ceased to exist. The results had been immediate for them and they were still dealing with those problems. They were working to get those foreign factories up and producing again, but that took time and products were needed immediately. James had made that a huge part of his new plan; getting as much of what was needed to rebuild things as possible from inside America. The more they could supply, the more people there were working, and thus the more demand there was for those American made goods.

   Another result of all the chaos was that a lot of people had died. They were still finding bodies and the number of dead wasn't as shocking as the number of missing. As bad as that was it did have a positive side. A large number of those people had been working jobs; jobs that were now open. If people were willing to work there were jobs available now. That hadn't been the case for a long time. Many of the jobs were tied directly to the efforts to restore order and rebuild things. That meant there would eventually be an end to a lot of those jobs, but that end was years, if not decades away. The amount of damage that had been done was almost beyond belief too. Most of the major cities had large areas inside them that looked like the aftermath of a war. Building had been burned or looted. Houses had been all but destroyed. Just the cleanup was going to keep a lot of people working for a very long time. By late summer the nation was buzzing with the sounds of building and progress. There was still a lot of discontent and a lot of problems that required constant monitoring, but things were getting a lot better.

   One of the biggest problems now was along both the southern and the northern borders. America hadn't been alone in the disaster and chaos that had been going on. Virtually all the nations of the world had been as bad or worse. It just hadn't been expected to happen inside the United States to the extremes that it had gone. But now a lot of the people in other countries were trying to get into the United States. Things were progressing much faster and much better inside the United States than they were outside. The borders had suddenly been overrun with people trying to get in. The borders were still closed under the martial law, but the people trying to get in cared nothing for laws. The result was that a lot of extra effort was being put into keeping the borders closed. Once more that was causing James a lot of trouble with the politicians. It might have helped anybody else that Texas was demanding more help so the borders could be held, but since the governor was his father-in-law it made matters worse for James.

     A lot of the politicians thought it made America look bad to turn away people seeking help, but James knew that America couldn't help the world until it was done helping itself. There were too many people inside the borders who were still in desperate need to start letting tens of thousands more flood in. That alone might restart the chaos they were finally getting under control. In truth it made little difference what was going on. If it was viewed as something bad, James was being blamed, and if it was something good then James wasn't doing enough to support it. None of that mattered to James though. That was just politics and James had work to do; he had no time for politics! He knew what he had to do and that was what he tried to do. There was no way to make everyone, especially not the politicians, or the media happy. James just concentrated on doing what would do the most good for the most people and left the rest to God. Well to God and people like General Hodges. By the end of September James was ready for the next big step. The problem was he was almost the only one who was sure that the nation was ready to take that next step. James was ready to ask the President to lift martial law!